Travel east out of Capitol Reef National Park on highway 24. Just past the park, 0.25 miles, is the well signed Notom road. Turn right onto the Notom Road and follow it for 13.6 miles to the Sandy Ranch Junction on the left (east) side of the road.

The first challenge is to reach the ridge. From the parking area, head north. I entered a major wash a few minutes from the car that I followed up to a steep dirt gully that eventually reaches the ridge proper. This, on my visit, showed signs of a social trail mostly washed out by summer rains.

Head along the ridge toward Steel Butte. When the ridge reaches a rocky slope heading up to steeper cliffs, look for a cairn near a tree to the north at about the same elevation you are at. The goal is to contour around, finding a more defined trail just around the corner that heads northeast above a drainage and into the headwall of Steele Butte.

From a distance, it may not look like there is a way up the imposing cliffs at the head of the drainage. Once there, begins the slot canyon adventure. A move or two of fourth-class climbing leads into the slot. The slot is gorgeous, and narrow. At 6'1" with a 42" chest, I had to turn sideways but fit easily.

Work up the slot, reaching a large boulder blocking the slot that marks the crux of the route. The left looked easiest to me. Once you start feeling around, you will find many well-defined holds, making this short steep step reasonable. Above the boulder, a couple of forks in the canyon lead to dead ends. Continue up until a dry fall blocks the way ahead, but an easy exit is found on the left (looking up canyon) just before the dry fall. The exit out of the slot is 4th class or easy 5th. Be sure you can recognize it on the way back down. Once above the slot, easy open country leads up to the rim overlooking the Henry Mountains between the two high points of Steel Butte.

The true high point is to the north. Both the north and south summits seem to have relatively easy scrambling routes if you look around. Coming darkness had me cut my trip short of the summit, but the initial scrambling was easy with good route finding.

Return the same way.