PEEK-A-BOO CANYON EarthCache
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Nice hike in a hot dry area. Hot, Dry, Slot Canyon in a beautiful area. One of the prettiest non-technical slot canyons on the planet
Peekaboo Gulch is a small drainage - for the most part just a sandy wash, it eventually enters a half mile narrows section, very twisting and convoluted though only a few meters deep. The gulch is most famous because of the last 100 meters, before the junction with Dry Fork of Coyote Gulch - here the ravine cuts deeper into the red Navajo sandstone, forming a series of interlinked potholes, extravagant swirls and fins of rock, and several arches; these different openings and the many corners and crevices account for the curious name of this canyon. One hour is enough to see all of the lower narrows. At the entrance of Peek-A-Boo canyon. The most difficult sections of Peek-A-Boo are right at the start. A bit of scrambling is required to get into the canyon and foot and hand holds have been notched into the rock.
Keep hiking up Peek-A-Boo until the slot ends. Halfway up the canyon it becomes shallower, but the canyon becomes deep again so keep hiking up until you reach a more obvious end and a large juniper tree.
Most slot canyons are formed in sandstone and limestone rock, although slot canyons in other rock types such as granite and basalt are possible. Even in sandstone and limestone, only a very small number of creeks will form slot canyons. This is due to a combination of the particular characteristics of the rock, and regional rainfall.
Seen from the surface, a slot appears as a slash, a dark and rock-solid grin. From within things are different. You do not find darkness, but a palette of colors, transmitted by light filtering down from above, bouncing wall to wall. Below the rim, the light creates a warm glow. Farther down the walls it becomes red, then purple, and finally a deep gray.
Waves, curls, arches and whorls - the sort of features only wind and water could conceive, all fashioned from stone, yet as fluid as the forces that shape them. It's a dream world where lines bend, upside is down, and inside is out.
Slots are rare: the conditions for their development exacting. These intricate little canyons begin as hairline cracks in the sandstone, cracks found by flowing water and enlarged sand grain by sand grain.
Where there is the slightest irregularity, the water has greater force on one side of the crack than on the other and a widening occurs. This allows the water to swirl; gradually a round hollow appears, softer material is washed away and patina is formed.
A slot is a series of the convoluted hollows, connected by narrow passages of varying width and length. In deeper slots, these hollows stacked on hollows climb to a height of many stories and are difficult to penetrate.
In order to log this cache you need to answer all the following questions.
1. how long is the canyon
2. how wide is the canyon at the narrowest point.
3. Take a photo of your gps at the listed co-ords, showing the co-ords on your gps.
4.Take a picture of canyon at co-ords.
5. How did you enter the canyon ?
6. Photo of the dual holes about 100 feet from the end/ entrance depending on which way you are going.
7.How old is the canyon, why?
Additional Hints
(No hints available.)