08/10/13 - Upper Black Box (Short Route)

[jman]

After hiking Upper Greasewood Canyon (TR to come in the next week or two) the previous day, we headed out to the Upper Black Box in the Swell. Neither Jeff (the one filming in the green shorts) or myself have done it and thought it would be a fun excursion. Our buddy Josh tagged along as well.

Exit 130 from I-70 (or 131) heading south takes you to Upper Greasewood and Upper Three Fingers, but heading North (for 20miles) from that junction takes you the San Rafael Bridge, Mexican Hat, and then our destination Upper Black Box. The last stretch of 13 miles on Mexican Hat Road to the trailhead is a long one! Lots of curves and washout roads and even in my truck it still took us 30-40 minutes just for the 13miles.

We followed AJ Roadtrips beta for it and it was spot-on (like always). It was great hiking for maybe 15minutes from the truck to reach the first rappel. The Upper Black Box gorge is something else! Gorgeous! Deep slot (250+ft) with the San Rafael River running through it. I failed to mention earlier that according to the USGS, the river gauge was about 20 CFS that day. AJ, recommends less than 50 CFS and I can understand why. There are some tight restrictions in some areas, plus that's just a lot of water of channel through some of those narrow areas.

Anywho - if you like hiking the Narrows - you will throughly enjoy this hike! Now Jeff (The one filming) wasn't a huge fan of the hike, but that's because he hates hiking (go figure right)! Even a hike where his home is near Park City - is against his religion. He hates the no destination hikes. So I have to coerce him basically to tag along, but his GoPro video collection (He tries to capture the entire canyon from start to finish so people have an idea of what to expect, compared to other videos that just cherry pick the fun areas...) is starting to be motivation enough. And on a sidenote - I'm building him a website which hosts his video collection and how-tos, and other adventures, and hopefully that will be finished in the next month or two (along with my other 1000+ projects).

Once you reach the canyon entrance, there is a large cairn of where you can downclimb to make the rap 120ft compared to 220ft (which is on the canyon rim). I believe Kuya has a TR of that and his scouts down that rap. The 120ft is a nice rap into the gorge. From rim, you can hear the river below making its way down the rock jam right here which creates numerous waterfalls and downclimbs.

After the rockfall, continue on downstream and enjoy the stroll! No more raps, but nothing but great views, cool water, and A LOT OF MUD!!! dang - this river is super muddy!

Once you hit the last swim (couple hundred yards) where 2 logs are jammed between both walls, immediately after it is a side canyon to your North. Take that and follow it until you hit the road, in a northwest fashion. After 30minutes of walking you will be at your vehicles again.

Pretty easy. I personally would like to do this again when the river is about 30-40 cfs but anything higher than that would be dangerous especially for the youngins.

Enjoy Jeff's video (in case you wanna know what I look like, I'm the other guy wearing the white helmet and white shirt (over the wetsuit) and the guy skipping the rocks at 2:18 in the vid) followed by my pics in this thread.

Be sure to watch it in 1080p for it's full GLORY!!!

ENJOY!


Oh, like in previous fashion - copying from Jeff's Youtube page:

Be sure to watch in 1080p!


Upper Blackbox is a fun river hike if you like walking through moving water, mud, and tripping over rocks that are hidden just beneath the murky water. We did the (Short Route) which involves a 120ft rappel. There is also the option to do a 220ft rappel into the canyon, but that involves carrying a longer rope. You can do this canyon without rappelling by doing the canyon in reverse from what we did by starting at the exit and hiking up river as far as you want then turning around and going back down river. There was a guy doing that with a boogie board to help him cruise through the water instead of floating and swimming like we did. There is also the "Preferred Route" which is an additional 2-4 hours and has one 85ft rappel. There is yet another route called the "Long Route" and is an additional 2 hours on top of the Preferred Route time. Upper Blackbox is worth doing to check it off the list, but I don't see myself doing it again anytime soon. I would rather do Black Hole of White Canyon in Cedar Mesa any day! It was pretty cool to jump off those logs into the river though! that was about 8ft deep.


I shot this video with my GoPro HERO3 Black Edition camera at 1080p at 30fps and edited with iMovie. I had my GoPro mounted to my GoScope Extreme which is a telescoping pole and it works great with the J-Hook mount! Get your GoScope at http://go-scope.com.

[Sandstone Addiction]

The San Rafael River has had a few floods in the last 6 weeks, including one that peaked at over 800 cfs. That would explain the mud you experienced.

I love the canyon, lots of bang for your buck!

[Byron]

Outstanding!...jumping from the logs...I love it!

[ilipichicuma]

Sweet pictures and video! Now I really miss Utah, dang it!

[jman]

Thanks guys, it was a good time!

Although next time I would bring a boogieboard for it.

[Kuya]

Anywho - if you like hiking the Narrows - you will throughly enjoy this hike! Now Jeff (The one filming) wasn't a huge fan of the hike, but that's because he hates hiking (go figure right)! ...

Once you reach the canyon entrance, there is a large cairn of where you can downclimb to make the rap 120ft compared to 220ft (which is on the canyon rim). I believe Kuya has a TR of that and his scouts down that rap. The 120ft is a nice rap into the gorge. From rim, you can hear the river below making its way down the rock jam right here which creates numerous waterfalls and downclimbs.

