A group of us went out to the Swell this past weekend. We didn't get to do all of our originally planned canyons because of weather (our wetsuits and drysuits were frozen solid, so we had to do a wet canyon, then dry canyon, then wet, then dry...)
The roads from I-70 down to Hidden Splendor are in good shape, and are passable by any vehicle. There are a few rougher spots (comparatively) closer to Hidden Splendor, but pretty much any passenger car should make it fine. The shortcut road from Hidden Splendor over to Goblin Valley is also in good condition.
The approach hike to Seger's Hole/Squeeze and Little Seger's Hole/Seger's Window is pretty easy. The route is pretty open, and fairly easy to navigate it in the dark. The river crossings were all mid-calf or less if you picked your crossings well. The night temps were around 10 degrees, so our shoes and pants were frozen before reaching the Moroni Slope climb.
Little Seger's Hole Canyon/Seger's Window canyon has wades up to chest deep; and one nasty looking keeper pothole that looked like a swimmer. We bypassed it using a rock pile anchor rappel. Broke through ice up to 1/2 inch thick in many of the spots. Water levels looked to be lower than normal, but still plenty of water in there.
Music Canyon was completely dry all the way to the Chute. The Chute was also a lot lower than the last time I was in there.
Seger's Hole Canyon/Squeeze had three swimmers, and many other wades up to chest deep. Broke through ice up to 1/2 thick in many of the spots. Water levels looked to be lower than normal, but again, still plenty of water in there.
Ding and Dang canyons were mostly dry with only one small water section that was easily avoidable in Dang.
Overall, a very fun weekend, but I was certainly glad to have brought my drysuit as daytime temps only reached around 40 degrees. Didn't warm up that much in the canyons, and since the sun was lower on the horizon, didn't get much sun in the canyons...
Pictures to follow later when I can catch up...
Take care,
A.J.
