Keyhole / Pine Creek. 6/26/12

[2065toyota]

We continued the week with a classic trip down keyhole and pine creek. My wife had some family in town and wanted to do something fun. They always wondered why we where wetsuits when it's 100 degrees outside, so a trip through keyhole, pine creek and then echo was in order. We got started into Keyhole at about 6:30 and exited around 8:30. Everything was great except the lack of water. We need some rain. The long corridor is barely waist deep. Pile back in the car and drive down to the tunnel for pine. Our group of 6 is climbing down under the bridge following a group of 10 with 5 kids under 12. I told our group this could be a possibility because of its popularity and we would chill for a little bit so as to not rush them. However, they graciously let us play through and I actually think it helped all the young kids watch us safety line off, hook up, then rap down. Pine is always fun and we slowly made our way down the canyon trying to soak it all in. It is a Tuesday and I should be at work since we are extremely busy, but oh well. Once we started seeing sunlight we found a good spot to unsuit and eat some lunch. We almost to the second to last rap and a group of 2 came upon us, so we let them through. They were from Vermont on a 3 week western US road trip. They had been to the Grand Canyon, Bryce, Cedar Breaks, Sequoia and maybe a few more I can't remember. They were in Zion for a few days and were going to do Angels Landing later that day after completing Pine, and then do another canyon the next day, whichever one they could get permits for. The last minute drawing is working well, excpet the people who don't know it exists yet. It leaves very few options for walk ins. We proceeded to last rap. I rigged it up and help everyone safety line and attach to the rope. This was a first for a couple to go single line on a longer free hang, so we doubled some beaners on the atc's to add some friction. We then made our way down the canyon playing in every section of water we could find to beat the heat. We hit the swim hold around 2 pm, played for a little bit then headed to Sol Foods for some Ice Cream. We hung out in Springdale for a while waiting for some of my in laws to get there, then headed up to Emerals Pools for the young kids to get in a small hike, then play in the river. This was followed up by an Oscars whoopass burger. Gotta get home though, its now 9:00 and we have permits for Echo tomorrow.

Link to some more pics.
http://s1070.photobucket.com/albums/...reek%20062612/

[Sandstone Addiction]

Excellent TR! Looks like everyone had a great time. Thanks for sharing.

[SlickRock]

Great pics. We have permit reservations for late July.

[canyonguru]

good pics, i cant belive the swim hole at the end looks empty. i have never seen it that low. you can usualy never see the botom even in the depest spot.

[2065toyota]

good pics, i cant belive the swim hole at the end looks empty. i have never seen it that low. you can usualy never see the botom even in the depest spot.

That is one of the pools between the swim hole and pine creek. There are quite a few of them to play in on the way down

[canyonguru]

oh i gotcha i thought it was the last one before the climb up to the road. I was wondering why it was so low. You said keyhole was not a swimmer. i have never been when the corridor was not a swimmer all the way, bummer, just wait a week monsoon is on its way. Thunderstorms forcasted for las vegas wed. thur. and fri. this week. Woooooohooooo i love thunderstorms