Cannonville, Utah - March 6, 2006 (Re-run)

 Near the end of Skutumpah Road, we came upon a small creek that crossed the road.  We soon learned it was Willis Creek, which forms one of the slot canyons we had heard about.  All slot canyons are carved by running water, as in flash floods, but Willis Creek is a rare case of perpetual water flow.  The amount of water flowing varies with the season, but there is always at least a small flow.  The photos show where deeper water had frozen earlier that winter, leaving ice as a high water mark.  In some places, the ice was still solid across the entire canyon and strong enough for us to walk on.

The slot canyon begins with a small waterfall that drops quickly into the sandstone.  Before long, it gets deeper and forms one of the most grotesquely beautiful narrows I've ever seen.  At places, the canyon walls are a hundred feet high and only eight feet apart.  The slot portion ends after about 1.5 miles, where we turned around, but the creek continues on until it joins another.  One of the easier slot canyons, it is also one of my favorites.

Kanab Area, Utah Continued - March 3-6, 2006

 

Coral Pink Sand Dunes State Park is another popular attraction near Kanab. The park features uniquely pink-hued dunes created by sand eroded from red sandstone over thousands of years.  The park allows camping, hiking, off-road driving, and photography. There is a conservation area of 265 acres and the total grounds include 3,370 acres.   For those who know and have a proper vehicle, there are also ancient petroglyphs and pictographs available for viewing.

Johnson Canyon has a few attractions, but is mostly private property.  Fortunately, the road through the canyon leads to many more adventures.  Several movies have been filmed in this canyon, but the most notable film location is the town site for the Gunsmoke TV series.  Abandoned after twenty years of production, the site was sold to a man with intentions of making a theme park, but that project never came to fruition.

Johnson Canyon Road eventually ends at Skutumpah Rd. which leads to some rugged and colorful country as well as several lesser known slot canyons.

One of the slot canyons, Bull Valley Gorge, contains the remains of a vehicles that somehow got stuck deep in the canyon.  There are many stories of how that happened, but I don't know what to believe.  I suspect an old wreck was intentionally pushed into the gorge to generate more interest.

Very little of the vehicle can be seen after so much dirt and rock has fallen on top of it.