Recomendations around Torrey/ Capital Reef area

[nr13]

Heading to a Torrey/ Capital Reef area this weekend and wondering if you guys have any must see canyons in that area.

Thanks,

Nick

[jman]

Difficult to determine without knowing your skill level...

A personal fav of mine, although it's a LONG DAY, is Pandora's Box. Cassidy can be fun too, as it's a half-day and pretty easy.

[Iceaxe]

Burro Wash is the Pine Creek of Capitol Reef. It's probably the one must-do in the area.

Pandora's Box would be an oven this time of year and not much fun as it has no water. Its best left to early spring or late fall.

Fivemile Wash is good. The approach might be a little hot but if you do that early I don't see a problem.

Cassidy would also be a cooker this time of year. To hot for me, wait until fall.

And I really like Cottonwood Wash, but only as a bottom up route. Anyone with moderate climbing and route finding skills can visit all the best stuff in Cottonwood from the bottom up.


Burro Wash



Fivemile Wash

[ilipichicuma]

I did Cottonwood from the top down and had a great time last summer. Though the car spot is kind of wicked for that route.

[jman]

Forgot about Burro. That is good one.

Yea, Pandora is on the hotter side - but if you're a desert rat like me, Pandora is a good time! Definitely my fav of Capitol Reef. Although, if you are with a bigger group (physically, as in fat) it can be a squeeze.

The Wives are fun too, but are pretty short.

[CarpeyBiggs]

pandora's is kind of a step up in difficulty from typical canyons in north wash and capitol reef, and in this heat, hard to advise anyone to head there without having some knowledge of their experience...

i recommend the links that iceaxe posted up though, lots of good stuff to see.

[Iceaxe]

Why do folks bitch about the Capitol Reef Shuttles? They are no longer than many of the Zion shuttles.

With Zion the VC to Lava Point or VC to Ordervile/Narrows are all longer than any of the Capitol Reef Shuttles. I've never understood that bit of thinking. And when doing the Capitol Reef shuttles I always just park at Pleasent Creek and walk the rest of the way. Its faster than driving in on the 4x4 road and cleaning up the shuttles at the finish, and you can do it without a 4x4.

[ratagonia]

Why do folks bitch about the Capitol Reef Shuttles? They are no longer than many of the Zion shuttles.

With Zion the VC to Lava Point or VC to Ordervile/Narrows are all longer than any of the Capitol Reef Shuttles. I've never understood that bit of thinking. And when doing the Capitol Reef shuttles I always just park at Pleasent Creek and walk the rest of the way. Its faster than driving in on the 4x4 road and cleaning up the shuttles at the finish, and you can do it without a 4x4.

... because, in Zion, the people waiting for the shuttle can be in town, eating pizza and drinking beer while Shane is off fetching the car...

Tom

[flatiron]

Burro is the Pine Creek?? Really? I did it spring of 09 and it was completely dry except for 1 calf deep pool? At the time I thought both it and Cottonwood would be great if watered up but no go! If it is normally wet like you say I would def redo, but dry it was pretty tame.

[Iceaxe]

Burro is the Pine Creek?? Really? I did it spring of 09 and it was completely dry except for 1 calf deep pool?

Canyons change.... I've done Pine Creek and my shoes didn't get wet... and I've done it with flow and you have a lot of swimming. Same for Burro Wash....

But what I really meant by "it's the Pine Creek of Capitol Reef" is that Burro Wash is to Capitol Reef what Pine Creek is to Zion.... both are the must do trade route for their area.


I would also consider Cable Canyon and The Squeeze to be in the Capitol Reef area if you access from Factory Butte. But again, both those canyons can be dry or filled with water, and they are more fun with lots of water.

[nr13]

We went for the squeeze. It was a great canyon. Thanks for all the recommendations.

[ratagonia]

We went for the squeeze. It was a great canyon. Thanks for all the recommendations.

and... ???

[nr13]

Details huh... Well no pics, but with good beta and maps provided at Climb-Utah.com we got to the trial with little difficulty. We took the factory butte approach and it was a bit painful with all the deer flies (long sleeves would have been recommended. We had a little bit of cloud cover for the hike up the moroni slopes, so it really was not to hot. Hiking up the moroni slopes was quite beautiful with the canyon to your right. Does the canyon to the right while hiking to the start of the squeeze have a name? Has it been canyoneered? The whole canyon was beautiful, but I really like the first half of the squeeze were it is a squeeze in the narrow winding sections. We had a group of six and once we got to the rappel section my brother or myself would go first on the rappel and set up the next (we had two ropes) and that made it go very smooth. About half way down we found a dead DBS fawn :( this thing was small and it was amazing to follow its tracks and see what it was able to get down and up without injury. It looked like it had died within the past 24HRs and most likely of starvation due to the fact that there was quite a lot of water in some of the pot holes its tracks lead to. With a group of six (three girls three boys) we did the canyon in 7hrs without any trouble or challenges. I would highly recommend this canyon to anyone visiting that area. Again thank you for the suggestion.