stone donkey beta ?

[goofball]

anyone have solid beta for stone donkey along hackberry canyon in paria country ? PARTICULARLY approach.

thx !

[tanya]

Not me.. but this canyon is on my hit list too!

[trackrunner]

This book, thats about all


maybe scott patterson will chime in since he wrote the update at the link
http://www.canyoneering.com/books/Up...04&view=update

[tanya]

Yeah.. Scott knows all! I belive Stefan knows this one. He is the one that posted it was a good one.. that's why its on my hit list.

[Iceaxe]

Yeah.... this is one of Scott P's favorites..... which means..... it has either a brutal approach or brutal egress..... if Scott really likes it then it probably has both.

I've never done the canyon, below is the beta I have in addition to MK's book. The beta below is pretty old (2001?) so take it for what it's worth. I never did check MK's beta to see if the entrance and exits match.

Stone Donkey is a BLM name of a side canyon of Hackberry Canyon which is located between Bryce Canyon and Paria River. It is south of the "Cottonwood" benchmark and the first canyon north of Sam Pollock Canyon. The quickest access to this slot is right off Rock Springs Point; the easiest access is a longer route from the mouth of Hackberry Canyon. Do this short and sweet canyon! It is one foot wide and 400 feet deep at one point. Take a flashlight just in case. The initial drop is 200 feet, but after this there are only short drops.

[stefan]

Yeah.. Scott knows all! I belive Stefan knows this one. He is the one that posted it was a good one.. that's why its on my hit list.

i haven't done the canyon yet.

scott has done the canyon. while scenic, he says there is about 18 miles of slogging.

there, of course, is a shorter route from hackberry that avoids the long approach and just gets you the slot and lower canyon.

[goofball]

thanks y'all !

[Iceaxe]

Don't forget your TR when you return.

[RedRoxx]

I've climbed up a little of it from the bottom, it got tight and dark right away, almost needed a headlamp. I was backpacking thru so not equipped to go at it from above.
From lower Hackberry hiking is easy and fast, but I think if you go in from the upper half should be shorter.

[goofball]

i haven't done the canyon yet.

scott has done the canyon. while scenic, he says there is about 18 miles of slogging.

there, of course, is a shorter route from hackberry that avoids the long approach and just gets you the slot and lower canyon.

i thought hackberry WAS the long approach ? kelsey said from its mouth up is a 1.5 day affair fro stone donkey. from the rock springs point th he says 9-13 hrs. is there an approach from teh cottonwood road ? i was looking at google earth and stone donkey's mouth is quite close to the cottonwood wash road, but it looked dubious as to getting in and out of hackberry on that east side rim.

Don't forget your TR when you return. Booty Shake

i like to share ! if i enjoy it i figure others who love the outdoors as well will enjoy it too. and why would i not want someone to have as cool a time as i did ?

[Iceaxe]

if i enjoy it i figure others who love the outdoors as well will enjoy it too. and why would i not want someone to have as cool a time as i did ?

Awesome attitude.

[stefan]

i thought hackberry WAS the long approach ? kelsey said from its mouth up is a 1.5 day affair fro stone donkey. from the rock springs point th he says 9-13 hrs. is there an approach from teh cottonwood road ?

was a bit unclear. my thinking was ... i know you enjoy backpacking and i figured you'd enjoy exploring hackberry and this would be a shorter day trip on your longer hike. rather than a long approach just for the slot. not sure about a shorter more direct approach from cottonwood canyon road. pretty deep canyon, would have to look.

[goofball]

i thought hackberry WAS the long approach ? kelsey said from its mouth up is a 1.5 day affair fro stone donkey. from the rock springs point th he says 9-13 hrs. is there an approach from teh cottonwood road ?

was a bit unclear. my thinking was ... i know you enjoy backpacking and i figured you'd enjoy exploring hackberry and this would be a shorter day trip on your longer hike. rather than a long approach just for the slot. not sure about a shorter more direct approach from cottonwood canyon road. pretty deep canyon, would have to look.

no problem, and i ceertainly appreciate the input. i definitley like to bp, and hackberry sure looks pretty. loved the booker/rvd loop, made me want to spend more time wandereing aimlessly... this is just a weekender though. day the first is deer creek canyon. and we want to be back at an earlier time sunday, so stone donkey may be saved for later. maybe we'll drag camping gear thru deer creek and play in asay and red slot and the upper paria on sunday. either way is win win ! or maybe we'll change the plan totally - par for the course. my ocd has gave way to add.

