Potholy Grail
Interesting spot with many dozen potholes of all shapes and sizes. This is a great option for when all other canyons in the area are a no-go due to weather.
Not a canyon, a pothole practice ground, and that is the whole appeal: Feroz found it by reading LiDAR after a November 2023 trip got rained out. The approach is a quarter mile and about ten minutes of walking up slickrock, 150 feet of gain, from a high clearance road. Because the potholes are not fed by a real drainage, flash flooding is not the hazard; the hazard is that some are over thirty feet deep to the lowest lip and are genuinely inescapable without the right tools and technique, which is what the PG rating is doing there. Do not put a whole group into one hole unless every person in it can get back out. It gets windy in there. Good use of a day when weather has shut the real canyons down.
Logistics
| Manager | BLM Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument |
|---|---|
| Permit | Monument wide rule, not a canyon specific finding. BLM requires a free permit for all overnight stays anywhere in Grand Staircase-Escalante, self issued at developed trailheads or at the Escalante, Cannonville, Kanab and Big Water visitor centers. Day use by a private party requires no permit: BLM issues Special Recreation Permits for commercial use, competitive events, organized groups and recreation events, none of which covers a private party descending a canyon. The lottery permits BLM lists alongside the monument, Coyote Buttes North and Paria Canyon, are Vermilion Cliffs units administered from Kanab and do not apply here. |
| Technical | 0-Many rappels, longest 100ft |
| Vehicle access | High Clearance |
| Coordinates | 37.2875, -111.02816 |