Water Canyon

[bhalvers2002]

On September 12, 2013 after weeks of rain in the ZNP area, our 4 man crew caught a break in the weather and headed up to Hildale to do Water Canyon. It was a first for myself and 2 others, Gordon had done it a few times. We had hoped to be doing Kolob Creek, but all the slots in Zion were closed that day.

The dirt road the last 1.8 miles was a mudfest, so luckily Gordon had his truck or we would have tacked on 4 miles to our trip. We started about 12:30 pm and arrived back at the car about 6:30 (leisurely pace). We took 2 200 feet ropes (rap 4 is about 170 feet), climbed to the top (in about 1.5 hours) and had lunch. We brought our wetsuits and because there was 1-2 cfs of flow (my estimate), those came in handy. This canyon turned out to be a lot more fun that I expected.

The raps were mostly straightforward, with all anchors and webbing in good shape. We did have a minor issue on the final rap (optional) in the waterfall. When the rope was thrown (double rap) one strand got stuck halfway down underneath the overhang (not sure how). Brett was able to identify it, rap halfway down, tie off and fortunately yank it out. He was prepared to ascend the rope if that wasn't possible, but fortunately was just a minor event.

We also found an entire ram's head in one of the narrow slots (after rap 5 or so) with both horns attached to skull.

Was a terrific day. First time using my camera, so a few rookie camera techniques going on. The video link should give a pretty good flavor for the day and the canyon conditions.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_qnUezwhOSI

[Jolly Green]

Going through a canyon when it is flowing makes it so much better. Nice video. Some of those pools looked a little mankey despite the flow, any stench?

[Slot Machine]

Whoa, you just put Water Canyon on my to-do list. Love the shots around the 5 minute mark.

Welcome to Bogley!

[Bshelton]

Did this canyon for the first time this weekend. Well worth the trip! I'll defiantly do it again.

[pikan]

Hmmmmm.....may have to do this one Saturday!

[kaniukr]

Hi Brad, Looks an amazing canyon. For someone who isn't a canyoneer can you hike up and/or down along a lot of the rim to peer down into it. I was thinking of getting up to the top one day to see the White Wave and it would be nice to look down into Water along the route.

[Bshelton]

Yes you can hike portion of the canyon from the bottom or you can hike the approach route catching several sneak peaks into the canyon along the way. Once you've played around at the top you can just reverse the route back down the trail.

I believe Tom has a good description on his site.

http://www.canyoneeringusa.com/utah/...-canyon-trail/

[Deathcricket]

Cool Vid! Never tried rapping off the tree for 3rd to last rap. I usually go off the chains you rap past at 8:50ish, looks like a cool variation, gonna have to try it next trip. You rock!

[mcweyen]

Fantastic video! So want to do this canyon now!