Utah PLOG #3 – Hiking the Dry Canyon at Jacob’s Chair

Between Moab and Capitol Reef National Park we’ve enjoyed so much this lovely state has to offer, yet we’ve barely scratched the surface. While so very dry and dusty (one local said it hadn’t rained her for seven months!) this land’s austere beauty would be diminished without those harsh limitations.

We’re sharing a few photo-logs (PLOGS?) of what we saw and did in some pretty cool places here in Utah lately. Here’s the third installment.

PLOG 1: Natural Bridges National Monument
PLOG 2: Biking Jacob’s Chair


Our boondocking camp sat on the ledge of a dry wash, which we had biked around on our visit to Jacob’s Chair. We decided it was time to descend into the wash itself and see what we’d find there.

The wash showed evidence of only occasional water. We learned later from a ranger at Capitol Reef that such occurrences are generally flash floods caused by sudden thunderstorms, the exact events that cause the most canyon erosion over time. We were in no danger of rain on this hike, but we did get surprised by finding standing water in one dead-end slot canyon.

That was just past where we saw the mountain lion tracks and scat, plus many claw marks up a steep slickrock incline. After that, we found large walking sticks to carry along the way, and we kept to the middle of the canyon so as to avoid tempting any vertical ambushes from the cliff edges above us.

For those and the other cool things we saw, please check out the gallery below.


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