In this episode, we hike the Cathedral Wash Slot Canyon near Lees Ferry, and finish the
day by dipping our feet in the mighty Colorado River at Pariah Beach.
Good morning.
We are off on an adventure this morning.
I'm sounding more chipper than I feel I think.
I'm excited, but it's early, and we're gonna try something a little bit different this
morning.
Usually we have breakfast before we go.
Today we're gonna stick it in our cold bag and take it with us in the truck so we can
get a move on.
We didn't make it very far before Kevin realized he had forgotten his wallet.
Luckily we did not get any further.
There he comes.
Success?
Success.
Or was it in your pocket the whole time?
Oh no, it was in my pocket, just wrong set of pants.
All right now, that we're underway, we're gonna get breakfast passed out.
So then we'll have saved that time that it normally takes for breakfast in our house
which takes way too long.
All right Klara.
All right Nathan.
So where are we headed to this fine morning?
We're headed over to the Cathedral Wash trailhead down by Lees Ferry.
It's supposed to be just an absolutely beautiful slot canyon.
And if you're familiar with it you're probably wondering to yourself why on earth are you
taking kids to Cathedral Wash.
Because we don't plan on doing the whole thing.
From what we read it can be quite difficult with rock scrambling that you need to do and
different areas climbing up and down, especially to stay out of any pools of water there may
be.
And there are drop-offs and so on.
So we're just going to check it out to see how far we feel like it's safe for us to do,
but to check it out because it's right here, why not.
It's also just supposed to be amazing, so...
We don't want to miss it.
Yeah.
And I think we can get at least halfway in from the sounds of it which is where a lot
of the really neat views are going to be.
Apparently if you make it all the way to the river that's the Colorado River and you're
then officially in Grand Canyon National Park which is really neat.
So I'm not exactly sure where that boundary starts so we'll see if we see any signs as
we go.
Maybe we'll be in Grand Canyon today or not.
I don't think we'll make it that far.
We've made it to our destination, the start of the Cathedral Wash hike.
It is three miles round trip.
And we're gonna start by going down into the wash and through a tunnel under the road it
looks like.
Yep.
Okay, so look I did not know there were two: Upper Cathedral into Vermilion Cliffs and
Lower Cathedral into Grand Canyon.
Huh.
We might have to come back and do that one too, or we don't make it very far this way
and then we go that way.
We're not even very far down the trail yet and this is already spectacular.
Even if we don't make it very far, like just the beginning area is so neat looking.
With this kind of energy maybe we will make it to the end.
Unless they use it all up right here.
Yeah.
We make it around the corner and then we have to turn around.
Here we have to start doing some climbing.
It's changed pretty drastically already.
This is really neat.
I can only imagine what this must be like when there's water in here.
I think personally for our situation with young kids this is the ideal situation because
we don't have to scramble up trying to avoid water.
We just walk straight through here.
So far.
Every time you come around a bend it just gets better and better.
I thought maybe we'd have more shade down here especially this early, but no.
It's quite hot already.
We're gonna shed some layers.
I love this!
I'm just so happy being here.
This place is amazing.
I mean obviously the further you go the taller the walls get.
It's just, it just gets better and better and better.
What do you think so far?
I'm loving it.
It's not as difficult as I worried it might be from the pictures I saw, from people's
descriptions.
So far so good.
Let's see some more.
So we decided against this route.
That doesn't look like something we want to do with kids.
But I think there's a better way over
here.
Does this look doable?
Oh yeah.
The kids aren't gonna make this.
So we hit our first tricky part here.
This looks like not real easy with little kids.
So I'm gonna climb up and around and see if there's an alternate way.
I climbed ahead and checked possible routes on both sides.
Climbing this way seemed to be the easiest.
The climb up was fairly easy, a flat walk across the top, and an even easier climb down
on the other side.
First obstacle down.
Back to easy street here.
Thankfully it has gotten easier again.
It would have been unfortunate if we had done all that to come around the corner to find
something even more impassable.
