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.
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