Keyhole and Cave Valley - April 15-17

[skiclimb3287]

After lurking around here for quite awhile, I figured it was appropriate to start off with a trip report. Hellooooo Bogley!

Normally November through the end of April I ski every day I can get, but this year the canyoneering and desert exploration itch came a few weeks early. To satiate this, the better half and I decided to hop in the car and head down to Zion for the weekend.

We escaped work around 3pm on Friday the 15th and made our way through the mess of construction through Utah County. Once we reached Fillmore, we stopped at our favorite mid-drive dinner location - Kluff's Car Hop. If you haven't been there, check it out. They have some tasty food and great shakes. After getting our fill of grease, we cruised to Rockville and headed up to our usual camp. Never seen the road up in that poor shape, but then again, never been there in the spring. Looks like more than a few were bogged down.

Saturday morning came with much excitement to get back in a canyon as we headed to the backcountry desk to grab a permit for Keyhole Canyon. We originally had planned to do Pine Creek as well, but it did not seem like a wise choice for our first flowing canyon considering the high flow. Of course we got the typical questions from the ranger: "Have you done Keyhole before?" Yes. "You do realize the canyon is full of very cold water?" No, I thought when snow melts it is instantly hot tub temperature. After giving the appropriate answers, we were off to ZAC to pick up our prison inmate costumes (aka drysuits with bright orange coveralls). Now that we were all outfitted and it was only 9am, we decided to go for a hike and let it warm up a bit. We decided to head to the Canyon Overlook Trail as I had never done it (amazing considering the number of days I have spent in the park over the last 8 years) and we were both interested in getting a look at the flow through Pine Creek. After a nice chat with the tunnel rangerette on duty, she decided to take us out on the bridge to get a look down into the canyon.



Looking upstream from the entrance to Pine Creek. Never seen water here, let alone a waterfall up canyon!



View of Pine Creek from the Bridge

We proceeded out the Canyon Overlook Trail. The rumble of the water flowing through the canyon was amazing.



View from the end of the trail

It was now around 11:00, the sun was getting high, and we were nice and warm, so we headed for Keyhole. After a quick scramble up the slickrock bowl, we looked back and realized we had started a trend. We counted 4 groups behind us. We hurried and got suited up to beat the group of 6 which included 4 kids. Middle Keyhole was a blast! We made quick work of the down climbs which felt a little more like a water park. All too quickly we were though Middle Keyhole and in the sunny spot just before the first rappel into Lower Keyhole.



Log in Middle Keyhole



Looking like an escaped convict

After a short debate, we decided to hang in the sun for a bit and let the group of six pass. The kids in the group were charging ahead and laughing and having a generally good time. When they all arrived at our location, we were shocked to see them all in shortee wetsuits! I can't imagine that was too enjoyable. We hung out long enough to let them get enough ahead, so that we could have our own experience and not really be entwined in theirs. We also let another group of two pass us. We shortly thereafter learned that the webbing I brought in my pack would be staying with me for another canyon. The group of two that passed us had a "never use existing webbing" policy and so they replaced all 3 anchors! All rappels were in waterfalls, with swimming disconnects. The fun just kept increasing! I now understand why there are some canyoneers who only do flowing canyons. There were a few lengthy swims, including the flooded hallway. I had never had good lighting in the hallway, but we hit it at just the right time! The light filtered its way in and lit up the walls. Shortly thereafter we were through the slanted section and back out to the road.



Heading down Rappel 1



Getting in the flow of things: Rappel 2



Its a little wet!



Twisty



Checking out the downclimbability of rappel 3 (Oh yeah, apparently it is bad luck to be a random person taking my picture...the guy taking the photo up ahead of me promptly dropped his camera into a 10 foot deep pool. After no less than 10 dives, it was recovered! )



Swimming away from rappel 3...getting hungry



Enter the flooded hallway

Of the three times I have done Keyhole, this was by far the best. The canyon is a completely different experience when flowing. And I have to say, drysuits are AMAZING! It was our first time using them and we were bone dry underneath and warm the entire time.

After many strange looks from the passerbys, we got back into hiking clothes and headed to ZAC to return the drysuits. It was still early so we hopped on the shuttle and took in to Sinawava to go check out the December flood damage to river walk. We were amazed by the washed out walk, the changes in the river path, and the fact that the gravel bar at the end of the narrows is now a sand bar. Furthermore, the new sand bar apparently has inspired the artist in every single person that visits.



Sign at the start of the riverwalk



Waterfall at the beginning of the riverwalk



Washed out walkway



And another washed out walkway



City of Cairns



You can now be really really sure you found your way out of the narrows...

This brought us to the end of our day. On the shuttle ride back to the visitors center, I am 95% sure caught a glimpse of a cliff dwelling high on a wall! Anyone know of one in the main canyon that you can see from the road? Curious if I saw what I thought I saw...

Off to Bit & Spur for dinner and drinks and back to camp for some R&R.



Enjoying the fire



The drying rack

Sunday we had a leisurely morning cooking breakfast and cleaning up camp. As we were about to leave, I spotted our first blooming cactus!



Cool flowers

We then went out for our first foray into cave valley. I had seen the pictures of the caves, but had no real directions, so we just went for it. After some exploring we managed to find 2 of the 3 caves I had heard of! Cave valley is even more beautiful than I had realized.



Mummy-like rock formation at the head of cave valley



Cave Valley



Big.



