Cat Stair Canyon - Car Wash, UT

I don't know if this little slot canyon has an actual name, but due to certain characteristics of the hike, my brother-in-law and myself began calling it Car Wash.


I'd always been interested in this little slot to the south of US89. Every time I drive between Page and Kanab I look down while crossing the Cockscomb, and to the south a narrow slot beckons, just off the highway. Finally my brother-in-law were out hiking at the Toadstools, just on the other side of the Paria River, and we decided to jot over to the canyon to check it out. The hike doesn't really follow an established trail. There is a parking area, and from that point there are usually some footprints to follow down into the wash bottom. The hike is also pretty simple. Basically you follow the wash bottom down canyon. The wash bottom can be muddy, especially after rain or snow, and this certainly isn't the place to be caught during a summer monsoon. The possibility for a flash flood is high.

Meandering around a few rock spines, the wash bottom is flat until it reaches a point just below the highway. Here it drops steeply, beginning to slot up. During the construction of US89 fins of rock were blasted away by dynamite to allow the highway to pass. This same process was used to reroute small streams that flowed through the area. The first part of the slot is man-made, a byproduct of the highway construction. Stay on the right hand side or in the wash, the drop is not so serious it cannot be negotiated.

After dropping to the bottom of the first drop, you come to the section that gave Car Wash its name. Some roads in Utah, specifically up on the Skutumpah Road, are well known for crossing canyons built on crashed cars. The construction of US89 took it to a new level, with about a dozen cars piled on the old wash bottom with rock dumped on top to form the road bed. There are Impalas, Bel-Airs, a Lincoln Continental with suicide doors, and even a Corvair, along with many more we couldn't identify. This is pretty strange and neat. Kind of surreal to encounter out in the desert, unexpected. Some of the cars even have their license plates left on them - the latest date I saw was 1970.

Going past the cars, the canyon deepens and narrows. Some scrambling around boulders and over pourovers is required to negotiate this section. This part of the canyon is naturally made, and some of the rock formations are quite beautiful.

At the end of the boulder falls there is a large chockstone, undercut, with its top about 10 feet above the canyon floor below it. Without some gear (or a ladder) this is the end of the road. Enjoy the view, and return to your car the way you came.

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2008-01-13 PaleoRob