Page, Arizona: Edmaier’s Secret, Double Barrel Arch, Studhorse Point, Sidestep Canyon, Blue Wonder Slot Narrow Fork, Paria Windows (May 7–13, 2020)

The windows of the Paria River.

May 7, 2020. Joan and I drive to Page. Stayed in a VRBO house that was fine.

May 8. Hike Edmaier’s Secret with Bill and Elaine Belvin. Got to a feature that I had wondered about for some time. Beautiful tower. Despite having been here three times already, I really wanted to find this tower. It is on the SW side of the main dome in the area, and was fun to photograph. Apparently this lace rock occurs because of some quartz mixed in with the sandstone that leads to some shearing in the sandstone from time to time and then the obvious culprit of differential erosion. A relevant paper is “Characterization of deformation bands associated with normal and reverse stress states in the Navajo Sandstone, Utah” by John G. Solum et al. https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/94e8/31905326d18110dacbe2ca097e643b2e9063.pdf

May 9. Double Barrel Arch and Studhorse Point in evening. This arch is a short hike (1.5 miles) off of House Rock Road, a couple miles south of where the road to White Pockets leaves House Rock Road.

May 10. Short hike around Navajo sandstone near the dam.

May 11. Blue Wonder Slot and the Narrow Fork with guides Paul Gagner and Sunny Stroeer. This was my third time to Blue Wonder Slot. First time, we entered and exited with no climbing. Second time we entered and I climbed through and back. This time I went to Sidestep Canyon with guide Paul Gagner and his wife Sunny Stroerr, and we investigated the difficult “Narrow Fork”, which is a northern tributary of the Blue Wonder Slot. This was narrow, but passable with some difficulty. Great fun!


May 12. Paria Windows with Joan. Joan and I went to the White House TH and walked about 2.5 miles down the Paria River (totally dry) to the windows area. These windows were fantastic.

May 13. Drive home

The Edmaier’s Secret day was super. This was my fourth visit but this time we spent a full day (7 hours) in the area and found an amazing section on the southwest side of the main dome; that yielded the single best picture of the week (what I call Edmaier’s Tower). We then headed up to the rim on the east, finding a lot more lace rock.

And I made my third trip into Sidestep Canyon, this time with guide Paul Gagner and his wife Sunny Stroerr, and we investigated the difficult “Narrow Fork”, which is a northern tributary of the Blue Wonder Slot. This was narrow, but passable with some difficulty. Great fun!

May 7, 2020. Joan and I drive to Page. Stayed in a VRBO house that was fine.
May 8. Hike Edmaier’s Secret with Bill and Elaine Belvin. Got to a feature that I had wondered about for some time. Beautiful tower.
May 9. Double Barrel Arch and Studhorse Point in evening.
May 10. Short hike around Navajo sandstone near the dam.
May 11. Blue Wonder Slot and the Narrow Fork with Paul Gagner and Sunny Stroeer
May 12. Paria Windows with Joan
May 13. Drive home

The Edmaier’s Secret day was super. This was my fourth visit but this time we spent a full day (7 hours) in the area and found an amazing section on the SW side of the main dome; that yielded the single best picture of the week (upper left). We then headed up to the rim on the east, finding a lot more lace rock.

And I made my third trip into Sidestep Canyon, this time with guide Paul Gagner and his wife Sunny Stroerr, and we investigated the difficult “Narrow Fork”, which is a northern tributary of the Blue Wonder Slot. This was narrow, but passable with some difficulty (and a rope). Great fun!

Despite having been here three times already, I really wanted to find this tower. It is on the SW side of the main dome in the area, and was fun to photograph. Apparently this lace rock occurs because of some quartz mixed in with the sandstone that leads to some shearing in the sandstone from time to time and then the obvious culprit of differential erosion. A relevant paper is “Characterization of deformation bands associated with normal and reverse stress states in the Navajo Sandstone, Utah” by John G. Solum et al. https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/94e8/31905326d18110dacbe2ca097e643b2e9063.pdf

The tower west of the main knoll.
The back side of the flaky tower.
After finishing up at the dome we climbed to the east and moved to the south across this ocean of striated Navajo sandstone. We then moved up to the east rim and traversed north to get back.
On that rim were more nice examples of lace rock.
Double Barrel Arch is a short hike (1.5 miles) off of House Rock Road, a couple miles south of where the road to White Pockets leaves House Rock Road.
Studhorse Point in the evening.
The loop trail on the south side of the highway just west of the dam.
The ledge providing efficient entry into Sidestep.
An overview of Sidestep Canyon:
It appears that each year stalagmites are destroyed and get reformed. This one was right at the mouth.
The initial part of Blue Wonder is easy enough, with a nice neck move here. Photo by Sunny Stroeer.
The canyon is nicely open for a bit.
But it soon faces two steep climbs. The first is simple, the second a little harder.
Guide Paul Gagner finishing the second climb.
And Stan finishing the crux move.
After the crux I noticed that the stalagmite pattern was different than earlier visits. So they change yearly. Before entering the narrow fork we climbed up steeply to the Hoodoo Birthplace. I love how this view shows the hoodoos (Entrada sandstone under Dakota; the latter now goes under a different name, but I have misplaced it) being formed as the hillside erodes back.
A wonderfully clean cut of a Dakota sandstone caprock.
The “Narrow Fork” was very narrow. Sunny.
Paul.
Paul starts the roped descent. At the bottom we really didn’t know where we were. Turns out we were back in the main fork of Blue Wonder and had an easy walk back to the mouth.
We exited the north side of Sidestep and wandered over to White Rocks, and then down a white canyon back to the car. A long day, but we saw lots of great terrain in a seldom visited area.
Joan and I went to the White House TH and walked about 2.5 miles down the Paria River (totally dry) to the windows area. These windows were fantastic.
A six-frame panorama.
A swallows nest in the roof of a window on the west side, with a long thread dangling from the nest.