Latest Rave: A Canyoneering Journal: Mid-March 2001

 

Upper Spooky and Brimstone, Part Two

Done with Spanky, we head back to the main fork of Spooky, and upcanyon. It starts out pretty mellow, but soon slots up to more of that sideways stuff. At this point, it had lost it's charm... Racing the looming sunset, we continued upcanyon, thinking if it did not end soon, we would have to go back to the intersection and walk around (in the dark).

Finally Upper Spooky ends in a short dryfall. Ooops, uh, ahem. Some concern was expressed, given the late hour and... While the dryfall itself did not yield easily to our climbing skills, by backing up 30' or so, we were able to chimney up, then slab climb out at a reasonable level (5.8?). A faded sling on a juniper shows that this short drop is often rappelled. We clamber up the upper basin, satisfied with a long day of sideways shuffling. Here's a fine view of the start of Upper Spooky.

And up the interesting slickrock back to Early Weed Bench, and our camp.

Beautiful views. Morning found us up early and poking our noses into the top of Spanky. Because the top was close to camp, we decided to fix a rope into the canyon and retrieve it at the end of the day. Here's the head of Spanky.

We climbed down to a large ledge on canyon left, and tied our rope off to a tree. A 200' rappel put us on the canyon floor. Taking a shorter rope with us, we proceeded downcanyon, soon finding footprints from a previous party climbing up from below.

And Spanky is a cool slot, this time with some light in there, it photographs differently.

Spanky slot.

Spanky.

Larry boulders up where a sidecanyon comes into Spanky slot. Hmmmm, this one looks interesting too. Might have to check it out next year.

Next - Upper Coyote Dryforks, Part III Back to Upper Coyote Dryforks, Part I Back to Escalante-Dominguez March Index