kugath
05-29-2012, 04:15 PM
Granary, Corona & Pleiades Trip Report
Made our way down to the Moab area this past week for a few canyons…quite windy in the area to say the least. Ate a lot of sand and enjoyed views of thick clouds of sand blowing about.
Started off with Granary on Thursday…did 9 of the 10 possible rappels…great canyon to practice rappels and releasable anchors. Knee deep water at the Pothole with the tree…avoidable but a nice place to soak on a hot day. The rest of the canyon was completely dry. We were surprised that the oil platform which served as the trailhead is now completely gone…they did a nice job moving dirt around and disguising the fact that it was ever there. Not sure if this is old news at this point but it has happened within the last 2 years when we last visited.
Friday we headed to Corona Arch for a fun little rappel. Been hiking to the Arch for 10 or 11 years and rappelling it since the anchors were first put in…never have I seen so many people in the area. After waiting our turn for 4.5 hours we finally had our chance. While waiting we enjoyed rapping off some fairly new chains placed on the way over to Bow Tie Arch…a 190’ rap.
Decided to escape the windy desert so we headed for the La Sals. The La Sals were equally windy but a little less sandy. We carefully set up camp trying to avoid laying out our sleeping bags under any “widowmakers”…we heard several crashing in the night. A large 18 inch Aspen blocked the road Saturday morning just prior to the Pleiades trailhead. Pleiades was flowing around 3 CFS. There is a large and interesting Ice sculpture after the first rap…more ice in the cave further on down…but clear from there on. After a few laps we headed north escaping the wild winds of Moab!
A few artsy HDR pics from the trip!
sk
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Made our way down to the Moab area this past week for a few canyons…quite windy in the area to say the least. Ate a lot of sand and enjoyed views of thick clouds of sand blowing about.
Started off with Granary on Thursday…did 9 of the 10 possible rappels…great canyon to practice rappels and releasable anchors. Knee deep water at the Pothole with the tree…avoidable but a nice place to soak on a hot day. The rest of the canyon was completely dry. We were surprised that the oil platform which served as the trailhead is now completely gone…they did a nice job moving dirt around and disguising the fact that it was ever there. Not sure if this is old news at this point but it has happened within the last 2 years when we last visited.
Friday we headed to Corona Arch for a fun little rappel. Been hiking to the Arch for 10 or 11 years and rappelling it since the anchors were first put in…never have I seen so many people in the area. After waiting our turn for 4.5 hours we finally had our chance. While waiting we enjoyed rapping off some fairly new chains placed on the way over to Bow Tie Arch…a 190’ rap.
Decided to escape the windy desert so we headed for the La Sals. The La Sals were equally windy but a little less sandy. We carefully set up camp trying to avoid laying out our sleeping bags under any “widowmakers”…we heard several crashing in the night. A large 18 inch Aspen blocked the road Saturday morning just prior to the Pleiades trailhead. Pleiades was flowing around 3 CFS. There is a large and interesting Ice sculpture after the first rap…more ice in the cave further on down…but clear from there on. After a few laps we headed north escaping the wild winds of Moab!
A few artsy HDR pics from the trip!
sk
54623
54616
54615
54614
54613
54612
54611
54610
54609
54618
54619
54620
54621
54622
54617