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| Canyoneering | 17.00 Miles |
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| | Canyoneering | 17.00 Miles | | | |
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| no partners | | Bluejohn Canyon - AKA the one where Aron Ralston had to amputate his hand after getting it trapped behind a fallen chockstone, the experience of which inspired his book and the movie 127 Hours. Bluejohn is named after an outlaw and is one of many slot canyons in the Robber's Roost area of UT. There's a variety of entrance/exit side-canyons but we chose the main fork through to Horseshoe Canyon so that we could see the amazing "Great Gallery" pictograph area on the exit.
Our approach was an easy flat hike but then the canyon abruptly starts off with some pretty immediate drops right into the first narrows area. And when I say narrow, I mean it!! Much of this downclimbing involved jamming feet, hands, kees & elbows between the two walls and chimneying/stemming/shimming down with as much control as possible. Falling here would be bad!  I did feel a bit overwhelmed with the awkwardness of it all at first but soon figured it out and found myself having a blast while maneuvering through these beautiful sandstone walls, even through complete darkness in some spots. The canyon opened up pretty quickly, followed by a long open walk to the lower section(where the infamous chockstone is located).
Here we had to downclimb a jammed log and dropped right into another cool narrows section. This one was even narrower and darker with more twists and boulders to climb over, plus lots of mud to contend with. One of these boulders was the chockstone where Aron Ralson was stuck but we walked right past it at first (it is much easier to recognize when looking up-canyon). The rappel at the end was really cool, mostly freehanging into a really pretty area. We exited through Horseshoe Canyon and tried to find the dinosaur tracks but no luck on that. Made our way to the Great Gallery and spent some time pondering the meanings of the paintings and the people who left them there. Found a few other noteworthy pictographs on the way out, all appeared to be different styles. The canyon itself was already cool but seeing these were like icing in the cake.
It was a fun day with a great group and definitely a unique experience stand there at the "Aron" rock and look at a spot where something so intense and life-changing happened to someone. Especially since it just looks like any other boulder that could have dropped there thousands of years ago. I also really loved the Great Gallery - I had been wanting to go there for a long time, ever since I saw some random photos of it from a friend's Utah trip long ago. It turned out to be a happy coincidence that they were the finale of our day at Bluejohn. The whole Robber's Roost area grew on me and I look forward to exploring it more in the future.  |
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