October 29, 2024

By Tim Briese

Spooky and Dry Fork: 7.5 miles, 600’ elevation gain, 5:00 roundtrip time

Tim and I broke camp and drove a short distance to the trailhead for Peekaboo and Spooky slot canyons. It was sharply colder today, fine for hiking but less so for camping. This hike is one of the most popular in the area, and the trailhead sports a large parking area, good signage, and even a bathroom, a far cry from most of the other primitive trailheads off the Hole in the Rock Road. Spooky Canyon in particular is very narrow, and a metal structure at the trailhead shows hikers just how narrow it is. If you can’t squeeze between the metal poles then forget about squeezing all the way through the canyon. We thought the metal guide was actually a little optimistic.

As we struck off on the trail we talked about how neither of us had ever seen a rattlesnake in all of our years of hiking in the desert, other than a tiny one Teresa and I had once seen in Zion. The trail followed the edge of a plateau above a cliff band for some distance until it reached a break in the cliffs and then descended several hundred feet into a broad wash below.

a view while hiking along the edge of the plateau

the route heads down this drainage

approaching the main wash

We soon reached the mouth of Peekaboo Slot Canyon and were faced with a twelve foot scramble up a sandstone face with very sketchy hand and footholds that had been worn shallow and smooth.

the entrance to peekaboo slot canyon

After trying to ascend the wall for several minutes we decided that it was an unsafe thing for seventy year olds to be doing and gave up on it. This was of course disappointing, but nevertheless a good reality check for us about our waning youthfulness. I had done it twenty years earlier with Teresa and I don’t recall that she and I had any difficulty with it. Surely the footholds must have been better then – or were they?

We hiked on down the wash to the mouth of Spooky and entered its narrows.

the entrance to spooky slot canyon

We went as far as we could until it simply got too narrow and then turned back.

this was as far as we could go

We hiked back up the wash and entered Dry Fork Narrows and found it quite interesting and scenic.

hiking up dry fork narrows

this one got pretty narrow too

Eventually the narrows abated and we climbed up out of the canyon and found a trail above, which would loop us all the way back around to the trailhead.

we exited dry fork narrows here

Along the way back we spotted a baby rattlesnake slithering across the trail. Wait, weren’t we just talking about this?

this little guy was only about 12 inches long, but looks bigger in this zoom photo

The hike back along the rim was scenic with panoramic views, including a view of Peekaboo Canyon below.

the entrance to peekaboo slot canyon is visible right in the center of the photo

After completing the hike we drove a few miles down the road to explore Devils Garden. On all my previous trips to this area I had never checked out Devils Garden, thinking that since it was so close to the road and easily accessed that it probably did not amount to much. Boy was I wrong. We spent a good hour wandering around taking photos and exploring this fascinating place.

metate arch

After this we contemplated where to camp for the night. It was cold and the wind was swirling around us as we stood talking in the parking lot. I suggested that a motel room and pizza in Escalante sounded very inviting. Tim was all on board with this so we jumped in our vehicles and sped off to town.