In the central plateaus of the San Rafael Swell, one of the larger drainages that cuts into the sandstone is Straight Wash. Even though it gets called several names over the course of it's life, there are four sections of slots and narrows that are spread over about 30 miles of canyon. The middle section is known as Upper Straight Wash, and it provides a great hike for those looking for some solitude in the desert. We cruised down this canyon by using the Cliff Dweller Fork and accessed the best part of the narrows of the main wash. Although the route we used has bypasses around all the obstacles, we chose to do a couple of rappels to spice it up and had a great day of it.
The maps were a bit deceiving here, as they showed a road going close to our trailhead, but not really near it. The alternative was to use a trailhead of top of the mesa above the canyon, which would have added about 800 vertical feet to our day, and a steep climb up and down through the cliff bands. We
All photos copyright Kit Davidson unless otherwise noted.