Secret Slot Canyon

Big Bend is a big park.  It is a landscape photographers dream.  It is seldom visited and it is truly the end of the road.

There are many neat things to see.  There is also much that is hidden within plain sight.  There are three huge, world class canyons in Big Bend- Santa Elena, Mariscal, and Boquillas.  Two of the three are easy to access.  All can be floated.

But there are others.

Places off the map.

Places few know about.

Over the years I have found two such canyons.  Canyons that would be major attractions in most other parks.

But amongst all that is her....there are lost and hidden.

These images are from a secret little slot canyon.  

A little canyon that is just a 100 yards or so long, yet fairly narrow and twisty.  A place that is neat to explore and try to photograph.  It is not a slot canyon in the true sense of those in Utah with the light spilling down a deep narrow place.  It is very narrow for Texas with some great geology.

A few years ago I was looking at Google Earth at different area in Big Bend and saw what looked like a crack.  I was not totally sure what it would be like in person but it looked like it might be a narrow canyon.

I gathered a few friends and asked if they wanted to go explore what might be a slot canyon.  They were intrigued but I made no promises, telling them it might be neat or it might be nothing.  Regardless with thought the hike would be fun.

We had to do a little hiking and scrambling but sure enough we looked down ito a little slot canyon.  We had to then find a way down into it.  That took a little searching but we made it.

What we found was a truly neat little slot canyon.

While I am sure others have been here, I have never seen an image from here before and it has never been mentioned in any guidebook either.

That unknown quality adds to the charm and the call of a spot like this.

I have been back a few times now (even at night) slot Canyon at Night

This last fall I spent a few hours one morning in the canyon, looking for images and enjoying the cool shadowy recesses of it from the warm October sunshine.

I worked several different sections of the canyon, always looking for curves, overhangs, and neat looking rocks.

I really like the geology here.

It was easy to walk the length of it and still stop many times for images.  Every time is different in a place like this and everytime I seem to find some new spot or angle to make an image.

After a few hours I had a few I liked and I made my way back out into the sun and then off to the shade of camp and a cold bottle of Gatorade.