Rattlesnake Canyon!

Letting the tires down in readiness for our desert drive!

Time for one of the highlights of our trip – an adventure into a slot canyon!  I’d found a tour operator that ran trips out of Kanab that had very high ratings from Trip Advisor, so had booked the Magical Slot Canyon tour with Dreamland Safari Tours at 10am.  There is another slot canyon, Antelope Canyon, in Zion NP that is far better known – but, as a consequence, far, far more crowded.   Reading some of the reviews online, a lot of people were complaining that it was impossible to get good pictures or pictures without other people in them.  So this is why we found ourselves, in Kanab, at 7am after having watched the sunrise from Brian Head Peak, searching for a good breakfast spot and a place to bide some time ahead of our tour.

The beautiful slot canyon's wavy red walls

We stumbled across Houston’s Trail End restaurant and it seemed as good as place as any, so in we went.  It was a fun place, all Western décor with saddles hung on the walls and the server wearing a holster with a (presumably fake) gun in it.  I had a egg, ham and veggie thing (made, reassuringly, according to the menu with “all the veggies we can find”!) and Lori had a veggie omelet and pancakes – and it was delicious!  The portions were enormous so I only managed to work my way through half of mine, before throwing in the towel, stuffed to the gills!   By this stage it was about 9am, so we decided to head over to where the tour was scheduled to depart to check we were in the right place.  It was only about a 5min drive before we were then pulling up in front of a somewhat disheveled looking house but, from the “Dreamlands Safari” tours sign outside and the crates of bottled water leaned up against the side of the house told us we were definitely in the right place.  I guess I was probably expecting something more like an office, so it was a little on the odd side!  It was only about 9.10am by this time, so we were rather early but I wanted to check this was right, so I trotted up to the front door and rang the bell.   Waited for a minute or so.  Nothing.  Waited another minute then started walking back to the car.  Just about to get in and heard a guy calling out “hello?”, so turned back and there was this youngish guy who looked as if he’d just woken up (or something..).  Turns out we were in the right place and we were actually the only people on the tour today, so personalized service indeed. 

Praying to the Gods Of Cute Tour Guides for hottie to take us slotting, we decided to make the most of the 45min hiatus and have a quick power nap in the car (thanks again, Tyler, for such a spacious, comfortable ride!).   Parking up under the shade of some trees by the side of the road, we enjoyed some welcome zzz’s after our super early start.  Woken by a biological alarm clock, we then headed back over to meet our – hopefully young and cute – tour guide. 

Then we met Donald. 

Ahh… Donald.  Probaby mid-sixties, balding, potbelly and really not very talkative!  Not sure how he quite managed to end up as a tour guide (don’t you need to be at least a little bit outgoing?) but he was perfectly nice and, as long as he didn’t turn out to be an axe-murderer, then I guess he met all the basic criteria.

After signing the appropriate disclaimers (“I promise not to sue Dreamland Tours if the tour guide turns out to be a mad axe-murderer and chops me up into little pieces on the trip and hides my body in the desert”), we headed out to the slot canyon, a 30min drive outside of Kanab.  One of the reasons why this slot canyon is far less busy than the one in Zion is that it's a bit of a pain in the arse to get too, as  - for the last 20 mins of our drive – we were driving through sand to get to it.  We were in a 4x4 and, before we set off, Don let some of the air out of the tyres so that the jeep could properly navigate the terrain.  It was fun, though fortunately less bouncy than the HUMMER tour a couple days ago!  As we drove through the desert, we saw lots of yellow daisy-like flowers (apparently called Sneezeweed), so it was a pretty drive.  Just before setting off, Lori asked Don as to whether there were rattlesnakes here.  It was a bit of a standing joke as Lori confessed to asking that question every time on a tour as she hates snakes but, reassuringly, Don replied that – although there were rattlesnakes here – he’d never seen one in the canyon, so we would be fine.

Log wedged by the force of flash floods
 in the slot canyon

Famous last words.

The slot canyon itself was fabulous – a little smaller than I’d expected but it was still very impressive.  The color of the rocks was incredible, especially with the sun reflecting off the surface, turning the surface a brilliant blazing orange.   And we had the whole place to ourselves!  Despite Don’s lack of loquaciousness, I was glad we decided to visit this canyon vs the more popular one as I could imagine how frustrating it would be to try and get the pictures you’d want with a hundred other people milling around.

As we were about halfway through the canyon, gazing up in wonder and awe at the amazing rock walls, all of a sudden Lori let out a shriek and starting doing the Mohican dance!   Rattlesnake!!!!  As Lori leapt up onto a raised rock, Don and I looked over to where she was pointing and, sure enough, there was a baby rattlesnake, looking quite pissed off, rattle tail shaking and heading in our direction!  My first reaction was “Wow!  Cool!” as I started taking some pictures – my subsequent thought was “Shit – that’s a rattlesnake – and he’s heading this way!”.   Now, its one thing to see a rattlesnake in a zoo or terrarium – its something entirely different to encounter one completely in the wild, unpredictable and uncontained!  We all gave it a very wide berth and it seemed to want to avoid us too, so we watched it rattle off from a safe distance and made a mental note to keep a very very close look out for it on the return journey.  Here are some of my favorite pictures from the canyon:

Crazy star shaped fossils from when the canyon
was at the bottom of a sea-bed, millions of years ago!

The rest of our trip was uneventful (thankfully) with no sign of Mr Rattles on the way back.  Our trip back to Kanab took us via the ruins of an old Indian settlement, complete with cave wall paintings and handprints.  Obviously the native Indians were very short as the rooms were tiny!  Then, it was time to head back into town, bid a (relieved) fond farewell to Don and prepare for the next leg of our multi-adventure day – a trip to Bryce Canyon!

Really, m'fer?  Lori is NOT impressed by the appearance
of Mr Rattles, pictured bottom left

Mr. Rattles, ready for his close up....

Gecko, hangin' ten

Lori and our guide, Donald

Busted.  Checking my email in the slot canyon...

Channeling Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade..... I chose.....wisely.

Post-snake survival relief

Ruins of old Native American camp

Indian rock wall paintings

Ancient handprints made by tiny people

Modern day equivalent of ancient handprints...