To close out the particularly tumultuous year on a higher note, I decided to go on a trip. One of our destinations is the Grand-Staircase Escalante National Monument. From the town of Escalante, go south for 26 miles on Hole in the Rock Road, and you’ll find a side trail to get to the Peek-A-Boo and Spooky Gulch, popular slot canyons in the area. We hiked down from the parking lot to the floor of the Dry Fork of Coyote Gulch and proceeded to the entrance of the Peek-A-Boo slot. The entrance to Peek-A-Boo is up a 12 foot slick wall, with hand holds carved out of the rock and some pockets to support your foot. After a little bit of struggling to find a decent feet, and throwing our backpacks over the entrance first, we made it in. Once inside, we were immediately wowed by the beautiful rock formations. Slot canyons are beautiful and mysterious places. As we wound our way through the undulating walls, we were greeted with none stop surprises and wonder around each curve of the canyon walls.

The start of peek-a-boo features some really beautiful waved shape walls.

In Spooky Canyon the soft Navajo sand stone features a really interesting knobby texture.

To get to the lower part of Spooky Canyon, we had to drop down into a hole in a pile of rocks. While precarious, once inside, it was quite worth the effort.

The walls form really dramatic and fluid shapes.

Parts of Spooky Canyon were so narrow that it was hard to squeeze through even with the backpack off.

Spooky earns its name in the southern part where it gets so deep that barely any sunlight gets in.

Eventually the canyon widens and we could see the light at the end of the tunnel.

All through out the trail, we were guided by footsteps of other people and Cairns placed along the path. We did however get lost for a little while when we were crossing over to get to the top of Spooky Canyon from the end of Peek-A-Boo. A handheld GPS helped a lot in this instance.

The Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument is truely a beautiful and majestic place.