{"id":461,"date":"2016-09-20T12:50:30","date_gmt":"2016-09-20T16:50:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.fayegibbons.com\/?p=461"},"modified":"2016-10-02T00:28:55","modified_gmt":"2016-10-02T04:28:55","slug":"surviving-a-slot-canyon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.fayegibbons.com\/?p=461","title":{"rendered":"SURVIVING A SLOT CANYON"},"content":{"rendered":"
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My latest book, HALLEY, awarded 2015 Jefferson Cup Honor for Historical Fiction, awarded the Moonbeam Silver Medal for Young Adult Fiction,\u00a0 and awarded the 2016 Frank Yerby Award for Fiction.\u00a0 Available at: NewSouth Books:\u00a0www.newsouthbooks.com\/halley and Amazon<\/strong><\/h2>\n

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Faye Hiking in Grand Teton National Park<\/p>\n

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Willis Creek Slot Canyon near Escalante, UT<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Summer Storm near Escalante, UT<\/p>\n

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After four wonderful, scenic, exciting, tiring weeks out West, we are home!<\/strong><\/p>\n

Benjamin and I dug for fish fossils in Wyoming\u2014and found them.\u00a0 We searched for fossils in other areas with less success.\u00a0 But we eventually ended up with two leaf fossils, several shell fossils, and a few pieces of petrified wood.\u00a0 We hiked in Wyoming, Nevada, and Utah, and enjoyed them all with the partial exception\u00a0 for one near Escalante, Utah.\u00a0 Having some degree of claustrophobia, I don\u2019t like to spend much time in canyons where the walls can be only an arm\u2019s length\u2014or less\u2014away on either side.\u00a0 It\u2019s especially frightening when those walls soar upwards for a hundred feet or more\u2014impossible to climb if a sudden rainstorm 40 miles away floods the canyon faster than a speeding locomotive.<\/strong><\/p>\n

But Benjamin is an old hand at convincing me to venture out of my comfort zone.\u00a0 He checked with the weather people and there was no rain predicted.\u00a0 \u201cThe canyon is only a mile and a half long,\u201d he assured me.\u00a0 \u201cThe bottom of the canyon is mostly dry\u2014no wading.\u00a0 Best of all, the canyon walls are not as close as some, and a lot of the way the walls are low enough to climb, in case of flood\u2014which,\u201d he hastened to add,\u00a0 \u201cwe won\u2019t have.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

I agreed to go.\u00a0 And, at first, everything was just as he had promised\u2014walls were low and the floor was wide.\u00a0 Plenty of promising rocks littered the ground\u2014possible fossils.\u00a0 There was a narrow little stream snaking along, but it left a lot of dry, pebbled walking area for our passage.\u00a0 Then as we progressed, the walls began to rise and the floor began to narrow.\u00a0 The steam widened to fill most of that floor and I was searching for the shallow areas before placing my feet.\u00a0 Finally, the walls towered overhead in undulating surfaces that a rock climber probably couldn\u2019t handle without lots of equipment.\u00a0 At about one mile the sky began to darken, and Benjamin, knowing this might be a deal breaker, sped up.\u00a0 When a group of hikers splashed by, Benjamin called back to me, \u201cSee, there\u2019s no danger, or they wouldn\u2019t be here!\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s probably what the passengers on the Titanic told each other,\u201d I yelled back.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re almost there,\u201d Benjamin said. \u201cWe can\u2019t turn back now.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

But the sky was getting darker and the walls taller.\u00a0 Suddenly, I heard a rumble of thunder.\u00a0 \u201cThunder just sounds louder out here, than back home,\u201d he assured me.\u00a0 \u201cWe\u2019re almost at the end.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

Thunder crashed right overhead, and I panicked.\u00a0 \u201cI\u2019m going back,\u201d I yelled.\u00a0 \u201cRight now.\u201d\u00a0 I turned and, forgetting my troublesome knee, I moved as fast as I could without actually running.\u00a0 I forgot about finding the shallow places in streams and the flattest walking areas.\u00a0 I scampered over boulders that I had cautiously navigated on the way in.\u00a0 All at once the hikers who had passed us earlier ran past, heading in the opposite direction.\u00a0 One of them tripped and fell when climbing over a huge boulder.\u00a0 She managed to get up and limp on not much faster than I was moving.\u00a0 Soon they were all out of sight\u2014including the injured one.\u00a0 Looking back, I didn\u2019t see Benjamin.<\/strong><\/p>\n

About ten minutes later, I got back to the area where the banks were low enough for me to climb in an emergency, and I was able to slow down and catch my breath a bit.\u00a0 There was still no sign of my husband when I came to the point where the trail left the canyon.\u00a0 I trudged uphill.\u00a0 It seemed to have stretched out a lot longer than I recalled.\u00a0 Of course, it was the wrong trail.\u00a0 Fortunately, I had climbed high enough to see in the distance what had to be the parking area at the trailhead. And there was our car, still shaded by one of the few trees big enough to cast a shadow.\u00a0 Thank God, I knew which direction to go in.<\/strong><\/p>\n

By the time I got to our dusty old Honda, the thunder had moved further off and the sky had lightened.\u00a0 It was obvious that the danger of a flash food was over.\u00a0 Exhausted, I let the passenger seat back into a reclining position and went to sleep.\u00a0 No doubt my husband was going to be disgruntled by my desertion, but I was too tired to worry about it.\u00a0 When Benjamin woke me he was raving about the slot canyon and how sorry he was that I had missed completing the hike.\u00a0 I tried to put on a repentant face.<\/strong><\/p>\n

I waited until the next day to tell him I had just entered my last slot canyon.<\/strong><\/p>\n

And this time I mean it.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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My latest book, HALLEY, awarded 2015 Jefferson Cup Honor for Historical Fiction, awarded the Moonbeam Silver Medal for Young Adult Fiction,\u00a0 and awarded the 2016 Frank Yerby Award for Fiction.\u00a0 Available at: NewSouth Books:\u00a0www.newsouthbooks.com\/halley and Amazon Faye Hiking in Grand … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.fayegibbons.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/461"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.fayegibbons.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.fayegibbons.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.fayegibbons.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.fayegibbons.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=461"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/blog.fayegibbons.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/461\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":479,"href":"https:\/\/blog.fayegibbons.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/461\/revisions\/479"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.fayegibbons.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=461"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.fayegibbons.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=461"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.fayegibbons.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=461"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}