Capitol Reef area

[PMGuernsey]

Hey everyone I am new to this forum I just found it today. I dont really know if I should post this here or not, but I was wondering if anyone could suggest some Canyons in the capitol reef area. My friends and I have been doing canyons in zions, but have never done anything in this area. Any Suggestions? Oh, and it can't be to technical cuz yeah were newbies, comin in to crowed you out. We have done things in the past like subway, orderville, echo canyon (top section), and other similir canyons in zion. Just looking for a good place to go in Capitol Reef area, that is similir in difficulty and not too cold this time of year.
Thanks Paul

[nat]

Hey everyone I am new to this forum I just found it today. I dont really know if I should post this here or not, but I was wondering if anyone could suggest some Canyons in the capitol reef area. My friends and I have been doing canyons in zions, but have never done anything in this area. Any Suggestions? Oh, and it can't be to technical cuz yeah were newbies, comin in to crowed you out. We have done things in the past like subway, orderville, echo canyon (top section), and other similir canyons in zion. Just looking for a good place to go in Capitol Reef area, that is similir in difficulty and not too cold this time of year.
Thanks Paul

Hi Paul,

Welcome to the group. Capitol Reef has some excellent not too technical canyons. I highly recommend 5-Mile Wash and Cottonwood Wash. 5-Mile has some downclimbs and optional short raps like in Orderville or the Subway. You can find beta on this from Shane's Website or Mike Kelsey's book. Cottonwood is really good too, and Burro is not bad. I would definitely bring wetsuits for these, as there is likely to be some cold swims.

[Iceaxe]

Welcome to the forum

I consider Burro to be the Pine Creek of Capitol Reef. Anyone who can do Pine Creek should have little trouble with Burro. It's a nice canyon and a great place to start exploring CR.

I suggest noob's stay out of Pandora's Box until they gain some experiance or at least have some experianced leadership along on the trip. It's a step up from the other Capitol Reef stuff.

My Capitol Reel stuff is here:
http://climb-utah.com/Capitol/index.htm

[rockgremlin]

Stay away from Pandora's Box (considered more of an expert canyon). Burro wash is good for anybody. There is one mandatory 15-20ft drop, but aside from that, you can bypass all other rappels therein. It's a good canyon for all experience levels because almost all of the rappels are optional, and there aren't any other highly technical obstacles (swimming, keeper potholes, super-tight slots requiring high stemming, etc). There may be some water, but nothing requiring long swims....although this has been quite a wet winter so go prepared with neoprene.

Good luck and have fun!

[Iceaxe]

I really had fun doing Five Mile.

And though not technical I consider Sulphur Creek a must do.
http://climb-utah.com/Capitol/sulphur.htm

[PMGuernsey]

Wow! Thanks for all the advice and info, I will probly have more questions but this is a great help. Keep the suggestions coming. I am glad I have found a forum that is actually active and answeres questions. Thanks again guys!!!

[PMGuernsey]

Thanks again to everyone for the advice we had a great trip. Because of car situations and skill level we decided to do burro and sheets gulch from the bottom up to where we couldn't go any furthur we had a ton of fun, and hope to be able to do them from the top down someday. Weather was great and the canyons suprisingly did not have too much water and snow in them. THANKS AGAIN EVERYONE. I hope to get to meet some of you at a noob fest sometime when my wife and I can go, and learn from the pros Have a great day!!!