Tranquille Canyon has a number of rugged wonders, but many of them are hard to get to.   The slot canyons require a steep hike down and any exploration will involve some scrambling.   The gorge lies below Mt. Wheeler and Red Plateau.   There were no trails until recently but now there are the beginnings of a faint single track that takes us down for 1km to a spot between the north and south slot canyons.

We have traversed both slot canyons, wading in the water and scrambling through, but in early April, the water is too cold and the water is too deep.  The best time to traverse the slots is in the middle of summer.

We crossed the chilly creek and scrambled up and over a hill to the north end of the north slot, then continued upstream to a small creek which we followed up to a series of waterfalls.

The series of waterfalls comes from Wheeler Mountain, the longest of which was estimated at about 90 feet.   The falls will go dry in late summer, but in early spring we were happy to have a stop at the bottom of one the cascades.

All around the slots are black ragged towers overlooking the slot canyons.

On our explorations of the area we spotted hoodoos, lava flow features, cave pockets, shale slopes and fossil imprints, agates, and canyons carved by springmelt floods.   All travel in the area requires fording the creek, scrambling up and down steep slopes, and some careful hiking on sideslopes.   Our thanks to Paul and Ernie for taking us on some new routes in the area.

More information:

• Tranquille Slot Canyons