Distance: 6 miles round trip on trail and cross country
Summit Elevation: 900' (trailhead)
Elevation Gain: 960'
Elevation Gain (in Empire State Buildings): 0.7
Round trip time: 3 hours
Recommended water: 32 oz.
Parking/Fees: $10 State Parks Fee
Difficulty: Easy
Leisa and I spent our second day hiking "The Slot" loop. The slot is a semi-famous family friendly slot canyon in AB. There are other slot canyons at the base of Travelers Peak, and dangerous canyons around the Arroyo Tapiado mud caves. My last visit here was ten years ago. At the time, parking was just a turnaround on a dirt road. Now, there was a parking lot, overflow parking, and a bathroom. Also new was a $10 day hike fee. We got started around 8 AM and passed a couple of large parties on our way through. We continued out the back and followed dirt roads toward Borrego Mountain. We left the road to get a close look at some interesting wind caves and formations. Leisa had a GPS track that looped just under Borrego then back to the parking area. However, we missed the cairns where we were supposed to climb out of the canyon and continued in the general direction of our starting point. We hit some short scrambles and narrows but I thought we could get back to the main slot. Unfortunately, we hit a 50' wall only a couple of hundred feet from the main canyon. I crawled to the top of a ridge to look over and saw no safe way forward. We had to return to where we left our track and spotted the cairns. Another short scramble and we were out of the canyons and onto a trail leading to Borrego Mountain. The summit was another half mile but we opted to return on trail to the parking area, having managed to add an extra two miles to the loop. We returned to a zoo of 40 vehicles and dozens of people milling around. Rangers were also set up to collect the day use fee as people drove up. The crowds were a drag.
No comments:
Post a Comment