AUGUST 2013
 |
| NEAR THE BEGINNING OF THE NARROWS |
 |
| RAP 1 INTO A SHALLOW POOL |
 |
| WATERY NARROWS |
 |
| RAP 2 FROM ABOVE |
 |
| RAP 2 FROM BELOW |
 |
| DEEP WATERY NARROWS |
 |
| SWIMMING SECTION |
Cheesebox Canyon is a fun but desolate hike. It is in a very isolated region of southern Utah in the vicinity of Fry Canyon. To get to it you will take an unmarked dirt road coming off of the north side of the 95. The road is a little rough. I made it in a Corolla, but I remember being a little nervous driving some of the rocky sections. I arrived at Cheesebox the night before I hiked it and set my tent up along the road, just above the exit point of the canyon. There is no signage of any kind along the road, so you will want to use a GPS to make sure you are in the right place. I remember it being extremely windy that night and needing to put large rocks in the corners of the tent to get it to stay down.
In the morning I hiked up the dirt road to the entry point and worked my way down to the canyon floor. It is a pretty steep climb down to the bottom, and I remember it taking me a while to find a safe path down. Just after arriving at the bottom of the canyon, I found a small Anasazi ruin located in an alcove. After a while the canyon will slot up and you will enter the narrows. The hike requires three rappels total and several deep, watery narrow sections. I like to play it safe when I hike solo, so I wore a wetsuit and a life jacket, and stuffed several plastic balls in my pack to make sure it would float. I was really glad I had the life jacket as portions of the narrows were so deep I couldn't touch the bottom, yet so narrow I could barely move my arms. Being able to just float through the narrow sections without having to swim was a big help.
Eventually the canyon opens up and there is a point you can scramble up the canyon wall to get out. I hiked this canyon in August and had the entire area to myself. The only other life I saw were some large ravens that tracked me towards the end of the hike.
