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Capitol Reef > Cottonwood Wash
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Cottonwood Wash is one of several slot canyons running through the huge white Navajo sandstone peaks that make up the highest parts of Capitol Reef, and like the others, it is relatively short but in places very deep. The narrowest passages are interrupted at intervals by dryfalls and pools, and such obstacles eventually block access from the lower end, though Cottonwood can also be entered from the top, albeit after a longish drive on a 4WD track along the inside of the reef, though again only a short distance is easily followed before the stream encounters a 40 foot drop. Most people just explore the lower end, which is easily accessible from the paved Notom-Bullfrog Road.
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Location: The wash is the second of three narrow canyons to have a marked trailhead along the paved section of the Notom-Bullfrog Road, and is reached after an 8 mile drive south from its junction with UT 24. There is a good camping/parking area under a cottonwood tree on the west side of the road, where most cars will have to be left, but 4WD vehicles could continue beside, or along, the creekbed for a mile or so upstream, to where the canyon starts to deepen and become rocky.
Photographs: 9 views of Cottonwood Wash.
Map: TopoZone topological map of Cottonwood Wash.
Description: It takes just 15 minutes to walk up the level sandy valley, crossing the streambed several times, to the edge of the angular foothills that mark the start of Capitol Reef, and where the wash starts to form a canyon. A well defined path continues upstream, cutting across a few meanders then rising above on the left side to bypass a rocky section filled with many large fallen boulders, descending back to creek level just above a dryfall and pool. The next stretch has undulating, stepped terraces where the strata are nearly horizontal, and the waters, when flowing, spread out across the level sections then drop over little falls into fluted cavities and potholes. After a few more bends, the ledgy, red-brown layers of the Carmel formation are replaced by the huge whitish rocks of Navajo sandstone which comprise the center of the reef, and these soon rise high and sheer above the streambed so the canyon becomes deep and the main narrows begin.
The floor remains generally level with just a few chokestones and dryfalls, and after a few minutes walking the canyon is 100 feet deep and has quite pretty, reddish black passages. A tributary joins from the left then the main drainage enters a thin, straightish section which may have several large pools, their depth very dependent on the amount of recent rainfall. At least one may require swimming, and as I visited during a day of drizzle and late season melting snow, which caused a sizeable stream to flow, this was the turn around point. But if the large pool is passed, there is then over a mile of narrows to explore, before arriving at the base of an impassable 35 foot dryfall - a point about 2/3 of the way through the narrows, and the 4th place where rappelling is used if descending from the top.
There are no easy ways to climb round the dryfall, or even the swimming pool, as to the south, the cliffs are consistently steep and sheer (up to 600 feet) while on the other side, a large, wide but deep tributary - lower end of which contains a nice series of circular potholes - soon joins, and this would require a very long walk to pass around. However, a hike up along the north rim does at least allow for fabulous views up and down the main canyon, across the huge domed peaks at the center of the reef, over the flat desert to the east and to the Henry Mountains beyond. One option is a walk of about an hour, up clayish slopes and rocky ridges to a summit at 6,655 feet, at the head of the deep, wide side canyon, and one of the highest points for several miles.
Overall, Cottonwood Wash offers a relatively easy hike through a canyon with a reasonable amount of accessible narrows, and which is more scenic when a stream flows.
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