Capitol Reef: Cottonwood Wash

Our second day we decided to hike Cottonwood Wash. They had warned us that there was still water in areas in the canyon, but we weren't deterred and headed out anyway. We walked about a mile in the wash before we entered a canyon and started to climb around boulders, and hiked there for another mile before the entered the slot canyon. This hike was a lot of fun!

 walking in the wash. All of our shoes were filled with sand by the end of the hike.

 This is the mouth of the narrows canyon. This was mine and Hal's first slot canyon hiking experience. We were so excited to see the mouth of this narrow canyon.

 Pretty quickly into the canyon we ran into water.  We had to hand and feet brace across this water. Megan made it half way and fell into the water. It doesn't look too deep, but it went above her waist when she fell in. After that, and with the cyst on my wrist I knew I wasn't going to make it. Brownie points to Hal for coming back across and carrying me through it on his shoulders where is didn't get a drop of water on me.

 And now we come to my favorite part of the hike, this giant chalkstone. We had to climb up through this small little space between the chalkstone and other smaller boulders. It was really cool to climb up into it.

This is me coming up through the small hole between the chalkstone, other boulders, and the canyon wall. Please notice creeper Hal down below me.

 And finally we reached this large pool of water. Hal and Charles tried to swim around the corner, into the even narrower part of the canyon to see if they could see an end of the water, but the water was sooo cold. They made it to look down the narrow part, and couldn't see an end to the water so they hurried back into the sun to warm up. We debated about trying to keep going.

Then we ran into the ultimate hiker who we watched be really smart and pull himself out of the water once he reached the narrow part. We were all super impressed that he kept going when we decided to turn around.

I would really recommend Cottonwood Wash as a hike, probably not for kids though, well at least not the whole thing. We saw some families turn around as soon as they reached water.

The next day Hal and I hiked Burro Wash alone. I really liked this hike. There is a trail, so you don't have to hike through the sandy wash, which makes the 2 miles to the mouth of the canyon go a lot faster. Since it was just the two of us, and I knew there was water, I left my camera behind. This hike is probably overall harder than Cottonwood, depending on when you turn around. We reached a really narrow part, which was filled with water. We tried to wall brace up and over, but we were too inexperienced with wall bracing, and the stretch of water was too long, so we turned back. I'd love to go back with some experienced slot canyon hikers and attempt this hike again.

On our way back out, we ran into that mega hiker again. Turns out he reached the end of Cottonwood Wash and said it was amazingly beautiful with an arch that pops up out of no where. So I guess I gotta go back and do that one as well.