Reaching the Famous Gap: Jeeping the Rugged Slickrock to the Hole in the Rock (Pt. 2)

Описание: This is a story about the route taken by the Hole-in-the-Rock Expedition in 1879-1880 to settle the San Juan River area in southeastern Utah. Faced with difficult terrain across rugged slick rock bluffs and canyons, they carved a passage, known as the “Hole-in-the-Rock," through a sandstone cliff to cross the Colorado River.

Previously, Part One focused on the portion of the route between Escalante Utah and 50 Mile Springs Camp which turned out to be the easiest portion of the journey. Part One is available on my channel if you haven’t viewed that part yet.

This video, Part Two, will continue from the 50 Mile Springs Camp to the actual Hole-in-The-Rock passage which leads down to the Colorado River (now Lake Powell).

While this portion of the route only covers approximately 10 miles between 50 Mile Springs and the Colorado River, the settlers left behind the relatively easier travel across high desert rangelands and began encountering the rugged slick rock terrain and bluffs which, unbeknownst to them at the time, characterized much of the remainder of their full journey.

Early scouts identified two possible “gaps” in which to descend through the cliffs to the river. The southerly gap which became known as “Hole-in-the-Rock" was chosen for several reasons including what they thought would be the best location to cross the river once they descended down from the higher plateau. The original gap was reportedly a narrow, steep crevice in the canyon rim, which they had to improve and widen to allow for sufficient passage for their wagons and livestock. 

I use the term “sufficient” and not “safe” because lowering the wagons, livestock, and settlers down the almost mile descent proved to be treacherous. Blasting powder and hand chisels were used to widen the upper section and create anchor points in the sandstone. 

Small diameter poles were inserted into the anchor points and vertical structures were constructed along those anchor poles so that the debris from the blasting would collect between the poles and the natural rock face on each side of the gap. This was done to lessen the steep grade down the natural gap while also minimizing the amount of blasting necessary to widen the floor of the natural gap. In a sense, the settlers basically developed an elevated platform along a portion of the gap to flatten out the descent.

Even with that, surviving journal and diary entries describe very scary descents using ropes to tie up the axles of the wagons which allowed them to somewhat control the speed of the descent down to the river’s edge.

Finally, after almost three months of effort, on January 26, 1880, the first wagons descended the passage to the Colorado River below.

I developed this channel to chronicle my adventures in my Jeep Wrangler exploring trails and offroad locations throughout the western united states. I enjoy exploring remote locations which are rarely, if ever visited, always looking for remote locations that I imagine no other human has ever visited. If you are interested in remote trails, historical routes, ghost towns, abandoned mining camps, beautiful desert and mountain scenery, then this is a channel for you.

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