Wednesday, May 30, 2012

Willis Creek


Willis Creek is a canyon gorge located not far from the tiny town of Cannonville, Utah. I had never been there, but Bill decided that the WINs should go check it out.


It starts out fairly open, but quickly closes to some beautiful narrows.


A small stream flows through the canyon, but it is easy to jump over.


The walls get steeper and steeper.


I took hundreds of pictures in the mile or so that we walked each way.


Lots of them were "butt shots," since I'm always behind.


Afterwards, I wanted to go see another nearby slot canyon called Bull Valley Gorge that I had read about. It's a very narrow and deep slot, and I had no intention of climbing down into it. But I had read a story about the bridge over the canyon and was intrigued.

The attraction was an old pickup that ran off the bridge in 1954, killing the 3 occupants. I could only get a photo of the front bumper and one wheel. After the accident, the bridge was redone by pushing trees and large rocks into the chasm on top of the truck.


Here's a better picture from the bottom of the canyon that I got off the internet.


By this time, everyone was thinking I was a little crazy for wanting to check this out. But on our way back to the cars, who do we run into but the son of the driver of that pickup truck! He had brought some of his family out because it was Memorial Day. He was only 18 months old when his father was killed, and he told us the whole story.


On a lighter note, the WINs had our first men-vs-women fishing tournament. They caught 30 fish - 22 by the women and 8 by the men, so the men had to cook and clean all the fish.


But the women may have cheated just a tad, by making fishing poles for the men, which consisted of a soda can, string, safety pin, and gummy worm.

6 comments:

  1. How interesting to meet the son and hear the real story. And what is wrong with the poles the girls made for the guys? I think that was fair!

    ReplyDelete
  2. OH wow thats unbelievalbe how that car is wedged in there..and amazing that you met the decendant of the driver!!
    SO happy the women won the Fish Off...high five!!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Jim cracked up about the fishing poles. And they still caught 8 fish??? On our way to Kanab in the morning.

    ReplyDelete
  4. An amazing coincidence to meet the son, whats the odds on that? beautiful rock formations and although that stream is now small it did all that work carving the rocks. Whats happened to your sisters posts?

    ReplyDelete
  5. Slot canyons are so cool to explore, but not the way that truck did. Amazing to meet the son and hear the story. Great fishing poles.

    ReplyDelete
  6. wow! Did you walk over that bridge? That's really a strange story. Poor little guy, losing his parents like that.

    ReplyDelete

I love comments!