Knotted Rope Crack - Reef Walking
Every year we make a trip down to the swell to kick of the camping season on my birthday. In 2007 Bowen was only 2 months old so April stayed home with the kids while Clint and I head down to the swell.
The weather was looking gloomy the entire drive down solid overcast but no rain. Our goals were to hike up the Knotted Rope Crack and rim walk along to the reef to overlook the Muddy Creek Gorge on day one and then hike up to Chimney Canyon on day two.
We turned off the main (dirt) road toward the Quandary Canyon / Knotted Rope trail head. This road is HCV only.
Most people do this hike to access Quandary and Miners Hollow (aka: Knotted Rope) then return via Ramp Canyon. As much as I love slot canyons and as appealing as canyonerring is to me I hate cold water and not being able to climb up what I just climbed down… just personal issues that I have.
Clint getting started up the wash
Working our way up the San Rafael Reef.
Just about to Quandary Canyon
The trail leads you directly to Quandary Canyon. We hiked down to the first dry fall that requires rappelling gear before we backtracked to the Knotted Rope Crack that leads to the top of the reef.
The first drop in Quandary Canyon, notice the old ladder.
Up the Crack we go… lots of lose rock here
Map of bottom of the Knotted Rope Crack.
Looking down for about half way up the crack.
Me on the last section of the crack.
The views from the top are the best around.
Looking down Quandary Canyon at Factory Butte
Looking west from the top the reef, click this photo to see the other canyons I labeled.
And then the rain started to come down…. We were able to take shelter under this ledge for about an hour and stay dry while enjoying the view.
The rain let up so we started to move east along the top of the reef towards the miners ruins at the Head of Miner Hollow (aka Knotted Rope Canyon).
Miners Hollow and Factory Butte
The remains of the old tent cabins on top of the reef.
We moved further down the reef to find the old winch site and overlook the Muddy Creek.
Map of the area of where I took these photos.
The Muddy Creek and Airstrip.
Winch
On our return hike the rain started up again. We were able to find another ledge to hang out under.
We busted out the rain gear…..
On the way back we still had a bit of day light so we decided to route find our way down into Quandary Canyon.
We Monkey Wrench we found… perfect match.
More Quandary Narrows
We chose this exit out of Quandary.. wont ever do this one again.
Looking down at the car.
After we got down from the reef the rain was still coming down off and on. We drove the 4×4 road to the main road and camped at on the Hidden Splendor airstrip. Around 7pm the rain really started to come down it rained all night. We stressed all night wondering if we would even be able to drive out. The muddy seemed a bit to high to cross and hike into Chimney Canyon so we bailed out the Hidden Splendor area at 7am. The roads were VERY muddy, we were in 4wd with white knuckles all the back to paved roads.
