Marinus Canyon (North Wash)

[Scott P]

With all the snow/bad conditions around SE Utah we've been throwing around some reasonable choices for this weekend. Anyway, one of the canyons we have chosen in Marinus in North Wash. Marinus is 90% wide and 10% narrow, so in theory we're expecting it to be much drier than the other North Wash stuff (which is more narrow and shaded) that we are worried have snowmelt in them.

Anyway, Marinus' narrow section is fairly short and mid-canyon in contrast to the the tight slots in Butler and Stair which are actually up in the heads of the canyons. It obviously isn't as good of a canyon, but in a January, mostly wide canyons aren't so bad.

What is more interested to me though is that in one of the forks and from a certain section of the rim, it appears that the entire canyon goes through some tunnel or huge double arch. I searched for the section of the canyon on Google Earth and it's pretty easy to identify the location, though I can't tell what's going on with the canyon. Check this out at different zooms:







Full size of all of the above. Click for more detail:

http://c0278592.cdn.cloudfiles.racks...nal/588611.jpg

http://c0278592.cdn.cloudfiles.racks...nal/588609.jpg

http://c0278592.cdn.cloudfiles.racks...nal/588610.jpg

I've wanted to see this feature (whatever it is) up close for several years now.

What I was wondering is if anyone here has actually done the canyon and if they have seen this feature. I was also wondering how the slot section is and if there is any wading or swimming (we're taking thick wetsuits regardless).

All as I know so far is that there are at least two rappels in the canyon, that's it's mostly wide, but with one slot section (part of which you can get into below before coming to a 20+ foot drop) and that there's this weird feature in the canyon.

Has anyone here been though and can provide some insight? If not, if anyone is interested in joining us they can. If things look dry we'll probably do some of the more classic stuff in North Wash too and some other non-tech hikes. If no one else is interested, I'll post a TR of what we find.