Head east out of the town of Escalante about 9.5 miles on highway 12 until you reach mile post 70. The old Sheffield road goes off on the east side of the highway here, right on a bend.

Approach (1 hours)
From the trailhead, go due east, around the prominent butte visible from the trailhead. When around the corner, it is easy to scramble up to the top of the hill. Once on top, the route finding fun begins. There seems to be a multitude of game trails and intermittent human trails heading in a variety of directions. Stay on them when possible to avoid damaging the crypto.

To reach the canyon, look for the mountain range in the far distance to the north east. A pyramid peak with a big saddle to its right is the direction to head. (Mt. Ellen is the peak to the right of the saddle, just a few feet taller than the pyramid peak.) As you head in that direction, keep an eye out for a prominent wash heading east, and follow it to the West Fork of Red Breaks. If you reach Red Breaks too low or high, and can't find a reasonable place to cross, follow the rim up canyon or down canyon until an easy crossing is found.

Cross the upper west fork, and continue slightly north east for 5-10 minutes until the next fork is encountered. This is the fork to descend, rim walk up canyon until an easy entry is found.

Canyon (2-3 hours)
Let the fun begin! Heading down canyon, a dryfall is quickly encountered. The canyon is wide here, and there are a couple of options for bypassing the first dryfall on its left side. Just below this, the canyon begins to narrow and offers a downclimb before narrowing even more at a boulder section. Pass the boulder section by squeezing under (if your small enough and don't mind mouse droppings) or down climbing it on the left.

The canyon becomes deep, dark, and sinous. Stunning! Work down canyon through amazing narrows until it quickly opens before the confluence with the main fork and has an 8 m ( 27 ft. ) drop into a likely pool. This is the single rappel in the canyon. Below the rappel, the main canyon becomes wide and colorful. Follow it down with easy walking for 20-30 minutes (1 mile) until the west fork comes in on the right. It is guarded by an impassable dryfall.

Just down canyon from the dryfall and around the corner is a 4th class scramble on the right to get on the bench and above the dryfall, or continue down canyon a bit further to a well used social trail that gets you to the same place. Drop back to the canyon floor.

Heading up the west fork, it is wide and easy going before reaching the first of many boulder challenges blocking the canyon. All of these yield easily to a little climbing ability or team work. The higher you go, the deeper and narrower the canyon gets. Stunning!

Exit (1 hour)
When the canyon finally opens a bit and becomes easier, a dryfall may require backtracking and scrambling around it on the right (looking up canyon). This is just below the crossing marked on the map. Re-trace your approach route back to the trailhead.