But we, we did meet um a couple of other nice folks who went ahead of us so we kind of brainstormed
all together what the best route would be.
And they went, and I, I would think if there was something bad around the corner they would
have yelled back don't bring the kids.
So.
Yeah.
Like a giant man-eating snake or something.
So how you feeling about this hike so far?
Good.
I'm really confident that we can keep going at least a little ways.
I know I'm kind of hoping that maybe some of the reviews people talk about how difficult
parts of it are because of the water level.
Because so far that last obstacle, I could see how that might be a little bit hairy and
might get a review like that, but so far so good.
I think we can keep this up.
I'm hoping that uh we can make it further than we thought we would.
We'll see what's around the corner, but yeah so far I think that's the biggest thing is
getting one child past an obstacle and then finding a good spot for them to sit and being
able to trust them enough to actually stay there and not wander.
They're doing a pretty good job so far today.
Onward.
Let's do it.
Well.
I don't want to say this, but I think this might be the end of the road for us.
Right, right when we are saying it was all looking really good.
That's a long drop off.
All right we are sitting having a snack while Kevin goes and scopes out the next obstacle.
I'm leaning towards no with the kids, but he's going to see what he thinks.
What's the verdict?
I really really want to say yes.
And while I think it's possible, it's just not a good idea.
Nope.
Not with kids.
Good.
Glad you feel the same way.
I'll come back up.
I made it back up.
I hate to pull the plug on an adventure, but it is just the smart thing to do at this point.
There's there's really no safe way to get the kids down it.
For an adult this is probably the part where it starts to get tough.
There was another couple here a minute ago, and they they turned around because they didn't
want to do the climb.
And I don't blame them.
It's, I climbed down.
I jogged down a little ways.
It gets even taller and even narrower.
And it just looks gorgeous down there.
So, if you get down here past the halfway point, and you feel comfortable doing this
part and can do it safely, it looks beautiful to continue so I think this and other more
technical canyons are definitely on our list for the future.
But you know we've, we've shown you a beautiful part of it even if you just do a portion.
Yeah.
It's worth it if you're out here.
Yeah.
So.
Yeah don't, don't come in here thinking that you'd have to do the entire thing.
If you want to come do this hike, and you don't want to do the rock scrambling, you
don't have to.
It's gorgeous down here.
Absolutely worthwhile.
Come and see it.
I think we'll just sit here and rest a little, and then, and then we'll head back.
So stay tuned because there are a couple more things here to do at Lees Ferry that we're
going to show you.
Either way we're going to see the river today.
Even if it's not here.
Not here.
So we're on our way back up Cathedral Wash.
Nathan's telling me he's tired, which I don't blame him.
He also said that he wishes he could snap his fingers and we would be back at the truck.
So we're going to give it a try.
You ready?
Uh huh.
Snap our fingers.
Yeah ready?
One two three.
Wow!
We made it back.
We stopped at the Balanced Rock Wayside to check out the impressive balanced rocks that
towered over us and beautiful views of the Vermillion Cliffs, past the campground we
showed you last week, to the Lees Ferry Historic District and boat ramp.
Here people often park to hike into Pariah Canyon-Vermillion Cliffs Wilderness or launch
their boats down into the Colorado River for a trip into Grand Canyon.
Our last stop was Pariah Beach.
I said we might be in Grand Canyon National Park today.
We didn't make it down to the river through Cathedral Wash, but we are here at Pariah
Beach.
And we're going to sit by the river here, in Grand Canyon National Park.
Pariah Beach makes the perfect after hike cool off.
The water is super cold.
By the shore it's a little bit warmer but still really nice.
Definitely come check out everything here at Lees Ferry.
So thanks for joining us today on our adventures, and we'll see you next time.
Bye.
This coming week we'll have a couple shorts on visiting Navajo Bridge and Marble Canyon.
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See you soon.
Ooh it smells.
Smell it.
You make it sound like it smells bad when you say it like that.