April 22, 2014 Ding and Dang Canyon, Utah

These two canyons are rated mostly easy. High winds were predicted for the day. Slot canyons sounded good, we would be sheltered from the wind. It was mostly cloudy and up to 80 degrees.

John at the mouth of Ding and Dang Canyons. Ding is to the right and Dang to the left. We started up Ding. It is supposed to be easier.

It started out easy, then we had to climb up things. They weren’t too bad.

Climbing.

John is not surfing the rock here, he is transferring his upper body weight from one wall to another and you have to really trust the friction grip with your feet on the rock.

Near the top there was a line of these huge what would be pools of water when there is water. At the very top were swiss cheese rocks.

The trail over to Dang Canyon goes by Ding Dang Dome.  Going down Dang canyon we found  this huge balanced rock.

We were having lunch and I looked up and this mountain sheep was watching us. There were probably more, but this is the only one we could see. The swell has the largest herd of bighorn sheep in Utah. The canyon continued down, getting more colorful.

Then Dang we had to start climbing down things. Each one got harder. John is much better at this than I am.  We had to stem, chimney, friction walk and body jam etc to get down. A little past my comfort zone, but once we got so far I could not climb back out, so we just had to keep going.

This is the hardest part. You basically have to chimney down this. It looks really far from the top. John chimneyed down, then across over the water.

I chimneyed down, then walked in the water. Scared me half to death. Then these two young ladies came along and made it look really easy.  Yes I am a wimp.

Down and around between big colorful boulders, colorful canyon. And back to the car.

The sun came out right before sunset and the light was beautiful. Here is the bus in camp. There was so much dust in the air from the wind that the clouds had shadows to the ground.

Sunset was spectacular.

Flowers we saw today.

Wild patterns, holes, colors, lines and textures in the rocks.

Even more. Lots to look at here.

April 21, 2014 Little Wild Horse Canyon and Bell Canyon, Utah

The Trails Illustrated maps says of the San Rafael Swell “It’s slot canyons, mesas, pinnacles and arches are testaments to the sculpting powers of wind and water.’ The Little Wild Horse/Bell Canyons loop is the most popular  and recommended as the best non technical hike in the Swell.  It is pretty crowded.  At least we didn’t hike it over Easter weekend, the busiest weekend of the year.

The Swell in the area we will be hiking.  This area is called the Crack Canyon Wilderness study area. John is entering Little Wild horse canyon behind a group of young ladies.

Sue hiking in the canyon. The colors were phenomenal.

John lifting this rock so I can walk under it.  Fluted canyon walls.

Sue in Canyon. Shapes and colors.

Textures, shapes and colors. Parts of the canyon are so narrow only one foot at a time will fit in the bottom. Here a tiny dog just fits. His owner has been traveling with him for 9 months, and is starved for human conversations.

John down canyon. Cool lines.

Sue down canyon. John walking between the lines.

Twisting and turning.

John backlit. It was so hot in the sun (80+ degrees) that we hiked up Little Wild horse narrows- 2.6 miles, then back down them since they were in the shade and then went up the narrows of Bell canyon and then back down Bell canyon, instead of doing the loop.  We bypassed the hot, no shade connecting dirt road between the two canyons on the top end. The beginning of Bell canyon are these huge colored rock blocks and shelves.

The narrows are similar to Little Wild horse, except that you have to climb  up and over some things.  Here is John looking up and stemming down.

Lines in Bell canyon.

Flowers, holes, colors and shapes seen in both canyons. We hiked a total of 9 miles, mostly in narrows. If we had done the loop we would have hiked only 8 miles, but only seen the narrows once.