Egypt 3 is a relatively unknown canyon in the Escalante country.  It combines all the marvels of Spooky, Peek-a-Boo, and Brimstone into one, with wet potholes and a rappel thrown in for spice.  It goes and goes.  The sandstone is smooth, the sandstone is studded, the sandstone dips and rolls and barnstorms.  It balloons and constricts and drops.

I met up with Jim Turner, a guy Mike Painter and I met on the back side of the San Rafael Reef.  Jim is an indomitable hiker and a skilled and conservative climber.  We also hiked down to Neon canyon and up to the Golden Cathedral, and canyoneered Ringtail canyon.  We didn't shoot Neon because we'd read that it should be attempted only by teams of four or more, but when we met folks who did it the day before, they couldn't see why this recommendation should apply.  Canyons change with every good rain is probably the answer.

The very beginning of Egypt 3.
 

Jim and that damn helmet we dragged through the canyon.  The sunglasses miraculously rode on his head through the whole thing.
 

There were several places where a person weighing 200 pounds or more (or a reasonably endowed woman) just wouldn't fit (without much tearing of flesh) or would become seriously stuck.
 

...this section, for example.  Note the walls studded with sandstone inclusions.
 

...

Swimming a pothole.  The water was FREEZING.  And then there's that lip at the far end that needs to be scaled (with mud covered shoes).  This one required two people to exit.  Brrrrr!  Put that camera away and come help me out of here!
 

Deep in Egypt 3 is a wonderland of sandstone.
 

Jim below a log left by a flood.  The water must fill the whole slot in good floods.
 

Water sculpture like you won't find anywhere but the Colorado Plateau.
 

The rappel.  We finally use the helmet, now well battered.
 

The exit of Egypt 3, after a long cold swim through a shoulder-wide slot.  At the start of the swim you cannot see how long the swim will be.  It's cold and dark and echoing, but you emerge into the sunshine of 25 Mile Canyon.
 

Glyphs along the Escalante River, near Neon Canyon.
 

The Golden Cathedral.  The water has worn through the overhang in two stages and now exits through the lower hole/chute.  When this canyon is hiked, the final rappel is a free rappel through that lower hole into the water below, a drop of 40 feet or so with a wet landing.