Northeast Spur Fork

Saturday, a couple of us went to the Robber’s Roost area. A buddy had Kelsey’s Colorado Plateau hiking book and wanted to hike the Northeast Spur. We left at 8:00 and over a hundred miles later we arrived at the Hans Flat Ranger Station. Instead of going toward the Maze, we went north toward Horseshoe Canyon.

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After 13 miles we arrived at the upper car park. The parking is at the Deadman’s Trail turn.

After the turn, we dropped a car at the Lower Parking next to some juniper trees. But before arriving we had to drive past one rough spot that required 4 wheel drive.

At 12:00 we got back to the upper parking and set off for the slot canyon. We had to head southwest for 800 yds to the start.

There was a little scrambling involved to get into the narrows. The upper slots were awesome and it in some place it got so narrow that we had to take packs off and walk sideways. The narrows lasted for about 3/4 of a mile and then widened to the first exit point.

After the opening the canyon alternates between narrows and wide for 2 miles.

The third or fourth narrows were really dark and awesome.

At the exist, we walked a little farther to the first rappel point and turned around. In Kelsey’s book, he said there was an arch at the rappel point but we couldn’t find it.

The exit was a steep climb out and over half a mile back to the car.

A cool rock at the near the top of the exit route.

We got back to the car after 3 hours of hiking. This canyon was awesome and very fun. We did have to climb down some minor dryfalls but no ropes were necessary. We had a long drive back to Huntington but on the way we saw some wild horses.

Awesome day for a hike, the weather was a bit warm but the shade in the slots was nice.