Cathedral Wash is a relatively unknown canyon south of Page, AZ, a 3.5 round trip through an amazing grotto that ends at the Colorado River. I had never heard of it until the day I actually hiked it, and yet it proved to be one of the best adventures of this trip.
More than a simple hike, yet not so technical as to require ropes and other rappelling gear, Cathedral Wash is more of a challenging puzzle in finding ones way. Numerous times on the trail, there are dry falls with sheer drops of 10, 20 or 30 feet, with no obvious way to proceed. However, ledges on both sides of the canyon offer a path to continue on. Unfortunately, some ledges end abruptly with nowhere to go, so the trick is to pick a ledge that allows you to keep going. In some cases, a ledge leads to another ledge, that ledge to another, and so on. Crawling between ledges is sometimes required, and a bit of climbing or scrambling is frequently necessary.
As I progressed through the canyon, several times I observed others following, but then never saw them again. Obviously, they were unable to figure out a path or unwilling to deal with the ledge hopping.
The return trip can be just as challenging, since everything looks different from the canyon floor. Of course, it helps if you can remember the route you took on the way down the canyon and return the same way.
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