Black Canyon
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| | Raps:6 - 8, max ↨170ft
Red Tape:No permit required Shuttle:Optional Vehicle:High Clearance | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Condition Reports: | 17 Mar 2025
"Lower narrows run. Flow was low but water clarity was nice. Multiple slides and jumps in play. 5mm wetsuit was manageable, but a few in the group wore |
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| Best season: | Winter Spring Summer Fall
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34.6547, -112.0699
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Introduction[edit]
A long backcountry adventure, navigating through slick gorges, brushy streambeds, and finishing with a short but beautiful section of narrows.
Best done in class C mode. Snow up top followed by rains really gets this canyon cranking (videos below).
A few nice back country camp sites exist at the top before the technical part of the canyon. Can be done as a loop by setting a shuttle at the bottom and driving up to the upper TH and starting there, or parking up top and doing the upper loop hitting all the big raps and exiting up before (or after) the narrows to the main trail 114, then left back up to your vehicle.
Approach[edit]
Start from upper Black Canyon trail head following obvious trail down until eventually splitting off to follow the river (reference GPS track), or hike up from the lower Black Canyon TH.
4x4 may be needed to access to lower TH in wet conditions due to sticky mud.
Descent[edit]
Bushwhack and downclimb, following river to the first rap.
R1: 170' tree DCL (option to rap DCL to ledge and downclimb DCL to avoid pool or simply continue into pool)
Bushwhack and downclimb for quite a ways
R2: 90' rock wedged in crack DCR 2 stage
Bushwhack again quite a ways
R3: 140' rock chock LDC (may need to set up handline to safely access in high flow) drop into pool (pool avoidable via DCR ledge in low flow)
Navigate a series of small waterfalls (mostly downclimbs with some potential jumps or sides) and enter into the narrows. Note that prior to committing to the narrows there is a hikers trail which could be used to exit the canyon.
R4: 40' bolts on wall LDC
R5: 40' tree set 20' back, 10' jump, or downclimb
R6: 25' rock pinch or small tree canyon left
Exit[edit]
Hike a bit further out of the narrows, following river, then exit up canyon left (reference GPS track) Follow faint trails up the steep slope until eventually reaching the well traveled Black Canyon Trail. From here, head West up trail to finish upper loop or East down trail for lower loop/shuttle vehicle.
Alternatively, if you set up a shuttle or did the lower loop, you can decide to continue following the river all the way out to your vehicle rather than scrambling up to Black Canyon Trail (reference GPS track).
Red tape[edit]
Beta sites[edit]
Super Amazing Map : Black Canyon- CanyonChronicles.com : Black Canyon
Arizona Technical Canyoneering Book by Todd Martin : Black Canyon- ToddsHikingGuide.com : Black Canyon
Trip reports and media[edit]
https://youtu.be/FGE_hJtZGto https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.2447428001944292&type=3
