SW Utah Canyoneering – Fall 2023
Deb and I we able to pack up the Raven (camper van) and head to the war SW Utah for some much-needed adventure. We spent 3-days technical canyoneering, and 2-days backpacking, and 5-days driving…which can be part of the adventure in itself.
We decided to do the technical canyoneering in the North Wash area. We did 4-canyons…Blarney Left, Blarney Right, Hogwarts, and Morocco Canyon. All fun, mostly dry, and all very tight. The weather was perfect.
Our backpack was one night out. We did Happy Canyon from Burr Point. This was about 14 miles and included a 50’ rappel down and a 50’ prusik up. We also had to pack in all our water. Happy Canyon is definitely a pay to play canyon…but because of the scenic aspect, it was totally worth the price. Also, Happy Canyon is not technical but has a good stretch of narrows. It’s kind of reminiscent of Buckskin Gulch except not nearly as long. The weather was a bit windy at times and no wind at times…which is when the tiny biting bugs were pretty bad.
Fun adventure with my lovely wife, Deb.
Packed and ready to go…
Sunrise somewhere in eastern Oregon…
This happened one evening near where we were parked for the night. Pretty cool to watch…
Camping at the end of Blarney Canyon…
Approach hike, up up up…
Looking down into the canyon we will be dropping…
First rap of the trip…
I’m supposed to go in there?
Ok, here I go!
We don’t need no rope…
Deb stemming a narrow section…
Rapping into the tight narrows…
More stemming…
Wildlife…
The Wood Rat that laid the golden turd…
A clean rap…
Another tight squeeze…
Happy rapper…
Voted most scenic rap of the trip…
Probably the tightest…Had to take packs off and turn sideways…
An approach with some exposure…
Shit!, water…
Hmmm, someone before us didn’t want to get there shoes wet…
Camp above the Dirty Devil River
A late evening phone pic of the full moon over the Dirty Devil Canyon. You can see the river reflecting the moonlight…
This is where the Raven will wait for a couple of days…
After a few miles of old road, we cross-country to the drop into the Dirty Devil Canyon…
The 50′ rappel…and prusik back up.
We left the rope hanging, and buried the harnesses, gear, and water under these rocks for the night.
Now to drop another 600′ of boulder slope.
When you zoom in, it looks like wood chips…
…but really it’s chips of petrified wood.
Looking back at the 600′ boulder slope and 50′ rappel. We’ll be going back up tomorrow…
Random balancing rock, ready to topple into the Dirty Devil Canyon…
Rock crevasses all over the place…
Fancy cairns…
Petrified wood…
We set up camp, now to ascend Happy Canyon after dropping another 600′ to the Dirty Devil Canyon floor…
Entering Happy Canyon…
A very scenic canyon…
Another pile of petrified wood rounds. It looks like the ice age hit just about the time someone was splitting the firewood 🙂 (kidding of course)
Last look down into the Dirty Devil Canyon…
Last morning on the road….
