We had one last detour before our final destination of the magnificent Zion National Park.
Our goal was to pack in as many sights as we could on our ten-day trip.
We were up early for a short hike to a lookout at Lake Powell.
Lake Powell, with hardly any water in the middle of this drought.
Beautiful cliffs.
Back on the road, we turned off the main highway and set out on a dusty, bumpy, red-dirt path barely wide enough for one vehicle — more like a wagon train trail — several miles off the main road to a trailhead that would lead to an amazing slot canyon hike.
The Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, at 1.7 million acres, dominates southern Utah.
It’s unique in that it is the first monument to be administered by the Bureau of Land Management, rather than the National Park Service.
The Grand Staircase is a geological formation spanning eons of time and is a territory of multicolored cliffs, plateaus, mesas, buttes, pinnacles, slot canyons, and world-class paleontological sites..
After hiking for about and hour or so, clambering up and out of narrow and shady slot canyons that seemed to go on forever, passing a random cow or two, the “cathedral” emerged in a open space bathed in sunlight.
It was really, really, really, REALLY special. Words can’t describe it and my pics don’t do justice to its beauty.
I don’t know why it’s “secret” except that a couple of experienced hikers we chatted with at the trailhead shared a few of the highlights of the area and cautioned us not to be TOO specific when we talked about where we were to avoid it becoming overcrowded. 
Spectacular. WOW.
This is supposed to be one of the longest slot canyon hikes in the country, if not THE longest. We hiked for about three hours in, a six-mile round trip.
ME! 
Next stop, ZION!
P.S. And don’t ask, there’s no way I’m telling the exact coordinates. Only tugboat man knows exactly where we were 🙂
Wow. Fantastic rock formations, and marvelous textures. I want a whole wardrobe in those colors!
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Yes, that would be beautiful!
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Spectacular photography!
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Thank you! I think it would be difficult NOT to take a good pic. It’s beyond gorgeous; it silenced us. Eating lunch with those views and the silence was very special.
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Hey! We we were just in that area. Great photos. I know where those slot canyons are. Good for you to go so far off road.
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My hub drives me crazy the way he drives off road, but he said that’s what trucks are for. It’s a good thing I trust him!
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Yes, don’t tell the coordinates. Too many foolish people seem to either ruin a place or walk to their death in nature out west.
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Don’t worry, I won’t tell (I’ll tell you though, but have to ask hub, cos he only knows the little turn off) That kind of beauty should be honored, not defaced 😦
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I don’t have a fear of heights but I do seem to have a fear of slot canyons. I just visualize the walls closing in on me……..
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Hmm, we’ve walked in some in our local desert and thought what might happen if there was an earthquake. Also, didn’t someone die recently – he walked away from his family, fell into a gap or hole in a slot canyon and they searched forever until they found him? They are scary but so exciting.
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People are getting caught all the time in those slot canyons in Arizona when the rains and flash floods arrive without notice.
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Someplace I would not want to be. I’m on my way to SF tomorrow for a couple days, the only scary things I’ll be doing is cleaning my son/DIL’s house haha!
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