Jeff Hates Hiking? how is it that you get him to go canyoneering??! ;) It is MOSTLY hiking haha. Funny that he didn't like this canyon. It is Huge bang for your buck. Easy approach, relatively easy exit and VERY beautiful scenery!

Yeah, we did the 220' drop and LOVED it. i'm not sure that I will ever do the 120' drop, the 220 was way to much fun!

[cougboy65]

That was my first big rappel. Kuya had taken me and our Scouts to The Red Ledges a month before, but I hadn't done 220 feet before. Talk about an awesome rappel! I'd like to go back and jump from the logs. That looks like fun.

[jman]

Jeff Hates Hiking? how is it that you get him to go canyoneering??! ;) It is MOSTLY hiking haha. Funny that he didn't like this canyon. It is Huge bang for your buck. Easy approach, relatively easy exit and VERY beautiful scenery!

Yeah, we did the 220' drop and LOVED it. i'm not sure that I will ever do the 120' drop, the 220 was way to much fun!

I know I know...go figure. He hates hiking. It's about the destination for him. I'm the, as cliche goes, for the journey.

So for that 220 rap, where there bolts up there or did you guys sling a rock, tree, etc. ?

[jguest]

Jeff Hates Hiking? how is it that you get him to go canyoneering??! ;) It is MOSTLY hiking haha. Funny that he didn't like this canyon. It is Huge bang for your buck. Easy approach, relatively easy exit and VERY beautiful scenery!

Yeah, we did the 220' drop and LOVED it. i'm not sure that I will ever do the 120' drop, the 220 was way to much fun!

It wasn't the hike that I didn't like about the canyon. I completely agree the hike wasn't bad. It was mostly the mud that made it hard to walk, the hidden rocks just under the water that I kept tripping over and bumping into when swimming, and trying to stand up with a full of water backpack. That got tiring. I'm sure if it wasn't so muddy and I could see the rocks it would be better. I'm not a fan of Hiking the Narrows. to many slippery rocks and the glare so you can't see the rocks.

For me I love the technical parts of canyoneering like the ropework, Knots, problem solving, hooking, rappelling, ascending, climbing, Jumping, swimming, sliding, Playing, etc...

I don't like the hiking (I hate "the burn" feeling when your tired), I have bad ankles that give me issues when hiking, especially with a heavy pack. I'm also a HORRIBLE navigator, but I LOVE technical slot canyons! So if the canyon is worth the hike to me I'll do it!

[jman]

It wasn't the hike that I didn't like about the canyon. I completely agree the hike wasn't bad. It was mostly the mud that made it hard to walk, the hidden rocks just under the water that I kept tripping over and bumping into when swimming, and trying to stand up with a full of water backpack. That got tiring. I'm sure if it wasn't so muddy and I could see the rocks it would be better. I'm not a fan of Hiking the Narrows. to many slippery rocks and the glare so you can't see the rocks.

For me I love the technical parts of canyoneering like the ropework, Knots, problem solving, hooking, rappelling, ascending, climbing, Jumping, swimming, sliding, Playing, etc...

I don't like the hiking (I hate "the burn" feeling when your tired), I have bad ankles that give me issues when hiking, especially with a heavy pack. I'm also a HORRIBLE navigator, but I LOVE technical slot canyons! So if the canyon is worth the hike to me I'll do it!

Lol - the man himself. Well that clears it up.

[Kuya]

I know I know...go figure. He hates hiking. It's about the destination for him. I'm the, as cliche goes, for the journey.

So for that 220 rap, where there bolts up there or did you guys sling a rock, tree, etc. ?

We slung a few Juniper Trees and used those for anchors. we had to us a lot of webbing to do it, but it worked well. There is a set of bolts and chains just below where we rigged our anchors also.

It wasn't the hike that I didn't like about the canyon. I completely agree the hike wasn't bad. It was mostly the mud that made it hard to walk, the hidden rocks just under the water that I kept tripping over and bumping into when swimming, and trying to stand up with a full of water backpack. That got tiring. I'm sure if it wasn't so muddy and I could see the rocks it would be better. I'm not a fan of Hiking the Narrows. to many slippery rocks and the glare so you can't see the rocks.

For me I love the technical parts of canyoneering like the ropework, Knots, problem solving, hooking, rappelling, ascending, climbing, Jumping, swimming, sliding, Playing, etc...

I don't like the hiking (I hate "the burn" feeling when your tired), I have bad ankles that give me issues when hiking, especially with a heavy pack. I'm also a HORRIBLE navigator, but I LOVE technical slot canyons! So if the canyon is worth the hike to me I'll do it!

yeah, the mud that builds up in that canyon can be awful! I try and do this canyon in the early spring before all the run off. The water is beautiful and clear then :)

[Eric Holden]

Backflips=Extreme Canyoneering!

[jman]

Backflips=Extreme Canyoneering!

EXTREME! ILLEGAL RAPPEL! ILLEGAL JUMPING! ILLEGAL CANYON! NUDE RAPPELLING! MOUNTAIN DEW!! HARDCORE!

Now I just need the movie trailer guy to say that at the beginning of the video (even though it had none of that in there).

[accadacca]

A+ on the video. AWESOME!