Photographer: Thomas McGuire

Summary Author: Thomas McGuire

Over the years many Earth Science Picture of the Day has featured slot canyons, remarkable landforms of the Southwestern United States and elsewhere. The slot canyon shown above is unique. In 1954, a highway accident claimed three lives when a pick-up truck tumbled off the road and into Bull Valley Slot Canyon in southern Utah. The arrows on the image point to the truck’s wheels that can still be seen high above the canyon floor.



Skutumpah Road crosses this slot canyon. The canyon is so narrow that boulders were wedged into the top of the canyon to support the rock-fill bridge seen from above in the second photo. You might find it unusual that a bridge needs to be pointed out when photographed from only a few meters away. To show the location my wife Elaine is standing at the middle of the bridge and nearly 200 ft (60 m) directly above Bull Valley Slot's deep floor.

[3/19]ARC3/17/2019