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Chute Canyon

In the morning I had hiked about two thirds of the way through Crack Canyon before being stopped by a steep rock step. It had only taken a few hours so I still had the whole afternoon and wasn't tired at all. I was ready to do another hike. The trailhead for Chute Canyon, another well known hike in the San Rafael Swell, was just two and a half miles further down the Behind the Reef Road. After the short drive there I parked the car and had a candy bar for lunch. Right at noon I started my second hike of the day.

According to my guidebook Chute Canyon would be a good afternoon hike. It gave the round trip distance through the canyon, out the other side into the desert, and then all the way back, as only four and a half miles. It gave a total hiking time of less than two hours, although my experience had been that their estimates are a little aggressive, at least for my pace when I hike. Not long enough to be a full days hike, it went well as a compliment to my Crack Canyon hike in the morning.

I started hiking along the road. It continues for quite a long way beyond the trailhead but it deteriorated very rapidly as I walked. Soon it was impassable for a car. An ATV would be the only way to drive any further. That was ok by me as I preferred walking anyway. In less than a mile I turned south and followed a wash that led towards Chute Canyon. The road/track continued west towards Little Wildhorse and Bell Canyons, which Sandy and I had hiked late last fall.

Early this morning, when I started out on my previous hike in Crack Canyon, I had been fooled by a white mineral that was sprinkled across the bottom of the wash I was hiking. At first I thought it was frost even though it wasn't anywhere near cold enough to freeze. It was spread all across the dirt and rocks, just like frost would be. It must be left behind when water flows through the wash and then dries up. My geology isn't too good so I have no idea what it was. Now I was approaching a section where the entire wash was completely covered with a heavy coating of the white mineral that looked to be several inches thick. I thought that it was very strange. When I reached it and started to walk across, it turned out to be...ice. Ok, I had been so determined not to fooled again into thinking that it was ice that I didn't realize that it was ice. The canyon was very wide at this point and it was in the open and in the sun. I have no idea why it didn't melt though. One mystery was replaced by another.

Soon I was in the main section of Chute Canyon. The walls rose steeply for several hundred feet on each side. The scenery was impressive but the canyon was quite wide and the sandy bottom was an easy walk. As I walked through the canyon there were some narrows but the walls never got closer to each other than about ten feet. There were no obstacles. There was no scrambling, just easy hiking. After failing on what should have been an easy route in Crack Canyon earlier in the day, I was ok with that.

Since the hiking was easy I could devote my attention to admiring the colorful cliffs which rose on both sides of the canyon. In many places they were full of tafoni. These are circular weathering patterns in the rock that make it resemble swiss cheese. They form on vertical surfaces and were very prevalent in Chute Canyon. In fact, I had seen them in all of the canyons that I have hiked in the San Rafael Swell, as well as other canyons on the Colorado Plateau. Sometimes they were low and sometimes high up. Sometimes they were at bends in the canyon and sometimes they were along straight sections. There didn't seem to be any rhyme or reason as to where they formed but like I said, geology isn't my strong suit.

I was enjoying the easy hiking and the scenery but when I looked at the GPS app on my phone I was puzzled. I had hiked two and a half miles and should have been close to the turn around point, but there was no sign that the canyon was ending. Then I was at three miles. I should have been out of the canyon and into the San Rafael Desert by now but I was still in the canyon. It was a good hike so I just kept going. Finally the canyon ended and I was out into a dry wash at four and a half miles. It was no big deal but I was disappointed that my guidebook was off by a factor of two. That's not a small error.

Although I have multiple guidebooks the one that I use the most by far for planning hikes in canyon country is Hiking from Here to WOW in Utah Canyon Country by Kathy and Craig Copland. It has great photographs and I have always found the descriptions of hikes to be interesting and accurate. I like it so much that over time I have acquired just about all of the other books written by the same authors: guides to the North Cascades, Canadian Rockies, Banff National Park, Jasper National Park and Whistler.

Today I felt a little let down though. My first hike in Crack Canyon was supposed to be doable by anyone who was reasonably athletic and could do easy scrambling. I didn't make it. I guess I'm not reasonably athletic and can't do easy scrambles. Nah. I'll blame the guidebook. Then the distance for Chute Canyon was off by a factor of two. It didn't really matter but I was still disappointed. I guess no one is perfect. Since strong hikers sometimes do Crack and Chute Canyons together as a loop trip, maybe the guidebook authors were just having a bad day when they did the two canyons.

In spite of the guidebook errors I had a good day of hiking. In Chute Canyon I had only seen one other party while in Crack Canyon I had only seen two. They were such impressive places and I had them all to myself most of the time. Both of the canyons were spectacular although I think Little Wildhorse Canyon is still my favorite hike in the San Rafael Swell.

Now it was time to head back to Hanksville. I have to admit that on the drive back, the longer I thought about it the more bummed I was that I didn't make it all the way through Crack Canyon.

After getting cleaned up I had to choose where I was going to eat from the myriad possibilities the town offered. Ok it was only four choices and it wasn't that hard since only one served pizza. I went to the Bull Mountain Market, the town general/grocery store which also had a pizza counter. I had to wait quite a while for it to be made. There was only one lady working there and she made the pizzas and had to handle the checkout for anyone who came in to buy groceries. They had a couple of tables so I was ok with waiting. I just sat there and read my book, How to Teach (Quantum) Physics to Your Dog. I was the only one eating there but I was surprised that several people came in to pick up pizzas. They were probably all from the mars habitat.

After dinner I went back to the motel and packed up the car so I could make a quick getaway in the morning. The next day I planned to go to Goblin Valley State Park to do some hiking and then to drive home afterwards.