full gravel canyon

I'm planning a trip in May and was considering doing gravel canyon in 2 days, starting at middle narrows described on Tom's site and continuing down canyon, camping shortly before the intersection with cowboy canyon. Then on day 2 hiking to the head of cowboy, descend it and continue down Gravel.


Has anyone done this or know what to expect between the middle narrows and cowboy canyon? Anything to look forward to or worry about? Is this too much for 2 days? I figured I could always skip cowboy if we ran low on time or energy.

Thanks.

ironic you would ask. we were just out there last week. i pretty much told myself i would never, under any circumstance, EVER do cowboy canyon again. it just isn't that good. and it is a lot of walking for very little action. we had bad weather the day we were planning on doing gravel, so we bailed, instead doing duckett canyon.

but then again, i get bored just walking. i would love to see middle gravel, as it sounds pretty impressive in the right conditions, but I wouldn't care for lower again.

another thing to consider is that the best part of cowboy is actually in gravel. it is about 100 yards long, has one rappel into a very cool chamber. after that, and before that, it's just not that awesome. i'd have a hard time being motivated to walk all the way up and around just to come back into gravel at the cowboy junction, when you could skip all of cowboy but still get the cool rappel into the chamber.

ymmv.

btw, Allen has a really good section in his book that details the hike of all of gravel canyon, though some of his route suggests getting out of the canyon proper, i believe.

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Originally Posted by CarpeyBiggs

btw, Allen has a really good section in his book that details the hike of all of gravel canyon

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It's in Steve Allen's book Canyoneering 2.
http://www.amazon.com/Canyoneering-2.../dp/0874804671

I've never done the complete Gravel, but I do remember receiving some negative email about "cherry picking" the best part, and not making people work for the beauty after posting the Gravel description to Climb-Utah.

Cherry Picked section
http://climb-utah.com/CM/gravel.htm

It seems the orginal idea behind the Canyoneering 2 book was to provide lengthy backpacking routes that forced you to work for the hidden nuggets, which in turn would make you want to work towards protecting Southern Utah... or something like that.....

Kelsey's second Tech book also has info on the full (or at least most) of Gravel

Technical Slot Canyon Guide to the Colorado Plateau
http://www.amazon.com/Technical-Cany.../dp/094451023X

Tom has some good beta, but its also cherry picking:
http://canyoneeringusa.com/utah/cedar/gravel1.htm

:cool2:

My brother is visiting from Chicago. He hasn't really been canyoneering but likes backpacking, I was kind of looking for a little of both. I'm sure he'd be happy with the scenery even if it isn't technical, but maybe I'll get bored.

I don't know, maybe we'll just do some technical day trips.

Just a thought.... but my favorite backpack/slot canyon is Buckskin Gulch.

Buckskin
http://climb-utah.com/Escalante/buckskin.htm


http://climb-utah.com/Escalante/Files/buckskin2.jpg

i have not gone down middle gravel, have done the tech route form climb-utah (excellent) and have hiked up to cowboy from the mouth of gravel tho. i remember nothing horribly hard from cowboy down, just lots of pretty and decent amounts of water. the white canyon complex is just awesome. another fun backpack is long canyon. i do not know exactly how far up i went, maybe 1/2 way ? but it was very nice and the tech section is in kelseys new canyoneering guide. lost canyon has a really cool littel slot in its upper section, and a little granary near where it starts on dc right. after the short tech section it is very pretty canyon, could make a nice off the beaten path loop. and of course cheesebox is great, never gone the full way from the tippy top down, but from shanes beta put in point to the mouth is way fun. even if 2 days is all you have there is still tons of options around the white complex. i've heard rock canyon is nice just up the road a ways near the colorado. horse tanks canyon down to white canyon is nice, then you could explore up white or down thru the black hole. and you can easily get out of white and back into horse tanks again, only a scramble from just up white canyon from horse tanks confluence.

you just can't go wrong around there.

I like Gravel, but I also think that the side trips are the main attraction in Gravel. Lots of hidding ruins, petroglyphs and little slots if you look for them.

By White Canyon standards, I actually thought Cowboy was pretty nice.

The main Gravel is almost all walking with a few raps/obstacles thrown in. If you like hiking, it is nice. If you're after technical excitement, it's not that type of canyon.

I have tentative plans to do that exact route....let me know how it goes! :2thumbs: