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Zebra Canyon - Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, Escalante, Utah
Photos by Ian Parker
Ian Parker Photography

   This colorful slot canyon is one of a handful of small ravines cut by tributaries of Utah's Harris Wash. Zebra Slot Canyon - Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, Utah Compared to the vast canyons of the Grand Staircase, these small slot canyons seem insignificant. But small discoveries like these can be quite enjoyable. Crawling through the striped sandstone of Zebra Canyon offers a pleasant break from hiking the unshaded Harris Wash.
   From Escalante's Hole-in-the-Rock Road, a trail along Halfway Hollow leads to Harris Wash. This popular route straightens out most of the riverbed meanders. Head upstream at Harris Wash (northwest) for a quarter mile, there you'll find the streambed that created this natural work of art, Zebra Canyon.
   About 85 years ago, a young Californian, Everett Ruess (ROO-ess) headed down this same Hole-in-the -Rock Road.Zebra Slot Canyon - Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, Utah The sandy-haired kid spent four years wandering the Southwest prior to his arrival at Escalante. Ruess was enthralled with the area and wrote, "I have seen more beauty that I can bare." After his departure from Escalante, Ruess was never seen again. All that remained were theories and Everett's graffiti spread over Davis Gulch.
   Recently, a Navajo legend surfaced, relating a story of a young man being chased by three Utes Natives at Comb Ridge over 80 years ago. A young man, Aneth Nez, witnessed the murder of a young man fitting the description of Ruess. Later in life, a medicine man treating Nez drew out the story, the source of Nez's ailments. Treatment required a lock of hair from body of this young wanderer. Upon hearing the story, Bellson, a grandson of Aneth Nez, began his own investigated into this remarkable Navajo legend and eventually located the remains of a young man nearby Comb Ridge and Chinle Wash.

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