Slot Canyons?

[PyramidBlaster]

I Love Guadelupe--it's just that i've spent 80% of my time in Big Bend.

I keep wanting to do some light canyoneering out there, but don't know where to start...Can anyone recommend any slot canyons in the area that I don't have to do a week-long hike to?

I live at sea level, so I have to breathe SOMEthing...the last trip up Guadelupe Peak, I thought I needed an oxygen bottle....Too bad I only get a week's vacation, so no time to acclimate!

[Vince T]

It's not in the park, put Closed Canyon has very easy access and is quite neat.



http://www.americansouthwest.net/texas/big_bend_ranch/closed_canyon.html

Vince

Moderator note:  Vince set a new record for messed-up BBCode with this post. :)

[PyramidBlaster]

Yeah, you're right on that one...I hit that one for the first time a year ago, it was quite cool....Was just hoping to find out a little more fom the Guadelupe region....I love stuff like Dog Canyon and Devil's Den in BBNP....

[presidio]

I Love Guadelupe--it's just that i've spent 80% of my time in Big Bend.

I keep wanting to do some light canyoneering out there, but don't know where to start...Can anyone recommend any slot canyons in the area that I don't have to do a week-long hike to?

Well, there is Baker Pen Draw in the Lincoln National Forest, about 2 1/4 miles west of Sitting Bull Falls. Several overhung pouroffs in a narrow canyon that is relatively easily accessed from either the top or bottom (though you will be stopped from the get-go at the bottom by an overhung lip).

Very spectacular, very special and not all that remote, but almost no one goes there. I had to weigh whether this should be revealed, but after all it is public land.

Google Earth 32.256832 -104.737554 for a peek. The resolution is terrible but it will show you the area. Better yet, plug it into a digital topo map.

[PyramidBlaster]

That may be worth me looking into...Have to break out the maps, since Google Earth really doesn't do trails.....THANKS!

[okiehiker]

The canyons of the Guadalupes between the two parks are one of the desert southwest's greatest treasures.  I kind of hate to post too much in public, but here goes.

These canyons seem to be made for down-canyon then up-parallel-canyon hiking.  

Twice I have done a route starting at Carlsbad Caverns visitor center, over to Rattlesnake Canyon, down the canyon to South Rattlesnake, up South Rattlesnake to Middle Slaughter, down Middle Slaughter to Slaughter, up West Slaughter to Double Canyon, down Double Canyon to the desert floor, up the next unnamed canyon to the ridge above Gunsight Canyon, down Gunsight Canyon to Black River Canyon, up Black Canyon to the ridge above Big Canyon, down the North Fork of Big Canyon, up either the main fork or an unnamed south fork of Big Canyon to Camp Wilderness Ridge, down North McKittrick to South South McKittrick, up McKittrick to McKittrick Ridge then along the crest to Bush Mountain and out at Pine Springs.  

These canyons are very remote, very rugged, and absolutely phenomenally beautiful.  

If you want to start with a technically easy route, that will make you want to explore every canyon you ever see, do the following:

Drive to the Dark Canyon Lookout on the Guadalupe Ridge.  Follow the old road (now blocked off and a trail only) heading SSE of the lookout tower.  You will find a trail that drops off the edge down to Cottonwood Cave.

Cottonwood Cave features some of the largest cave formations you will ever see.  Unfortunately its accessibility has led to a great degree of vandalism.  

From Cottonwood Cave, drop cross-country 500 vertical feet, very steeply, to the bottom of the canyon.  This is an unnamed north fork of Black Canyon.  In about ten miles downstream, you will come out to the desert floor.  Stay left of the road out of the canyon, and turn back northwest into the next canyon.  This is Gunsight Canyon. About four miles up, Gunsight Forks.  Either fork will take you back to the ridgetop and a route that takes an easy two miles back to the lookout tower and your vehicle.  I personally prefer the righthand fork, which runs almost due north.  

This loop is about twenty miles and makes a wonderful two or three  day introduction to the canyons of the area.  Many of the canyons do wall off, but they are not conducive to the classic kind of canyoneering one finds in Utah.  They have a beauty, however, that pictures and words will never capture.

For a short canyon hike, Devil's Den down into Dog Canyon is nice.  Be nice to the ranchers at the bottom.  They are my cousins. ;-) (sometimes they even claim me...)

[mountaindocdanny]

I've always wondered about the feasability of getting down into some of the various canyons in the southern Lincoln. I took my oldest son backpacking into Devil's Den last August and we had a great time playing down there. He was only 2, so we only went about a mile into the canyon before heading back up to the ridge to set up camp. I'm betting some of those thick maple stands just electrify in the fall. I'm thinking about heading back there in a couple of weeks with both the boys. As they are both less than 4 years old we have either the choice of limiting our backpacking trips to less than 2 miles a day of easy terrain or I load them into the bike trailer and lash our camping gear to that and explore forest service roads. I imagine we'll just just do the latter this trip as long as the weather is good.