I thought we were doing Shillelagh!?
Dominic looks like he's prepared for nearby Shillelagh Canyon instead. Apparently he was confused about the day's agenda. (A shillelagh is a special stick the Irish fight with)
An interesting, slightly wet, half-day slot canyon
Dominic looks like he's prepared for nearby Shillelagh Canyon instead. Apparently he was confused about the day's agenda. (A shillelagh is a special stick the Irish fight with)
Dwight drops into the slot at the head of Adobe Swale. A swale is defined as a low-lying or depressed and often wet stretch of land.
The canyon starts out as a pleasant stroll between beautiful, narrow sandstone walls.
Thid beautiful, purplish pattern was exposed on one area of the canyon wall. I'd like to know more about it.
Adobe Swale gets Dominic's stamp of approval early on in the form of an ear to ear grin.
Kevin works his way down one of many short elevators in the canyon.
Kevin scrambles along as the canyon relents temporarily relents.
Dominic has some fun stemming above the floor.
Dominic climbs down a pimply section of the canyon.
Kevin takes his turn at the short, pimply downclimb.
This drop is a big one with more serious consequences so Kevin is downclimbing it while on rappel, a self belay of sorts.
Dwight begins the downclimb of a short chute that will deposit him in a dirty pothole. This is the first bit of water we encountered.
Kevin oozes his way down the little chute barefoot to keep his shoes dry... as usual taking our shoes off here ended up being pointless because there was more water ahead and we had to get a lot more than our shoes soaked eventually.
Kevin wades through the muddy pothole.
Dominic is wise and leaves his shoes on for the splash down.
After wading waist deep through a second pothole (not pictured) Kevin slides down into a third water-filled pothole, this one again only calf deep. That's his sock floating in the water; bad throw!
Dominic raps a smooth, vertical drop.
Dwight prepares to rappel down into another water-filled pothole.
Looking down at the large water-filled pothole from the top of the rappel. The water is only thigh deep.
Dominic rappels down toward the pool.
A happy Dominic begins to pull the rope while exiting the pothole.
Dominic prepares to downclimb/jump a tricky drop that the rest of us used a rope for.
Dominic spots Kevin on a sporty downclimb.
Dominic and Dwight in a leaning hallway near the end of the slot.
The canyon opens up.
The hike out to the car (we set up a shuttle) is mostly up slickrock and is quite scenic.