Upper Black Dragon Wash
Our first canyon was the Upper Black Dragon Wash which is a wash, not a slot canyon, but an easy technical canyon for beginners. Just off the I-70 viewpoint. We saw some folks in wetsuits who had just come from the canyon. I think we might have dropped in too quickly (ie we should have hiked up higher before dropping in) because we started at rappel #3 which was over two pools. It took us a lot longer than it should have. We did have to review our screenshots of "how to rappel using a belay device" especially since I initially had Leo use his device (which is newer, and has the friction grooves) backwards. You have to walk through a lot of pools and we got pretty slimy. I'd swear one of those pools was filled with quicksand because it wasn't letting go of me. The boys had brought water shoes and I was doing the whole canyon in approach shoes and just allowing them to get wet.
On rappel #4, it took a LONG time to find the anchor. It's really high and to the right. We were worried our 100 ft rope wasn't long enough but managed fine. It was a short canyon - you climb out when you can see the viewpoint lights, and you can walk around the fence. It did take us 3.5 hours, because we were slow and had never rappelled by ourselves before. Anyway, it was a super fun and easy canyon - next time we'll try to walk higher and get all of it!
The best camping is down by Goblin Valley State Park. The park is great because it has showers. Unfortunately, they no longer have ice cream, which was a real bummer. The park fills up though so you can camp right off the park in the BLM land if you can manage the sandy dirt road which is pretty bumpy, even when you're not towing a camper.
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