Zebra Slot and Tunnel Slot, Utah

Two in one.

Going to slots

Zebra and Tunnel slot canyons are seen in one loop hike, total 6.6 miles. From the trailhead along Hole-in-the-Rock road, it is 2.4 mile to the entrance of Zebra slot. The color in the area is really amazing. Pink. I had never seen this kind of color in the nature. It was a really pleasant hike to see this color and geology. Zebra slot was dry when we were there. According to Alltrails' reviews, there could be water depending on a season. Some said the water was up high until waist level. Zebra slot get quickly extremely narrow, so you cannot go much, but really fun. 

 

Zebra pattern

After Zebra, we headed for the Tunnel slot. This connecting way was my favorite. Actually, there is no trail, mostly route-finding off-trail type travel. I really liked to see a lot of stripes: the reason the slot is called Zebra. Not only the pattern, but the color of pink makes this area very unique. Some rocks has vertical strips, some horizontal, some circles due to how it was eroded I guess.

 

Water made it smooth!

Another interesting observation one point is in the left picture. The flow of water made the rock smooth. What a powerful force of water. It was cool to see this. 

 

 

 

Tunnel Slot

Then, we reached Tunnel slot. The color is different from Zebra, but another unique colors. More colorful with green, black, brown and pinkish. This is quite short (125 feet/38 meters), and narrow, but not as narrow as Zebra slot. I have also seen this slot could have waist-deep water in Alltrails reviews, but luckily it was completely dry when we were there. As the name indicates, it was dark like tunnel!

Phipps Arch and Bowington Arch

Two in One hike!

Phipps Arch and Bowington Arch in a day hike. About 10 mile.

Maverick Bridge

This hike starts along highway12. The trail goes along Escalante river, then at the split, go right to go to Phipps Arch. Walk in the Phipps wash. 0.6 mile walk in the wash, there is a side canyon to see Maverick Bridge. Topo map and Alltrail map are both wrong about Maverick bridge location marked. It is easy to tell the location is wrong if you are there, since the location is really over the cliff. It is a small bridge, but you can walk on the bridge and fun. 

 

Phipps Arch

 

 

 

 

View from the arch area

Then go back to Phipps Wash and continue the walk. Since Phipps Arch is above the canyon, one needs to go up the side rocks. The arch is not at all seen from the bottom. The last section is scrambling. After several legs and arm work sections, suddenly the arch vision comes in. Phipps Arch is very impressive. It is really thick. It resides at the top of the surrounding canyon like a king. The canyon below the arch is quite nice, too. Indeed 360 view from the arch. 

 

From other side

You can walk under the arch to see the arch from other side. The left picture is Phipps Arch from the other side. You might be able to see the register box under the arch in the first picture. I signed it for fun. The last person who signed was on the thanksgiving day, which was exactly one month before we did on 2023/12/22. I guess I am the last person at Phipps arch in 2023, because weather forecast was saying it would get much colder after the next day we hiked to Phipps Arch. 

There are a number of round rocks around Phipps Arch as you can see in the left picture. It is interesting to see them. We enjoyed so much Phipps Arch in complete solitude. Then we headed to Bowington Arch by tracing back Phipps Wash. At the split, we went left this time to go to Bowington Arch. First, some more Escalante river trail, then Bowington Arch trail. I don't know these trail names are official, though, because Bowington arch trail is just wash.

Bowington Arch

Bowington Arch is quite impressive, too. Arch is above the dry pour-off and it is dangerous go under the arch, but you can scramble up to just before the arch's bottom. We sat down a little further down to get the best view of arch and had a snack break. During the break, Mr.N said, "I can't find my blue hat since I was at Phipps Arch, but I did very thorough stuff check there" 

For a moment, I was "....", because, THE BLUE HAT was RIGHT BEHIND HIS NECK. 

We traced back to the trailhead. Although several cold Escalante river crossings, this was a great hike. 

After coming back, when I write blog about hike, sometimes I again search the trail on the internet. I found that on the way to the Bowington arch, there is rock art called "43 Men Red Men Panel" Darn, we missed it, but someday I will come back.