[trackrunner]

Bump
Scott Patterson posted his summitpost in the yahoo groups. Thought it would help in the discussion here for goofball.
http://www.summitpost.org/album/3995...ey-canyon.html

I love the cathedral rappel pic

[goofball]

niiiice !

thanks for the link trackrunner. friends had just got back from round valley draw and willis creek teh weekend before this and had pics of FEET of snow and ice in both, so we scrapped plans to do deer creek or stone donkey this same weekend just in case. crap. oh well, its not going anywhere !

[RedRoxx]

Corresponded with MK and he says if you check out the 4th ed Paria book has a shortcut route from CCR over to Hackberry and Stone Donkey. I too am interested in doing the slot but right now don't have anyone else firmly committed and not sure I can haul all that gear for a solo attempt. But I might still try it. It's supposedly dry right now so no wetsuit needed.
Ugh---too much Utah and too little time.
Also touched base with Todd M and he stated they used 60 feet of webbing and 60 m rope.

[stefan]

Corresponded with MK and he says if you check out the 4th ed Paria book has a shortcut route from CCR over to Hackberry and Stone Donkey.

thanks for posting. this book's been out of my possession for awhile. just got it back.

so, it's not a direct route west from CCR, but it appears shorter. it's called the goulding trail on his map. but lengthwise it cuts down a bit on the route going up hackberry, by cutting up and over the cockcomb in a northwest trending route. looks like an interesting route with great views. starts halfway between hackberry's mouth and castle rock and drops into hackberry south of stone donkey, i.e., into goulding canyon just north of castle rock.

Ugh---too much Utah and too little time.

life is to short to worry about too little time. :D

[shaggy125]

I too am interested in doing the slot but right now don't have anyone else firmly committed and not sure I can haul all that gear for a solo attempt.

When you looking at doing it? You have weekdays off? I may be interested.

[RedRoxx]

I am blessed with short days on Fri and Mon off. So I can do most weekends esp up there. I'm going to be somewhere up in there from about may9-19th but looking at doing a long BP along the Escalante. But that might change.
If anyone is up for that slot somewhere in there let me know.
I have complete vertical gear, knee and elbow pads, etc. But---my longest rope is a 150 footer. I may have a 300 foot one I can borrow ( but he loves that rope and if it got shredded I might as well leave the country.)

[Scott P]

quote]Yeah.... this is one of Scott P's favorites..... which means..... it has either a brutal approach or brutal egress..... if Scott really likes it then it probably has both. [/quote]

No, not really. None of the approaches are brutal, just long. They are however scenic. I really wouldn't suggest trying any route in a day.

Coming from Rock Springs Bench is quite scenic with big views. Some of teh slickrock actually looks somewhat like the Wave, but not quite up to the standard. This route does have sand slogging though to get there.

Here is the area around the head of the canyon, so the approaches are nice:





Coming in from Lower Hackberry is very beautiful and scenic and not brutal at all. It's actually about as easy as canyon hiking gets, though it too is long (at least for those used to day hikes). The very bottom part of Hackberry is fairly narrow and very deep with high walls. It's about like the Paria Narrows, but shorter. Above that the canyon is a very deep red and wider.

If you really want to see it all in the area and aren't after just Stone Donkey, we actually hit Round Valley Draw, full Hackberry Canyon, lower Booker Canyon, Stone Donkey Canyon, Sam Pollock Canyon, and Yellow Rock all in 2 1/2 days. If you have the time, this is recommended. There's just so much to see along the way: slot canyons, old homesteads (we missed the Watson Cabin this time), a big arch, slickrock and many good campsites. We had to carry a pack down the main Hackberry, but considering the number of canyons we got to see it really isn't any more time consuming than seeing that many canyons by doing dayhikes from a road.

Anyway, here are some shots on Stone Donkey:







Although fairly short (it took us three hours total from the confluence of Hack), it is one of the best slots I've seen and everyone there agreed.