Zebra Slot; Egypt 3; The Origami Traverse (aka Advanced Fold Canyon; April 2008)
On April 10, 2008, Phil Hage, Herb Taylor, and I visited the Zebra Slot near Harris Wash. We went in from the Sheffield Road, which is a long hike, but quite scenic. The route was basically the second half of the Bighorn Canyon tour in Steve Allen's book. The route just followed the wash down, but on the way back we took a high route east of the descent route. The slot itself was very beautiful, with fascinating repetitive formations, some nice little climbing bits, and great striped walls near its end. There is a shorter way into this, starting somehow from the Hole-in-the-Rock Road beyond the Harris Wash junction.
On April 11, we three went into Egypt 3, a canyon that Herb and I had wanted to do for many years. It was quite remarkable, as it was fully two miles long with an incredible narrows section reminiscent of the infamous Brimstone Canyon. After the hike we placed a car at Chimney Rock, to await our arrival there a week hence. We did not do the complete Egypt 3, which requires a rappel at the end; but the route we took was about two miles long and goes through almost the whole thing; what is remarkable is to find such a long canyon with so many interesting slot canyon features but no difficult pools or dropoffs.
And then we picked up Kim and Mike McGranahan and spent April 12-19 traveling from Middle Moody trailhead to Chimney Rock through some of the most amazing canyon terrain the area has to offer. This was my third long backpack in the remarkable canyons of the Lower East Side, and my research had led me to plan a trip that would, if it worked, forge a new route from the Waterpocket Fold into Fold Canyon by doing a rappel down a steep wall. According to topo maps and Google Earth, it seemed like the rappel choice would work. It did. But it also showed us that maps and satellite images are only approximations to the truth on the ground. So I suppose this whole adventure could be viewed as an exercise in "ground-truthing".