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| Slot canyons of the Escalante River and its tributaries.
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Most of the Escalante River and its countless tributaries are within the
Glen Canyon National Recreation Area,
and many of the side canyons are best explored by boat as the lower 15 miles of the river are now part of
Lake Powell. The only road access to the area is through the Grand Staircase - Escalante National Monument;
primarily via the Hole-in-the-Rock road from the west. The upper reaches are crossed by UT 12 and several
side tracks, while the Wolverine Road (which joins the
Burr Trail) gives access to some canyons in
the northeast, but the southeast region adjoining the lake is completely unreachable by road - the Waterpocket
Fold forms a barrier to the east while the land is too uneven to the north; this must be one of the most remote,
least visited areas of Utah.
The Escalante region has a number of impressive arches and natural bridges, plus many springs, streams,
sheer cliffs and ridges, sand dunes and desert plains but mostly just vast expanses of colorful, eroded,
layered rock, the dominant component being the familiar reddish Navajo sandstone. The canyons are typically
long, deep and relatively wide but still with some lengthy narrow sections and slot-like tributaries; those
on the east side of the river are the deepest; they tend to have running water all year, are wild and rarely
explored and many are unnamed even on topographical maps. On the west side, the
Hole-in-the-Rock road is
used by most visitors to the canyons - along here are several official, signposted trailheads, most important
of which (from north to south) are Harris Wash, Twenty Five Mile Wash, Coyote Gulch (and the Dry Fork tributary)
and Hurricane Wash, but there are dozens of alternatives and also many other locations further north, principally
Pine Creek ('The Box'), Death Hollow, Calf Creek, Deer Creek and The Gulch.
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