There were several Ranger led hikes in the park and this one sounded exciting and borderline dangerous. After a few moments talking to the Ranger who showed pictures of the more strenuous parts of the hike Nancy begged off but encouraged Dave who eagerly jumped at the chance for the “3 hour tour”.  

The Fiery Furnace is a labyrinth of tall rock formations so tightly woven together that you can get lost in the maze if you didn’t know the way.

Dave ready for the adventure

Ranger/guide

The Ranger led us down the trail which was very steep.  At the bottom we stopped and she gave one of four different talks about the area, rock formations, plants and animals.

Showing how to scramble down the cliff

One of the many short slot canyons

We all entered a large bowl shaped area with walls all around us.  The Ranger showed us a key hole and said we could crawl through it or walk around and meet on the other side.  I watched as half of the party went up the narrow ridge and climbed through the hole.  I finally made up my mind to go through, thinking “when am I ever going to have the chance to do this again?” So up and through I went.  I had to remove my back pack to fit through the key hole. On the other side the narrow trail led pretty much straight down!  See photos below.

Key hole slot that Dave crawled through

Other side of the key hole looking down

I was very glad that I did it.

There were many times that the entire party was strung out along the trail.  The terrain was very difficult for someone unsure of themselves or who was afraid of heights.  The lady in the center of the photo above had several problems.  The man to the right was there to catch her if she fell.  One person did fall crossing one of the large boulders.

As you can see from the photo above a person could get lost in the chasms.

One of the best scrambles

The photo above shows the end of the best scramble where we first slid down a rock to start crab walking with hands pushing off the rock face in front of us and our feet holding us on the other side of the empty drop off that you see above.  When we got to the end the little canyon narrowed enough to turn putting one foot on either side of the canyon allowing us to carefully step down.  This is not a place to twist an ankle!

Rest stop

Pool at the rest stop where animals enjoyed a drink

Arch in huge cavern

The area of the Fiery Furnace was beautiful.  The color of the rock and the different formations were almost overwhelming.  The Ranger led tour was simply fantastic!