Spring Break Part 3: Up and Out/Finding the Slot

After our hiking up North Fork of Robbers Roost it was time to find our exit.  There is no easy exit out of the North Fork.  So we camped overnight and headed for a long day hike to explore our options.  Our plan after some serious research was to exit up the Crack Route and come back down an "escape route" in the next canyon to the north.  This was what we did and we found a pleasant surprise.

To get started, we have to do a little 20 ft climb. 

Then we have to squeeze through this crack which goes up and up and over a bunch of chock stones.  Lots of squeezing, lots of climbing, lots of lifting.  (A little back story here.  I had been in the North Fork of the Robbers Roost before 20 years ago. I supposedly had exited through this very canyon...BUT I had no memory of this experience and I never would have suggested that we try this with our backpacks if I had any memory of it.)  But this was a day hike so no backpacks so it was super fun. 

 The we were up on the mesa top using our map skills to find the entry point for our next canyon.  This was fun but we took no pictures from up on the mesa.  I love map reading and we found our way right to the top of our entry point.  And we headed down into the canyon.  We were expecting to find about 1/4 - 1/2 a mile of slot canyon accessible only by this entrance or a technical decent with 3 rappels.  The entrance was a relatively easy hike down some slick rock and and sandy gully.  It brought us to the slot canyons that we were looking for and here are some of the images.

 We had to do a little canyon travel skill building on this trip.  The boys learned to chimney which we are all doing here.

 Here is Wren using the stemming technique.

 And Dakota climbing over some chockstones.

 A little bit of skill brought us to the true slot.  Flat bottom with tall beautifully carved walls of sandstone surrounding us and offering us a shady respite from the mesa sun.