View out towards the Pine Valley Mountains (I think)



Entrance to the first cave we found



Pictographs in the cave



Bones stuck up high on the central pillar with some cave popcorn in view



Pictrographs in the second cave



More pictographs in the second cave



Nice sandstone!

It was now 3:00 and we decided we should probably back to SLC. As we passed the left fork trail head, we noticed quite a few rangers parked. Thought it was strange. got home to learn that was the start of the Subway SAR. All in all a great weekend was had. One more weekend of skiing and then it is full on canyoneering season! Next up is a trip to Moab and then to the Swell

[oldno7]

You saw a granary perched up on a ledge, many bus drivers will point it out anymore. Access is prohibited, couple signs up closer to the actual granary.

[Wasatch]

Nice trip report/pics. Try Keyhole under the moonlight next time.

[skiclimb3287]

You saw a granary perched up on a ledge, many bus drivers will point it out anymore. Access is prohibited, couple signs up closer to the actual granary.

Thanks! The many times I have been on the shuttle and not one has mentioned it. When we got back from the trip, I did a quick search to see if I could find any info on it and there wasn't anything. Amazing how the park service can erase things like that.

Nice trip report/pics. Try Keyhole under the moonlight next time.

I will have to do that. Such a fun little canyon whose personality can change dramatically with the conditions!

[Jaxx]

Sweet trip report. That is alot of water in keyhole!

[ilipichicuma]

Excellent trip report. I did Keyhole like three days before this and it looked about the same. Also, it was AWESOME! It was my first time and I can't see it being any fun without flow in it! Also, we didn't rappel on the third rappel. We just used it as a waterslide! Maybe not the safest way, but we all made it down safe, and it was ridiculously fun.

[ghawk]

yeah that waterslide was sweet. Just shot you right down into a fairly deep water pool. Keyhole is a blast right now.

[skiclimb3287]

Excellent trip report. I did Keyhole like three days before this and it looked about the same. Also, it was AWESOME! It was my first time and I can't see it being any fun without flow in it! Also, we didn't rappel on the third rappel. We just used it as a waterslide! Maybe not the safest way, but we all made it down safe, and it was ridiculously fun.

I have to say that I have always enjoyed Keyhole either to get a quick fix, as an extension to a day (i.e. in conjunction with Pine Creek), or when the weather prevents us from doing a longer canyon. I had always done it in dry conditions when you typically only have deep water at the bottom of each rappel and in the flooded hallway. I am curious how it will seem the next time I do it in dry conditions...hopefully not a disappointment!

I slid down the first part of the third rappel into the little pool I am standing in front of in the photo. I decided that without knowing the pool depth at the bottom it was best to rig a handline. Used that to do a controlled slide down and no worries of a busted up ankle!

[ghawk]

I have to say that I have always enjoyed Keyhole either to get a quick fix, as an extension to a day (i.e. in conjunction with Pine Creek), or when the weather prevents us from doing a longer canyon. I had always done it in dry conditions when you typically only have deep water at the bottom of each rappel and in the flooded hallway. I am curious how it will seem the next time I do it in dry conditions...hopefully not a disappointment!

I slid down the first part of the third rappel into the little pool I am standing in front of in the photo. I decided that without knowing the pool depth at the bottom it was best to rig a handline. Used that to do a controlled slide down and no worries of a busted up ankle!

Yeah that was smart of you. I'd done it in dry conditions and remembered it being fairly deep there so i scooted over and tried to wedge into that crack and slow my descent. I had mediocre success and had there been a rock I would not have been a happy camper probably. As it was it turned out to be a sweet water slide. We did it Monday morning last week and then we were going to do pine creek later with some friends coming later that day. Forecast was for rain at 5 though so we ended up just doing keyhole again to beat the rain. Lots of fun.

[accadacca]

Excellent report! Welcome to the hood.

[skiclimb3287]

Yeah that was smart of you. I'd done it in dry conditions and remembered it being fairly deep there so i scooted over and tried to wedge into that crack and slow my descent. I had mediocre success and had there been a rock I would not have been a happy camper probably. As it was it turned out to be a sweet water slide. We did it Monday morning last week and then we were going to do pine creek later with some friends coming later that day. Forecast was for rain at 5 though so we ended up just doing keyhole again to beat the rain. Lots of fun.

I stood there debating for awhile and couldn't remember the depth of that pool. Oh well. Too bad you couldn't get into Pine Creek. Everyone I talked to who had done it said it was a blast! I look forward to obtaining the skills to comfortably go through in high flow.

[skiclimb3287]

Excellent report! Welcome to the hood.

Thanks!

[ratagonia]

I have to say that I have always enjoyed Keyhole either to get a quick fix, as an extension to a day (i.e. in conjunction with Pine Creek), or when the weather prevents us from doing a longer canyon. I had always done it in dry conditions when you typically only have deep water at the bottom of each rappel and in the flooded hallway. I am curious how it will seem the next time I do it in dry conditions...hopefully not a disappointment!

I slid down the first part of the third rappel into the little pool I am standing in front of in the photo. I decided that without knowing the pool depth at the bottom it was best to rig a handline. Used that to do a controlled slide down and no worries of a busted up ankle!

I hyper-extended my knee there one year; made me rather a slow hiker for one and a half years, till physical therapy got me straightened out! Now I've learned not to slide with a leg tucked underneath, but I still slide that one in Keyhole...

Great TR, thanks.

Tom

[Brian in SLC]

Wow, great TR!