Jay's Journey up a Slot Canyon

Today, I went for a beautiful hike up a slot canyon. I actually discovered the slot canyon by accident. It isn't called out on the map we have. As you can see from the picture below, when I walked in the direction of these cliffs, there wasn't any way to know what laid ahead.

To enter the slot canyon, I first had to pass through a stone arch. The arch wasn't created by erosion like the arches in Arches National Park. It was created by a few large rocks that fell upon each other, leaving a gap between them. After I passed through the doorway, I turned around and took this picture:

Just beyond the arch, I came across this natural alcove in the canyon wall.

The walls of the slot canyon are composed of soft limestone.

Looming over the canyon walls were a variety of limestone pillars and spires.

I continued to walk up between the narrow walls.

At the end of the slot canyon was a dry waterfall. I could only imagine how refreshing it would have been to have stood underneath that waterfall on a hot day when it was still running.

Standing by the dry waterfall I looked back and took this picture of the surrounding cliffs, eroded out of soft limestone and sand.

Here's a detail from the cliff to the side of the waterfall. Here the rock layers are thin, turned vertical, and warped by tectonic activity. They looked to me like blades of grass.

After a little sightseeing, it was time to go back down the canyon.

Here are some heavily eroded features from the canyon walls.

Here's a rock tower, looming over the slot canyon.

Here's a picture looking up above the slot canyon walls.

Time to pass through the arch again and head back home.

Just past the arch, while heading back, I came across this colony of animal nests in the pores in the rock in the side of the cliff. I don't know to which animal this abandoned colony belongs or whether the eggs were laid in pores in the rock, or the rock formed around nests made in the sand.

Thanks for joining me for this adventure. I look forward to our next one together.