White Canyon is a

canyon A canyon (; archaic British English spelling: ''cañon''), gorge or chasm, is a deep cleft between escarpments or cliffs resulting from weathering and the erosive activity of a river over geologic time scales. Rivers have a natural tendency t ...

in San Juan County,

Utah Utah is a landlocked state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is one of the Four Corners states, sharing a border with Arizona, Colorado, and New Mexico. It also borders Wyoming to the northea ...

, United States.

Description

The canyon is notable for

Ancestral Puebloan The Ancestral Puebloans, also known as Ancestral Pueblo peoples or the Basketmaker-Pueblo culture, were an ancient Native American culture of Pueblo peoples spanning the present-day Four Corners region of the United States, comprising southe ...

cliff dwellings and

slot canyon A slot canyon is a long, narrow channel or drainageway with sheer rock walls that are typically eroded into either sandstone or other sedimentary rock. A slot canyon has depth-to-width ratios that typically exceed 10:1 over most of its length and ...

s. It is spanned by

Sipapu Bridge Sipapu Bridge is a natural bridge or arch located in the Natural Bridges National Monument in central San Juan County, Utah Utah is a landlocked state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. I ...

, one of the largest natural bridges in the world. The canyon begins in the foothills of the Abajo Mountains and passes through Natural Bridges National Monument before emptying into

Lake Powell Lake Powell is a reservoir on the Colorado River in Utah and Arizona, United States. It is a major vacation destination visited by approximately two million people every year. It holds of water when full, second in the United States to only the ...

. Utah State Route 95 parallels the inner gorge of the canyon for much of its length. One particularly deep and narrow section of White Canyon is known as the Black Hole. The walls in this permanently flooded long section are only a few feet (about 1 m) apart in some places. Canyoneers sometimes wear

wetsuit A wetsuit is a garment worn to provide thermal protection while wet. It is usually made of foamed neoprene, and is worn by surfers, divers, windsurfers, canoeists, and others engaged in water sports and other activities in or on the water. ...

s to guard against

hypothermia Hypothermia is defined as a body core temperature below in humans. Symptoms depend on the temperature. In mild hypothermia, there is shivering and mental confusion. In moderate hypothermia, shivering stops and confusion increases. In severe ...

while traversing this section. The danger of

flash flood A flash flood is a rapid flooding of low-lying areas: washes, rivers, dry lakes and depressions. It may be caused by heavy rain associated with a severe thunderstorm, hurricane, or tropical storm, or by meltwater from ice and snow. Flash f ...

ing is very high due to the canyon's large

drainage basin A drainage basin is an area of land in which all flowing surface water converges to a single point, such as a river mouth, or flows into another body of water, such as a lake or ocean. A basin is separated from adjacent basins by a perimeter, ...

. A 16-year-old girl drowned in a flash flood while hiking in the Black Hole area in September 1996.

References

External links

Archaeological sites in Utah Canyons and gorges of Utah Rock art in North America Landforms of San Juan County, Utah Cliff dwellings Petroglyphs in Utah {{Utah-geo-stub

Description

See also

References

External links