Blue John Canyon - Aron Ralston Rock, 127 hours

[shaye]

My 9 year old boy and I set out to find the "Ralstone", Aron Ralston's famous rock in Blue John Canyon. Blue John Canyon is in BLM country just west of Canyonlands National Park, Utah. It is known for some of the activity with the Robbers Roost outlaws, Butch Cassidy and the gang.

Aron Ralston made the area a little more well known with his 127 hours entrapment. We realized on our way home from this trip that we were at the "Ralstone" rock on the exact 12 year anniversary of the incident which happened April 26, 2003.

We started our trip from Pleasant View, Utah just north of Ogden. We traveled on the I15 to Provo and got off on highway 6 which goes through Price. (Note: Price has the last gas station for over 100 miles. Fill up and get some extra cans if need be). Highway 6 runs into I70 where we turned west for a bit and got off at Highway 24.

We clocked 24.4 miles on Highway 24 from the I70 exit to our destination which is an almost hidden left turn. It was just 0.5 miles south of the Goblin Valley State Park entrance. Here is a pic of the turn off from highway 24 to the dirt road.



From the beginning of the dirt road to the Horseshoe Canyon junction it was 23.8 miles. Here are some pics of the junction which we turned right on. Note there are several ways to this destination. We were after one of the easiest routes given I had my little boy with me.



We turned right at the Horseshoe Canyon junction towards Hans Flat Ranger Station. From this junction we went 6.8 miles to our trailhead. On the left side of the road there is a 2-track atv road (unmarked). This is where we parked the truck and spent the night. Note if you go just 0.3 miles further on this road, you hit a junction with another road, you have gone too far.

We left at 9am in the morning. We walked on the ATV 2-track road for about 1.3 miles. I decided we were heading north too much and left the 2-track heading due east into Blue John Canyon. We found a cool slot entrance that led into Blue John Canyon. Here is our route.



Google map printouts were worthless from a mileage and and direction standpoint. In fact they mileage was way off. They were great for visual reference though. For direction we relied on compass and topo maps. Here are a few pics of the entrance we chose.



The slot canyon where the ralstone rock is, is near the end (northernmost point) of Blue John Canyon. The main canyon just leads right into it. Once we got into the canyon, we just followed the canyon bottom which is an awesome trail highway, thats flat and easy to hike with beautiful scenery. There are a couple merging canyon forks on both the left and right. We placed markers at each so on the way back we would remember our path. But basically we just followed the canyon in a north-east direction until we ran into the slot that leads to the big drop rappel.

Our destination slot starts with a famous "s log" wedged into the canyon entrance.



At the "s log", it is only about a 10' decent. We used a 30' rope, but I don't think it was necessary (it was for getting back out though). For getting back out, we lasso'd the "s log" and climbed up and out. It was the only time we needed a rope. Getting into the slot was easy.



Next was a gauntlet of about 10 or so large 8-12' chockstones. Some we had to get on our hands and knees and go under. Some we had to help each other climb up and over.



We stepped right over the "Ralstone" on our way in. It wasn't obvious and certainly was not set like it is in the movie. It is right after a big drop and you use it to step on as you descend, but we didn't think that was it. We had to look harder on our way back up the slot to find it. But we first made it all the way to the Big Drop Rappel ledge and had lunch. One really cool thing that happened during lunch was, I was telling my boy about how Aron had a Raven fly over him every morning at the same time while he was entrapped and just then a Raven flew right over us on the Big Drop Rappel ledge. A slight rain started while we were having lunch which made me very nervous. It was a bright, clear day and suddenly some rain clouds moved in. We packed up quick and started back into the slot. The ascent was not easy, but we were moving fast due to the rain.



Given we missed the "ralstone" on the way down, we were also looking for it. The other way, it was much more obvious. We snapped a pick of it.



Unfortunately, we didn't stay long as I wanted to get out in case the rain got bad. We snapped a few pics, checked the rock out for minute, then got out. I was surprised to find that the rock didn't have an easy way to stand under it as the movie and other picks made it look. There is a bolder just below the rock that if you stand on, you would be way too high. In Aron's situation, he could stand on that bolder, but only crouching down. He stood in front of that bolder most of the time (i assume) but would have had to lean into the rock that had him trapped. I always pictured him standing in a straight position. Also, the slot is really tight right there and leans one side. Aron, would have been tilted to this right a bit.

The slot is approximately 200 yards long and descends rapidly. I estimated that we went down about 200-250'. There are parts that you are well over 100' in the bottom of the slot itself. It is deep. Some parts are dark (headlamps were required). Some parts had water at the bottom (toilet pools). We were able to get around most of the pools, but had to step in one which was 18" of water. The slot was very tight. Some parts I had to take my backpack off and push it in front of me to get through. Going back up the other way was more challenging that going down.

Summary: I love going on destination type trips where we accomplish a big task like summit a cool mountain or find something cool like the "ralstone". If you are into that, this is awesome. If not, you will feel like you went a long ways to see a rock. However, the slots and Blue John were amazing enough to justify the trip. Your call. My 9 year old boy did just fine. He is a pretty experienced outdoorsman though. I'm not sure I would take a younger kid or an inexperienced kid into this. In all we hiked 12.5 miles (25563 steps on my pedometer). It took us 7.5 hours to hike to the rock, check it out, have lunch and get back to our truck. Here is a pic of my pedometer on the hike.

[Iceaxe]

Awesome! Nice to see you were able to accomplish your goal. I also like to see kids in the outdoors instead of playing video games.

Thanks for the TR.

[Scott P]

Nice job! It sounds like you guys had fun.

[shaye]

Thanks for all your help. Scott, your topo maps were helpful. Wish I could find that software.

[Sombeech]

Cool! The kids must have loved it

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[TommyBoy]

Just a heads up green river has gas and is 50 miles closer and only 1-2 miles out of the way if coming from hwy 6.

[shaye]

Good to know. Thanks TommyBoy

[Scott P]

Thanks for all your help. Scott, your topo maps were helpful. Wish I could find that software.

I'm glad you found the maps/info useful. Anyway, you can sometimes find the used software:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listi...condition=used

The problem is that National Geographic TOPO! no longer supports the product, so if you ever have a problem, you are on your own. One other thing to be aware of is that the software is the old USGS maps, rather than the ones most recently updated by the USGS. It doesn't matter that much for the Roost since most of the roads are the same.

I think the free online sources put TOPO! out of business.

You may want to try CalTopo:

http://caltopo.com/map.html#ll=38.40...26824&z=15&b=t

It doesn't have all of the features of TOPO!, but is free and still good. It also has the latest version of the USGS maps.

[mzamp]

From what I understand, SAR personnel went in a few days after to remove his arm and displaced the rock in the process to its current position as a stepping stone.

Thanks for the TR.

[deagol]

I read that it took 13 men to move the rock, using a mechanical advantage system