Canyoneering in Colo National Monument

[canyondevil]

Does anyone know of any good canyoneering routes in Colorado National Monument? I have heard rumors of people doing some technical stuff (other than the popular climbing routes) but cant find any beta on any of them. The wife and I are looking for some places close to home, any ideas? Thanks...

[uCanyon]

none that I know of in that area at the moment, at least that have been written up yet. The published ones I know about can be found in the ACA forum or the colorado area of uCanyon. For anything unpublished you might want to try the ColoradoCanyoneering yahoo group, not extremely active though.

[Scott P]

I have heard rumors of people doing some technical stuff (other than the popular climbing routes) but cant find any beta on any of them.

I have, but the routes there are not the same as they are in say North Wash, Zion or the Roost. I've rappelled into the head of Red Canyon and gone all the way through, but it's just one rappel up top.

After the fact I heard that there is a non-technical route through there somewhere.

The granite section of Devils Canyon is semi technical (nice for rock climbing as well). Here is a short route description:

http://www.summitpost.org/devils-can...limbing/159060

Lower Ute Canyon is technical and has a nice different feel to it. There are several raps and downclimbs (the rock is also more slippery than sandstone). You can rap into the head of Ute, but you don't see any more canyon than you could with just hiking since you can visit the falls from both ends.

There are also some very short technical slots in the Bangs Canyon area.

Devils Kitchen has some joint like slots that are interesting, but they don't really qualify as canyoneering.

Book Cliffs:

I did a technical fork of Hunter Canyon once, but we also got covered with ticks and it was a bushwhack. Not Recommended.

Upper Main Canyon really does have slot canyons and they are technical. I haven't gone through them yet. I guess I have put them way back on the backburner.

[canyondevil]

Thanks for the replies. I have often wondered about what was in the bottom of Devil's Canyon, as I have been on the trail numerous times. I will definitely check that out.

[peakbaggers]

We live in Grand Junction and hike the Monument frequently. There are no "slot" canyons. There are however, some really big drops. Take a drive through and use your imagination. One popular hike is down from the top of No Thoroughfare Canyon. You can do a non-technical hike through or there are two technical drops down a couple of low-flowing waterfalls (mostly dry in the summer but wet in early spring) if you want the entertainment. I know the lower one is bolted and has a heavy duty chain. Ice climbers go there in the winter. The lower drop is probably 100 - 120 ft? Upper drop probably similar. Independence Monument is a technical climb of 400 ft, rated 5.8. Local chapter of the Colorado Mountain Club may have some info or try to locate Penny Martens - featured on one of Tom's 2011 calendar photos.