Page, Arizona: Edmaier’s Secret, Kanab Slots, Castle Rock, Sidestep, Paria Movie Set (Oct. 16–23, 2021)
This trip was one of the best for photography. One of the best shots above: a hard-to-reach tower at Edmaier’s Secret.
Saturday 10/16/2021. Drive Silverthorne to Page, about 10 hours. No problems. Joined by Jonathan and Jacque Kriegel, and Al and Jane Curran, in the evening. Al is a geologist at Smith College whom I had not seen since leaving Smith in 1990. 10/17/2021. Edmaier’s Secret with Jonathan and Al. 10/18/2021. Guided tour of three slot canyons near Kanab with Jonathan, Al, and Jane, and guide Paul Gagner of Dreamland Safari in Kanab. 10/19/2021. Castle Rock climb with Jonathan. 10/20/2021. Sidestep Canyon and Blue Wonder with Jonathan and Al. 10/21/2021. Fossil hunting near Buckskin TH and then Paria townsite walk. 10/22/2021. Drive to Moab. Joan and I stopped at Navajo National Monument for short walk. 10/23/2021. I ran Alcove Springs trail in Canyonlands down to Moses and Zeus towers, and back up.
Highlights:
10/17: Seeing the lace tower at Edmaier’s for the third time yielded the best photo of all. 10/18: Crinoid fossils and steep Moki steps in PeekABoo slot canyon, which had excellent color. Then a tricky drive crossing the Virgin River a dozen times to go through Merwyn and BayBill slots. 10/19: The route to the summit area of Castle Rock held our interest; it was all on spectacular Navajo sandstone. At the top (probably the second highest tower) we found an arch which had not been documented. On descent we crossed the valley and returned by the opposite slope on good terrain up high, but steep gully to finish. 10/20: Blue Wonder slot with Jonathan, carrying and using a tripod. We exited via the Hoodoo Birthplace. 10/21: We found some small crinoids upstream of the Buckskin Gulch TH. Then we drove to the Paria movie set and walked down to the river. The Chinle slopes near the movie site were remarkable. And there were great views of Castle Rock and Red Top. 10/22: The forest near the national monument was very nice. There is a 17-mile round trip trail to some ruins that might be worth considering in the future. 10/23: Rough trail. Getting all the way to Moses was satisfying.
Day One: The compaction bands studied by Schultz in the paper: R. A. Schultz, C. H. Okubo, and H. Fossen, Porosity and grain size controls on compaction band formation in Jurassic Navajo Sandstone, Geophysical Research Letters, 37:22 (2010); https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1029/2010GL044909Al climbing the knoll.Lace rock on the east side of the knoll.Lace rock closer.This marker by the General Land Office Survey was placed in 1917. It is on a three- or four-foot rod.The remarkable tower on the west side of the knoll. One can have some fun with color editing.Day Two. At the Dreamland office we learned that the ladder in Wire Pass had been destroyed and lifted by a recent flash flood. This photo showing how high the water was is remarkable (courtesy Dreamland Safari).PeekABoo slot canyon near Kanab.Very steep Moki steps in PeekABoo. The scar just left of the bottom step was caused by rockfall.Crinoid fossils in some Carmel limestone. Note the perfect 5-pointed stars. Expert Mark Wilson tells me that the star-shaped ones are Isocrinus nicoleti. The other ones are other crinoid pieces. The stars are sections of a star-shaped column that become separated before fossilization.At Ottinger’s rock shop I bought a small crinoid columnar that shows the 5-fold symmetry (below), though here the pentagram occurs inside the column.Getting to the Virgin River slots was a tough drive, requiring some road work.Merwyn Slot.Baybill slot with ponderosa pine up high.Jonathan in Baybill.Day Three. Jonathan and I went for the summit of Castle Rock. At the start we had Kelsey’s Paria book and it does have a route description, but the absence of an index makes the book useless, and we could not find it. So we went in the obvious canyon SE of the Rock. We soon came to a steep wet slab that had to be bypassed. We went around it on the right but could not descend back into the main drainage until we descended the edge for a bit to a Class 3 descent into the drainage. From that point, the ascent up to the base of the ramp was straightforward. The entire route is never harder than Class 3.Nearing the end of the approach gully. The main ramp to the face is gained just beyond a prominent side drainage to the right.Ascending the ramp. On descent we avoided this steep section.The amazing area below the summit; Navajo sandstone flakes.Seahorse tower near the top.Looking SW across Hackberry Canyon and the Paria River to Mollie’s Nipple (which I climbed in October 2020).Just below our summit tower we found this nice arch (undocumented). We called it Castle Rock Arch and reported it to the World Arch Database. Through the arch, the farthest dome is YellowRock with Red Top just barely visible behind it.Easy descending.Descending a nice section that avoids a steeper section we used on ascent.Castle Rock viewed from the hill to its south.Zoomed view to the summit area. The ascent route goes around the corner left of center below the summit.Day Four. Descending into Sidestep CanyonA wide view of the amazing Canyon (taken from our exit route). Al enters the first section of Blue Wonder slot canyon.Jonathan and Stan about to enter the depths of Blue Wonder (Photo by Al Curran). Blue Wonder. I have been here four times, and this is the first time I have seen water. Jonathan at the crux. This was near the entrance. A sandstone mosquito. North side tall hoodoo. On the wonderful plateau forming the north side of Sidestep. The Hoodoo Birthplace. David Loope observes that the dark capstones are pre-formed within the Entrada sandstone, and are likely concretions of calcium carbonate, maybe with a little iron.Al Curran near the Hoodoo Birthplace. Day Five. Near the Paria town site.Red Top at right.Red Top. Photo by Al Curran.Gingham Skirt Butte in perfect light. The sandstone is Chinle and the shapes mimic glacial ice. The upper sandstone is Moenave, similar to Wingate. This photo is from the road just below the old Paria movie set.Day Seven. Moses tower near the end of the Alcove Springs trail. This is the tallest tower in Canyonlands National Park.
