Colonnade Arch, Three Canyon, and Chaffin Geyser
I took the kids out yesterday to explore some more of the San Rafael Desert. I wanted to hit up a couple of places that I'd driven past several times previously but never got around to checking them out before. We hiked to Colonnade Arch, then hiked part of Three Canyon, and finally stopped at Chaffin Geyser and got to see it erupt (I've been skunked a couple of times before at the geyser).
http://castlecountry.org/geo/Colonna...ffinGeyser.kmz
The hike to Colonnade Arch was pretty easy, it was about 2.6 miles round-trip and took us about two hours, which included a lot of time just checking out the area around the arch.
Pronghorn at the Keg Point turnoff
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/_J...0/IMG_2574.JPG
Starting the hike
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Flowers in bloom
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Hiking across the slickrock toward the rim of Twomile Canyon
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Twomile Canyon
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/_J...0/IMG_2613.JPG
A smaller arch near Colonnade
https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/_J...0/IMG_2633.JPG
Colonnade Arch
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View from inside the arch
https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/_J...649_stitch.jpg
The kids in the arches
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The larger of the two skylights
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/_J...691_stitch.jpg
On top of the arch
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/_J...0/IMG_2731.JPG
After returning to the truck and eating lunch, we drove north and parked at the Saucer Basin turnoff and hiked into Three Canyon. After entering the canyon, there's only a little more than a third of a mile of canyon before it turns into a technical route. We hiked to the first rappel, then reversed course and headed back to the truck. There's a short section of narrows along the way, which was worth it for such a short hike.
Dropping into Three Canyon
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Pretty easy going
https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/_J...0/IMG_2739.JPG
A small drop in the canyon
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/_J...0/IMG_2741.JPG
Entering the short narrow stretch
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Three Canyon narrows
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The top of the huge drop
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Back in the narrows on the way out
https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/_J...0/IMG_2789.JPG
Upclimbing a small drop
https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/_J...0/IMG_2791.JPG
On the way back home, we stopped at Chaffin Geyser hoping to catch it erupting. I met a fellow there from near Calgary who was planning on camping there for the night, and he said the geyser had already gone off earlier in the afternoon, so I wasn't expecting to see it erupt again so soon. However, just after the guy walked back over to his truck, the geyser started sputtering. In a very short time it was shooting up in the air quite nicely, and we stayed for about 20 minutes watching it go off. The kids ran through the spray for a bit, and ended up with a white film on their skin and hair and clothes from the high mineral content of the water. It was a great ending to what had already been a really good day.
Sputtering
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/_J...0/IMG_2799.JPG
Gettin' started
https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/_J...0/IMG_2803.JPG
The kids playing in the geyser
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https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/_J...0/IMG_2811.JPG
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https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/_J...0/IMG_2827.JPG
https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/_J...0/IMG_2829.JPG
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SRQ582ywzpg
There are quite a few more photos here:
https://picasaweb.google.com/Dennis....ChaffinGeyser#
