At the beginning of May, our friend Sri came to visit Utah and proposed a weekend in Escalante. We jumped at the chance to take our new RV trailer out for a test run. We drove up on Friday night and found a fantastic dispersed RV camping area right off Hole in the Rock road. There were a number of RVs already there, but we had privacy and it was extremely quiet. The next morning we met up with some friends on a balmy day and headed into Micro Death Hollow, a great canyon with a scary name. This is a short canyon that definitely packs a punch, depending on water levels. Several members of our party did not have wetsuits, so we were hoping that conditions were not too wet but planned for an early exit via the sneak route if needed. No permits are needed and beta is available here: https://www.roadtripryan.com/go/t/utah/escalante/micro-death-hollow
After a short but scenic approach down white sandstone benches, we got to the first rappel: 276 feet down into a narrow and dark opening. The view of the canyon from above is quite unnerving as it looks like the biggest and narrowest crack I have ever seen. It was definitely going to be the type of canyon where everyone goes single file. The rappel was very pretty and easy, walking down the sculpted walls and landing in a narrow corridor. We proceeded to stem over a wet pool that widened out at the end and required some assistance from below to not fall in. So far, we had remained totally dry.
Some very narrow corridors followed, and we entered a set of narrows holding knee deep water. We began stemming high on the walls over the water, but when we came to a silo that was too wide for me to cross comfortably, I elected to climb down to the floor of the canyon, where the walls were just about kissing each other. It was definitely tight and slow going as I was pushing my pack through the slot, but the canyon was very beautiful, and I squeezed through without a problem. The canyon had very low water up until this section, but things were about to get more exciting.
A few more corridors with knee-deep water led us to a large sandy bowl with a rappel into a swimmer. We put on our neoprene layers and dropped down into a very cold but blessedly short pothole. On the other side was a last rappel down a pretty dryfall to the beautiful Escalante River, where a backpacking party was taking a break in the shade and wondering why people were suddenly dropping from the sky.
We walked up the river until we found a well-worn trail. After a few minutes we encountered the exit trail back to the trailhead where we had parked. We dropped our canyoneering gear and prepared for the second part of our adventure: Exploring Lower Death Hollow, one of the segments in an extensive backpacking route from the slickrock benches of the old Boulder Mail Trail to the Escalante River. I will post about this in a separate post as it was an amazing hike in itself.
A few notes about the exit back to the trailhead. It is up very steep sandstone, straight uphill and does require some scrambling skills. It is also exposed and in full sun. Bring plenty of water and take your time, especially in warm temperatures. What goes down must come up, sadly. We made a detour to pick up the long rope we had left at the first rappel. It was nice to not have been hauling it around with us the whole day.
Overall, Micro Death Hollow is a very fun half-day canyon that has a number of technical challenges and is a great introduction to narrow slots. Combined with a walk up Lower Death Hollow, this is an outstanding route, especially during warm weather.
