Smith Fork Canyon Complex
On the western side of Lake Powell, a number of miles north of Bullfrog and east of Ticaboo lies a fantastic landscape of Navajo sandstone that goes on for miles and resembles the surface of an alien planet. Cutting through this are numerous large drainages, and each of these has countless fingerling canyons branching through the slickrock. One of these drainages is the Smith Fork, which holds roughly a dozen notable slot canyons of every ability level, all bound by one unifying characteristic: they are all very skinny!
The main drainage, the Smith Fork, has a fairly beautiful, but wider, section of narrows that is almost all flat. There can be small obstacles here and there but they are almost always bypassable. Almost all of the slots that join come in from the northeast, and they start small and end quite big, and as such the difficulty level also corresponds. Before Kelsey and I's wedding in 2013 I went on a canyoneering trip my Bachelor Party with a bunch of my best friends, and the Smith Fork and it's tributaries were the target of our efforts. This is a short record of what we managed to see and do in that time.
The main drainage, the Smith Fork, has a fairly beautiful, but wider, section of narrows that is almost all flat. There can be small obstacles here and there but they are almost always bypassable. Almost all of the slots that join come in from the northeast, and they start small and end quite big, and as such the difficulty level also corresponds. Before Kelsey and I's wedding in 2013 I went on a canyoneering trip my Bachelor Party with a bunch of my best friends, and the Smith Fork and it's tributaries were the target of our efforts. This is a short record of what we managed to see and do in that time.
Minor Fork
The first drainage to join the Smith Fork is a smaller, short tributary that has been nicknamed the Minor Fork. It is shallow and short, but at it's upper end there are a number of interlinked potholes that are fun to stem over- it offers great practice for the harder and more sustained stemming to come in the lower tributary canyons. We blasted up and down the Minor Fork in about 20 minutes- long enough to see it and experience it, but not enough to slow our pace of the day down.
P.O. (Post Office)
A really nice canyon all things considered. It is not very deep, perhaps only 10 meters, but it is quite skinny and presents numerous small obstacles to upclimb or downclimb. It's name comes from the names of old pioneers who scratched their names into the rock at the mouth of the canyon, using it as a sort of postal office box for the settlers who were trying to scrape a living in the hills above here. Although the settlers are long gone, you can still faintly see their names scratched into the rock. Thus the term "PO" Canyon.
There are two distinct sections of PO Canyon, and they are pretty similar. Both are shallow, skinny, and full of small boulders lodged in the walls, creating numerous upclimbs. There is an exit between the two where you can hop from PO Canyon over to it's neighboring canyon, Shuffleboard.
There are two distinct sections of PO Canyon, and they are pretty similar. Both are shallow, skinny, and full of small boulders lodged in the walls, creating numerous upclimbs. There is an exit between the two where you can hop from PO Canyon over to it's neighboring canyon, Shuffleboard.
Shuffleboard
Similar in size and shape to PO Canyon, this is another fun tributary of the Smith Fork that is worthy of exploration. With many small obstacles and downclimbs, a good hour or two can be spent romping through this canyon. There is a nice entrance about 1/4 of a mile up from it's mouth, providing a good place to get into the canyon from above. Other than that there isn't much else to say. It's well worth visiting and only the rankest beginner shouldn't have too hard of a time enjoying it.
Ticaboo Wormhole
The only "X" rated canyon we entered in the Smith Fork drainage, the Wormhole is a short but intense canyon just upstream from the infamous "Psycho D" slot. Most of us only stemmed into the bottom 1/4 of this canyon, although Kris and Alex pushed their way further up than the rest of the group, reaching the crux section of the canyon from the bottom. They weren't able to proceed through it, however, so we hung out between the walls, and then turned around and headed back out. |
"Itty Bitty Smitty"
We stumbled across this gem as we were making our way out of the Smith Fork drainage. A very short and skinny slot, this whole section can be upclimbed in about 15 minutes. It's probably advisable to skip the packs for this one, as they will just be in the way. We nicknamed this one "Itty Bitty Smitty" because it is a mini slot located within the Smith Fork drainage and while it is small it is a lot of fun. Not much to say about them other than if you are near it and you have the time it is worth it!
All photos copyright Kit Davidson unless otherwise noted.