This colorful slot canyon is one of a handful of small ravines cut by tributaries of Utah's Harris Wash. Compared to the vast lands of Grand Escalante, 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 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's created this natural work of art, Zebra Canyon.
      Nearly 75 years ago, a young Californian, Everett Ruess (ROO-ess) headed down this same Hole-in-the -Rock Road. 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 nearly 75 years ago. A young 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 the young man killed 75 years ago nearby Comb Ridge and Chinle Wash.

   Rob's GPS Track