Hi Max,

Unfortunately, I do not have coordinates for the location. The route from the Golden Dome to the top of that gully/chimney we descended (there’s a photo of it in this story, above) was across open terrain, as I recall, and I’m not sure it would be easy to find without knowing that route (as Steve obviously did). But at the bottom of it, after our rappels, we were a short walk from the exit trail, which is also a very nice hike.

Good luck and safe travels.

Thanks a lot for those details, Michael. We may be joined by some family members, and I’ll definitely keep Steve and Jen in mind.

One last question about the gulley/slot you chose for your descent down to the trail: was it the one located at approximately 38.21376356,-111.18004254?

Hi Max,

Thanks for the question. My family did indeed dayhike the route you’re asking about, although in the opposite direction because we rappelled over a couple of short cliffs that would be difficult to climb even for rock climbers. I’ll try to provide as much detail as I can, although this will not be a description adequate for navigating because I’m going from memory.

Under the Off-Trail Dayhike sub-head above, this story describes our dayhike with my friend Steve Howe, who runs Redrock Adventure Guides. The story gives more details, but we started out by hiking from the end of the park’s Scenic Drive into Capitol Gorge. After walking 30 minutes down Capitol Gorge, we turned onto The Tanks Trail, ascending steeply a quarter-mile to rock basins filled with water.

Then we left the trail behind, hiking off-trail uphill with some third-class scrambling, following Steve on a route that honestly would be hard to describe. At one point, we scrambled up a steep slope of loose, shifting talus blocks, traversed a sidewalk-like ledge across a cliff, and wriggled our way up a flaring groove in stone (see the photo above with my son in the foreground).

We reached a high pass overlooking a valley lined by white and golden cliffs and spires known as Blow Sand Canyon. We hiked generally west to its upper end and the base of the massive dome called the Golden Throne. Without rappelling skills and gear, you’d have to retrace your steps from there. We continued beyond and eventually descended a gully of loose rock that narrowed into a tight slot where we made two rappels, the first about 12 feet over blocks of stone jammed in between the slot’s walls, followed by a 25-foot rappel over a cliff. Just beyond the bottom of that cliff, we picked up the Golden Throne Trail and hiked the two miles down that trail.

My recommendation is that you contact Steve and Jen at Redrock Adventure Guides and do this hike (and perhaps others) with them. It’s well worth it.

Check out also this story about a three-day, off-trail traverse of Capitol Reef that Steve guides. Killer trip.

If you contact Steve and Jen, tell them I sent you and hello from me.

Good luck. I love Capitol Reef.

I’ll note that we’re canyoneers but not really climbers, so anything class 4 or more might be bit spicy for us. Conversely, rappelling down from the Golden Throne to the trail would be fine if you know of a good place to do that.

Thanks.

Thanks for the recommendation, Lynn. Isn’t that place in Torrey? I think local friends of mine there have recommended it to me as well.