A fairly easy day was called for, so we chose to check out Upper Harris Wash, with the famous Zebra and Tunnel slots, as shown in Kelsey's Colorado Plateau book.This area can also be accessed from the Old Sheffield Road down Bighorn Canyon, as shown in Allen's Escalante book.

• Zebra And Tunnel Slot Canyons
• Zebra And Tunnel Slot Canyon Trails

Overview

• Hiking trip report, map, and photos for Zebra and Tunnel Slot Canyons, located in Grand Staircase - Escalante National Monument, Utah. This is a 6.7 mile loop hike with 500 cumulative feet of elevation gain that takes about 3-5 hours to complete.
• Zebra Slot Canyon is a very short slot canyon, named for its striped canyon walls. It’s a gorgeous spot, maybe not quite as pretty as Antelope Canyon in Arizona, but since you can explore this on your own without a guide or tour group, it’s more fun. Hiking Zebra Slot Canyon can be a little tricky.
• The Zebra Slot Canyon gets very narrow in parts, so it does take some skill to climb thru and navigate the slot. If you are interested in making the hike a little longer and seeing another interesting slot canyon, you can hike thru Zebra Slot and the loop around to the Tunnel Slot Canyon. However, you should be aware that the Tunnel Slot Canyon.
• Zebra is a short, but fun slot canyon to hike up. It is very narrow in parts and requires a tiny bit of scrambling before if eventually ends at a large dry fall. If you are interested in seeing Tunnel, go back to Harris Wash, take a left, and follow it about a half-mile or so to a small wash coming off to your left.

Zebra and Tunnel Slot are both unique and distinct spots. Often photographed, Zebra lives up to its name with amazing pink stripes. Tunnel Slot, as the name implies, is a short section of slot resembling a tunnel.

Bring your camera and the kids, this is a great family outing. The hike is reasonably short, with straightforward navigation. Though it can be brutally hot in the summer, it is still do-able with an early morning start or visiting in the evening. My preference is to visit in the fall or winter.

Getting There

Head east out of the town of Escalante about 5 miles on highway 12 until the well signed Hole in the Rock road.

• Turn onto the Hole In The Rock Road and reset your odometer. ( 12S 453596mE 4175370mN / N37° 43' 28' W111° 31' 36' )
• Go 8 miles to just after a cattle guard. The trailhead on the south side of the road. This is 0.2 miles before Halfway Hollow. ( 12S 460697mE 4165897mN / N37° 38' 22' W111° 26' 44' )

Route

From the trailhead, cross the road and find a well-traveled hikers path on the north side of the road near the cattle guard. Follow this north while it meanders its way down to Halfway Hollow. The trail is well defined and well cairned. It will take 40-50 minutes to reach the bottom of Halfway Hollow. Near the bottom, the trail cuts left over low meanders and heads directly for Zebra. Follow it, crossing Harris Wash, and heading for the first obvious side canyon.

Zebra is wide open where it joins Harris Wash, but becomes deeper and narrower within 10 minutes of heading up it. Where it narrows, you may encounter a few pools from ankle to waist deep. 15 minutes up the canyon you will enter the short, but amazing Zebra section that ends at a small dryfall you can upclimb. This is the best section of Zebra. Above the small dryfall is a large pothole and the canyon opens. Head back down to Harris Wash when finished.

To reach Tunnel Slot, go down Harris Wash a little less than a mile (20-30 minutes) from Zebra to the first side canyon coming in on the left. Go up this side canyon about 10 minutes to reach the Tunnel. It can be dry, or a deep pool.

Return up Harris Wash to Halfway Hollow and follow the trail back to the trailhead.

Videos

Maps

Added by Leo Xu

6.6 miles round trip, you can see the most amazing slot canyon just outside of Escalante!

This place is just outside of Escalante, Utah, about 6 miles drive down the Hole in the Rock Road / BLM 200. You will see a small parking lot on the right side, the trailhead is not marked, but it's right cross the road from parking lot, once you see the trail you can just easily follow it for 1.9 miles until you hit a big dried up creek. Go left to Zebra slot canyon, go right to Tunnel slot canyon.

Tunnel Slot Canyon: When you reach the Creek, turn right, about 0.8 mile the canyon will be on your left side, you'd better pull out the GPS on the phone or it's very easy to miss it, it was flooded when I was there, so I didn't go in the tunnel.

Zebra Slot Canyon: When you reach the Creek, turn left, hike along the creek for 0.5 miles and you'll see the canyon. It was waist deep water when I was there, but I still waded in and it was freezing. The canyon is super narrow; I'm 5'7', 135lbs, and I had a hard time moving forward in some spots. Be prepared for some scratches.

If it's raining or there are flood warnings please do not enter the slot canyons.

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Reviews

Crystal Sibson

Zebra And Tunnel Slot Canyons

🥇Top Contributor

2 months ago

Nice Hike

The hike to the slot canyons is very exposed and sandy. Be sure to bring a lot of water. Once you reach the slots be prepared to wade through cold murky water than can be waist deep or deeper. Zebra slot canyon becomes very narrow very fast. To get further back into the canyon you will need to do some stemming up the canyon walls.

5.0

Andreas Slette

🥈 Contributor

over 3 years ago

Rad

Amazing and gorgeous slot. Was much less busy than nearby spooky and peek-a-boo slots when i visited, which made it a special experience in my book. water was cool but not deep and worth the wading. Tunnel slot is also cool, but short (you can see straight through it) and was full of water. It is quite a contrast to zebra.

5.0

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Zebra And Tunnel Slot Canyon Trails

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