SRG
06-28-2012, 06:11 PM
Hello everyone,
So Moab wasn't our 1st choice for an end of june canyoneering trip, but when the weather at our other destinations (Boulder, Escalante, North Wash) was forecasted to be less than stellar, we decided on Moab.
Moab was really hot. The first day(6/24) my two buddies Ben and Christian and I did Dragonfly in the morning, then swam and jumped at Mill Creek and were back (and drunk) at the campsite by 4:00p. After about an hour of sitting in the Colorado River in the sun, we tapped out, got a hotel room, and vowed that we'd plan the next couple days of camping better.
Dragonfly was a decent canyon. Too short (2hrs round trip), but the raps were kinda cool and the small potholes before the raps were fun I guess? The navigation was straightforward.
The next day we entered Entrajo with lower expectations. We made it to the SteelBender trailhead at Mill Creek with a 2WD no problem, but we parked there (at the "T") and couldn't(or didn't try to) drive up to the petroglyphs.
Entrajo is awesome, it's a shallow "V" type slot most of the way with interesting little potholish swirls in the sandstone which make for frequent small downclimbs(or upclimbs) throughout. It was 2hrs and 45mins round trip and we went all the way to the end, we were hiking fast.
We ascended this canyon and bypassed two rappels which we then came back down. On ascent there is at least one kinda difficult pothole escape/upclimb thingy and a 10 foot hand over hand Batman type move, a good time was had by all. There was calf-deep wading required. There was also an interesting pothole that was probably 3X as deep as it was wide(see pic).
We were really hot after Entrajo and we decided to head up to Pleiades for the afternoon. It must've been 25 degrees cooler at the Pleiades TH than it was in Moab which was desperately needed at that point. Going into Pleiades is like The Twilight Zone, I felt like I was in Zion or Ouray or something... it's definitely of a different nature than any canyon in Moab that I know of. We wore hardshell jackets as our only means of cold water protection and we were shivering and our hands cramping by the end of the canyon. Natural anchors are available. This canyon was by far the highlight of the trip... really enjoyable on all levels.
Professor Creek was great. Beautiful, reminds me of Muddy Creek just upstream of the Chute, very scenic. Bypassing the rappel was a pain, it was way too hot for 45 mins of desert trekking. This would be an easy non-tech canyon hike except for the one rappel through swift water(which was very refreshing).
We had an extra day, so we headed west to check out Little Wildhorse that night and Hogwarts the next day.
Hogwarts was a blast as always. There was no anchor at the 3rd rappel. Last time I did Hogwarts this rap was off of a tiny arch/hueco type thing that I didn't trust. We ended up equalizing a deadman and a cobblestone.
All in all it was a success, bummed the season's over, can't wait to do it all again in a few months.
-Sam
So Moab wasn't our 1st choice for an end of june canyoneering trip, but when the weather at our other destinations (Boulder, Escalante, North Wash) was forecasted to be less than stellar, we decided on Moab.
Moab was really hot. The first day(6/24) my two buddies Ben and Christian and I did Dragonfly in the morning, then swam and jumped at Mill Creek and were back (and drunk) at the campsite by 4:00p. After about an hour of sitting in the Colorado River in the sun, we tapped out, got a hotel room, and vowed that we'd plan the next couple days of camping better.
Dragonfly was a decent canyon. Too short (2hrs round trip), but the raps were kinda cool and the small potholes before the raps were fun I guess? The navigation was straightforward.
The next day we entered Entrajo with lower expectations. We made it to the SteelBender trailhead at Mill Creek with a 2WD no problem, but we parked there (at the "T") and couldn't(or didn't try to) drive up to the petroglyphs.
Entrajo is awesome, it's a shallow "V" type slot most of the way with interesting little potholish swirls in the sandstone which make for frequent small downclimbs(or upclimbs) throughout. It was 2hrs and 45mins round trip and we went all the way to the end, we were hiking fast.
We ascended this canyon and bypassed two rappels which we then came back down. On ascent there is at least one kinda difficult pothole escape/upclimb thingy and a 10 foot hand over hand Batman type move, a good time was had by all. There was calf-deep wading required. There was also an interesting pothole that was probably 3X as deep as it was wide(see pic).
We were really hot after Entrajo and we decided to head up to Pleiades for the afternoon. It must've been 25 degrees cooler at the Pleiades TH than it was in Moab which was desperately needed at that point. Going into Pleiades is like The Twilight Zone, I felt like I was in Zion or Ouray or something... it's definitely of a different nature than any canyon in Moab that I know of. We wore hardshell jackets as our only means of cold water protection and we were shivering and our hands cramping by the end of the canyon. Natural anchors are available. This canyon was by far the highlight of the trip... really enjoyable on all levels.
Professor Creek was great. Beautiful, reminds me of Muddy Creek just upstream of the Chute, very scenic. Bypassing the rappel was a pain, it was way too hot for 45 mins of desert trekking. This would be an easy non-tech canyon hike except for the one rappel through swift water(which was very refreshing).
We had an extra day, so we headed west to check out Little Wildhorse that night and Hogwarts the next day.
Hogwarts was a blast as always. There was no anchor at the 3rd rappel. Last time I did Hogwarts this rap was off of a tiny arch/hueco type thing that I didn't trust. We ended up equalizing a deadman and a cobblestone.
All in all it was a success, bummed the season's over, can't wait to do it all again in a few months.
-Sam