Reconciliation Canyon

[deathtointernet]

Been spending some time exploring the Zion wilderness (actually it might be easier to make a note of the time I *don't* spend exploring the Zion wilderness). Made a couple of trips to explore a canyon on the east side, which I felt had some potential for canyoneering. Kind of interested if anyone has ever tried it.

I'm the kind of person who feels everything should always have a name, so I have a tendency to give names even to things that might already be named. Feel free to correct me if this canyon already has an agreed upon name. It's on the east side, on the Parunuweap side of Separation Canyon. Being on the opposite side of Separation and feeling a little clever, I decided to refer to it as Reconciliation Canyon.



On my first hike out there I ascended Separation Canyon and found a break in the cliffs that allowed me to get down into the West Fork of Reconciliation.



The canyon was initially just a grassy wash, pleasant but not terribly interesting.



Within a short time however the canyon took a sharp turn left and dropped suddenly into a slot. Hard to get too close without going over, but I estimated an eighty foot rappel from the nearest anchor (several trees were close, no webbing or anything to indicate a prior descent). Not being on a technical excursion (I'm supposed to be making an effort at not doing technical stuff solo) I did not descend it. However a brushy gully just past the drop allowed me to scramble out of the canyon and bypass the drop. Of course I had to come back to check it out from the bottom, stemming a pool of water.



I found a beautiful slot, not particularly long and totally free of obstacles except some deep quicksand in places.



The drop from the bottom. It would prove to be the only one in the West Fork. I couldn't get too close... I stepped on a rock resting on the sand and it sank instantly into the muck, so I gave it a wide berth.



A short ways from the narrows the West Fork joined the East Fork, and I came across some interesting potholes. There were some footprints in this area, someone had come down the East Fork not too long before.



Not long after the two forks joined the canyon suddenly dropped. I downclimbed as close to the edge as I could, and estimated at least a 200 foot rappel, though it might take some thought to figure out a close anchor. Satisfied, I did some sightseeing along the rim and returned by hiking up the East Fork, which turned out to be entirely shallow and open, and connecting up with the Checkerboard Mesa canyon.



Intrigued and connecting two and two together with a slot I had once spotted some time ago on another exploration, I resolved to return and investigate the lower canyon. I hiked up the Checkerboard Mesa canyon and crossed the terrain out by Parunuweap to find a scrambling route down to an open area near the rim. From the descent I got a decent view of the middle part of the canyon, a short slot.



I found an easy way into the sandy wash of lower Reconciliation. A short way down it entered a small slot, with several linked potholes and short drops. With temperatures rather cold (lots of snow on the ground just before this) I had no intention of getting in any water, but found a way to bypass the narrows through the cliffs above the right side.



Checking out the final drop in the narrows, into a somewhat frozen pool.



Just past that set of narrows the canyon has several drops right before the big one. One of them looks like it could be a keeper, though there should be no reason it couldn't be avoided completely on the ledge to the left. Of course it's all moot because at the end the drop is something like 450 feet into the restricted part of Parunuweap. I asked Bo if it would be okay to make a 449 foot rappel and then jug back up, but he seemed to think it might not be worth the hassle.



Most of the canyon was wide open, a sandy wash underneath tall sloping cliffs. Thankfully the cold froze the sand so the hiking was very easy.



Not long after I hit the end of the slot I had seen earlier. It ends with several drops into entirely frozen pools. Not having any way up into the slot, I climbed up the ridge to the right to bypass it.



A closer look into the end of the slot. Seems to be comprised mostly of potholes and very small drops.



Bypassing the slot I was able to get quite close to the rim.



On the other side I went in, stemming across several pools of water and downclimbing some very short drops.



Eventually I reached a drop that would have put me into water that could not be avoided, and that's where I called it a day. Beautiful little slot. No footprints or any other evidence of recent visitation. Proof once again that even in Zion if you get far enough out there you'll get solitude.

I continued up canyon and eventually near to the bottom of the 200 foot drop, though I gave up at a boulder jam that could've been climbed but proved to be just irritating enough to keep me from bothering since the canyon would dead-end anyway. I then went back a ways and ascended a side drainage that I had scoped out from above on my previous trip. It proved quite passable and I used it to bypass the big drop and escape out the West Fork and into Separation Canyon.

Intriguing canyon... certainly not that much technical business, and all of it able to be bypassed, but I may have to return next year and give it a shot. Just curious if anyone else has ever checked it out. And if I get to keep the name

[CarpeyBiggs]

wow. awesome TR. good on ya!

[ratagonia]

Yeah, good stuff.

Checked out the one off the south side of Checkerboard last year about this time, and it had similar features - intermittent interesting bits of narrows. (Proposed Name - "Family Planning".) Time and rain prevented us from scoping out the final rappel area. That would be the one where a family got stuck a couple years ago. (Go Bo!)

Tom

[Iceaxe]

Good stuff.... thanks for sharing.

[ibenick]

Very cool.

[The Good Cop]

Great stuff Jeremy, thanks for sharing! I really enjoy the way you brought us along through the scouting efforts.

Cheers,

Wayne

[oldno7]

very nice tr

[Felicia]

Nice work Jeremy!

[deathtointernet]

Yeah, good stuff.

Checked out the one off the south side of Checkerboard last year about this time, and it had similar features - intermittent interesting bits of narrows. (Proposed Name - "Family Planning".) Time and rain prevented us from scoping out the final rappel area. That would be the one where a family got stuck a couple years ago. (Go Bo!)

Tom

I really wanted to find another, much more difficult canyon close by and call it 'Bitter Divorce.' I was thinking about exploring down the same one you did too, but I knew how it ends... Bo never gets tired of telling that story, and why not? Was it similar in that everything was able to be bypassed or did you actually encounter some drops where you had to fix ropes?

And thanks for the encouragement everyone!

[ratagonia]

I really wanted to find another, much more difficult canyon close by and call it 'Bitter Divorce.' I was thinking about exploring down the same one you did too, but I knew how it ends... Bo never gets tired of telling that story, and why not? Was it similar in that everything was able to be bypassed or did you actually encounter some drops where you had to fix ropes?

And thanks for the encouragement everyone!

We did not plan on fixing ropes, and it was raining (lightly) so we cut around the final section to try to get a view of the end, but ran out of time.

T