Canyon Creek (San Juan Mountains)

Canyon Creek (San Juan Mountains) Canyoneering Canyoning Caving

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‌	Difficulty:‌3C1 III (v3a3 II) Swift water Raps:‌3-4, max ↨100ft Metric Overall: 5.5h  ⟷7.1mi Approach: 2.5h  ↑650ft Descent: 1.5h  ⟷0.4mi  ↑480ft Exit: 1.5h  ↑1200ft No Red Tape:‌No permit required Shuttle:‌Optional 90min Vehicle:Passenger Rock type:Gneiss
Location:	37.5197, -107.7770
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Best season:	Jul-Oct winter spring summer fall Dec Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov
Regions:	North America United States Colorado San Juan Mountains  Durango

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37.5197, -107.7770https://ropewiki.com/images/e/e9/Canyon_Creek_%28San_Juan_Mountains%29.kmltopo

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Introduction

Canyon Creek is a fun aquatic series of 3 rappels in the San Juan National Forest with mining equipment at the bottom.

Approach

Advised: Park at Haviland Lake for an out and back crossing a bridge over the Animas River at the power station and hiking up the north side of Canyon Creek from the bottom. Due to the mining history in the lower section of the canyon, many trails and roads exist to get above the first jump and rappel.

Not Advised: While a car shuttle is possible to drive to the top and stream hike down the entire 4mile Canyon Creek drainage from the road, this makes for a long day and the one nice 40ft rappel into a pool that would be gained is probably not worth the effort as it was located 2 hours into a 4 hour hike of otherwise unremarkable yet pretty stream hiking.

Note: The Durango/Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad will drop people off in the wilderness: called a Short Stop. However, the train will only stop at Needleton, the entrance to Chicago Basin and Elk Park, the access point to the Colorado Trail. All of the depots on the map north of Rockwood (Tacoma, Tall Timbers, Midway...) are private and the train will not stop near Canyon, Tank or Grasshopper Creeks.

Descent

R0: hours above the lower technical section. This is the rappel that is advised to skip unless doing the from the top approach.

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  Lower section narrows begins with short jump
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  Streamwalking
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  R1: 100ft two stage rappel
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  R1: 100ft two stage rappel. Possible slide on 2nd stage (must be scouted).

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  R2: 30ft off tree CL. The toboggan is bumpy but a jump may be possible if scouted
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  R3: 40ft from rock stack
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  R3: 40ft into deep pool. Possible jump (must be scouted)

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  Jump: final jump into pool
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  Last waterfall sequence before gully exit
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  Mining Equipment at the end of the canyon, downstream after gully exit

Exit

Walk trails and old roads a short distance to the bridge by the power plant and return by the same path to Haviland Lake.

Beta sites

• Canyoning in the Colorado San Juan Mountains Book by Ira Lewis

Trip reports and media

2008. explored by Matt Brejcha
2014-09-20. Ira Lewis, Leanne Thompson, AJ Pastula, and Stephen Arhart drove to the top of the creek, took hours descending the stream course to reach the best part of the canyon, which was only the last half mile of our four mile stream walk. An alternate approach from the bottom is strongly advised.
~2014. The trail from Haviland Lake to access Canyon Creek from the bottom was established.
2018-08-19. New kml track added from Haviland Lake. New photos uploaded by Ira Lewis and Lisa Purdy.