Bob and myself headed up the mountains for a spot of mid-week canyoning. The weather was not particularly good – quite cold, misty with some drizzle. So we kept on heading west and out into the Gardens of Stone where most of the canyons are fairly dry.
After parking the car we set off along a fire trail that went out a pleasant ridge. The plateau was a fairly open woodland and there seemed an abundance of hyacinth orchids that were in flower.
We soon arrived at the top of the canyon and set off down it. The canyon is quite narrow. It followed the path of a joint controlled slot and then all of a sudden it changes course for a short way and then follows a parallel slot. The first slot had a short abseil and a tricky climb down section. There were a few pools – but we took off our shoes and waded across.
The second slot also had some pools but these were very easy to bridge.
The canyon ended at the major cliff line with another abseil that took us to the base of the cliffs. From here it was a short walk to another slot that provided an easy passage back onto the plateau.
We then wandered around the tops a bit. First we checked out both the exit slot and the canyon slots and then went out to a nearby point for lunch.
The last part was to walk back along the firetrail back to the car.
More photos are on my website here.
Lightning strike
The canyon we visited on the day lies in the Gardens of Stone National Park. But there are other canyons nearby, within the Gardens of Stone, that are not in the park. The park needs to be expanded to protect there amazing places. One alternative is coal mining and then the resulting subsidence – which is not good for pagodas and canyons!
