Southern Utah is synonymous with slot canyons! There are multitudes of individual point-to-point and canyon loops deserving of their own leaderboard! Canyoning/Canyoneering is its own special magic.
Among these multitudes, within Crack Canyon Wilderness Study Area near Goblin Valley State Park, both Crack and Chute Canyons are listed as “Must Do” easy canyons on various Utah Tourism blogs/online guides but it is in the “WOW Guides: Utah Canyon Country” that making a loop of the two is recommended for the “experienced canyon hiker.”
Since this is a loop, it may be run in either direction so long as you complete the loop and finish where you start. It is super easy to google the locations of Chute and/or Crack Canyon Trailheads. Both are found on “Behind The Reef Road”
But here is the original description:
- start at Chute Canyon Trailhead, there is an obvious sign to take a starting photo with, put your hand on the sign and start your watch.
- run “Behind the Reef Road” for 2.1 miles to Crack Canyon Trailhead (obvious sign to take photo with here too)
- run/canyon down Crack Canyon, there are a few downclimbing moves utilizing stemming or short fixed ropes
- at mile 5.74 you will see the very obvious sign for the lower-traffic (read as, easy to lose in places) connector trail to Chute Canyon
- run on this sometimes faded connector trail until it drops you in at the bottom of the narrows of Chute Canyon at mile 8
- run up Chute Canyon until it deposits you back at the Chute Canyon Trailhead sign, tag it and stop your time.
- SMILE about the experience you just had.
For further research:
http://dennis-ernst-blogs.blogspot.com/2017/05/crack-and-chute-canyons.html
https://static1.squarespace.com/static/58d5543e9de4bb1b19e81da4/t/5a00caa5e4966b635303d98e/1510001321655/ChuteCrackLoop.pdf
~submitted by Jason Hardrath
