John Fowler
Member
- Joined
- Jan 17, 2012
- Messages
- 217
In August of 2009 I went on an overnight trip with Aaron Johnson and his friend Tobey from Escalante to Neon Canyon in Grand Staircase/Escalante. Not much excitement to report, but if you've never been there you might like to see what it looks like. This area, in the Egypt section of GS/E, has several side canyons off the Escalante river, and water is not a problem. A multi day trip here might be considered. The technical challenges range from minor (this trip) to climbing, rappelling, and long stemming traverses over Mae West canyons, if you need more adventure. Choprock canyon is about a mile upriver and Twenty-five Mile canyon is about a mile downstream.
We set off from Aaron's house at 8 am and drove down Hole-in-the-Rock road for about 10 miles to the Egypt bench turnout, which heads east. The road wasn't bad at first but by the end, 9.5 miles away, it was considerablyv worse. High-clearance would be required, though not 4WD unless it's wet. From the trailhead you can look out over a valley and see the knob that sits above Neon canyon, 3.5 miles away.
There is an immediate 500-foot descent down steep but not treacherous slickrock and then a couple of miles of walking over typical desert terrain. Then there is another short descent down a sandy hill to the river. This is a good place to camp. We shed our packs here and crossed the knee-deep river into Neon canyon. You can see from these shots how it got its name.
About a quarter of a mile up the canyon one comes to the Golden Cathedral. This impressive alcove has two large holes in the roof. You can climb up and around, and rappel down through one of the holes. After a heavy rain, a waterfall pours through the holes.
You can see reflections from the pool shining on the rock.
When we returned to the campsite I noticed that the ground was crawling with ants. Aaron said that they would be gone by nightfall. But not wanting to put my tent over them, I moved about 100 feet away and ten feet lower, down by the river. Since it was August, I didn't bring my heavy bag, just a light cover. It got colder than I had anticipated. The next morning as I walked up to where the others had slept, I noticed that the temperature get about ten degrees warmer, over that short distance. Maybe it was heat from the surrounding rocks.
After breakfast we walked downriver about half a mile to Ringtail canyon, which is a tall narrow slot. I went in a little way but saw that there wasn't much to photograph.
Then we packed up and hiked back up to the trailhead. Instead of going up the sandy hill, we went north up the river for about half a mile and then exited west into Fence canyon, then across the desert and back up the slickrock to the truck.
There is lots more to see in this area and I will be going back.
We set off from Aaron's house at 8 am and drove down Hole-in-the-Rock road for about 10 miles to the Egypt bench turnout, which heads east. The road wasn't bad at first but by the end, 9.5 miles away, it was considerablyv worse. High-clearance would be required, though not 4WD unless it's wet. From the trailhead you can look out over a valley and see the knob that sits above Neon canyon, 3.5 miles away.
There is an immediate 500-foot descent down steep but not treacherous slickrock and then a couple of miles of walking over typical desert terrain. Then there is another short descent down a sandy hill to the river. This is a good place to camp. We shed our packs here and crossed the knee-deep river into Neon canyon. You can see from these shots how it got its name.
About a quarter of a mile up the canyon one comes to the Golden Cathedral. This impressive alcove has two large holes in the roof. You can climb up and around, and rappel down through one of the holes. After a heavy rain, a waterfall pours through the holes.
You can see reflections from the pool shining on the rock.
When we returned to the campsite I noticed that the ground was crawling with ants. Aaron said that they would be gone by nightfall. But not wanting to put my tent over them, I moved about 100 feet away and ten feet lower, down by the river. Since it was August, I didn't bring my heavy bag, just a light cover. It got colder than I had anticipated. The next morning as I walked up to where the others had slept, I noticed that the temperature get about ten degrees warmer, over that short distance. Maybe it was heat from the surrounding rocks.
After breakfast we walked downriver about half a mile to Ringtail canyon, which is a tall narrow slot. I went in a little way but saw that there wasn't much to photograph.
Then we packed up and hiked back up to the trailhead. Instead of going up the sandy hill, we went north up the river for about half a mile and then exited west into Fence canyon, then across the desert and back up the slickrock to the truck.
There is lots more to see in this area and I will be going back.
