ZERO GRAVITY CANYON. SAN RAFAEL SWELL, UTAH

May 15, 2016

Zero Gravity Canyon, Utah


After Iron Wash, I wanted to grab one more canyon before the sunset so I drove down to Zero gravity to see what this canyon is all about. It is a bit more north on route 24 from where Iron Wash is located so I got back on the highway and headed do to another high clearance road that took me to the trailhead of Zero Gravity Canyon.

Zero Gravity Canyon, Utah
 This canyon was a bit shorter with regard to the hike in so that was a bonus point or two for this route. The approach actually follows the rim of the canyon back until you hike down into the traffic stop of canyon conduits coming in from all directions.  Once at this point, you start down canyon.
Zero Gravity Canyon, Utah
 This canyon was more of a slab rock lower half heart shape rather than an actual slot canyon which also introduced challenges as I went down stream. First was chimneying out and down a narrow corridor into a deep swim of water back on to the drier and wider canyon
Zero Gravity Canyon, Utah
 Once I got to this point there were some other sections where I had to down climb and chimney into water and swim out with similar results.  There were parts one could escape out of the canyon which is good to know until I got to the place where I had to jump into the water and chimney over to a tall keeper. I was surprised to see how dry and tall this section was so I donned my sky hook and etrier and hooked my way out of this section and continued to swim through some really tall narrows I had to swim on my side in and deep water which made this interesting. I got to the last part and I had to chimney out to the rap anchor and thread my rope though and get on rope while I was in a chimney position to drop through into the final pool and out of the canyon.
Zero Gravity Canyon, Utah
The canyon itself was not that photogenic, IMO and I did not find it particularly interesting, maybe because I have been through hundreds of caves where I have to chimney and go through narrow passages but I can see how this would be a great side canyon on a hot day to cool off in the water and get some more canyon time.  So it is worth a visit in that respect.

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