Carbon Canyon
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| | Difficulty:2A V (v1a1 V) Raps:0
Red Tape:Permit required Shuttle:None Vehicle:Passenger Watercraft:Yes | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Best season: | Spring;Fall
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36.1543, -111.8305
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WaterflowIntroduction
A wonderful backpacking trip to a very short, decent, non-technical stretch of Tapeats sandstone narrows - a four-star backpacking trip with a two-star canyon as a side trip.
In his book, Todd Martin lists the driving mileage from Highway 64 to Lipan Point as 9 miles - this is incorrect. The mileage from where Highway 64 turns right onto Desert View Drive (still Highway 64) to Lipan Point is right around 19.8 miles. The mileage listed coming from Highway 89 (from Cameron) seems to be correct.
Approach
My only note to add to the guide book beta for the approach would be to not waste any time at all looking for the rafter trail that heads up Lava Canyon from the beach. It is more straight forward and more enjoyable to simply hike directly up along the creek.
Descent
Short and straight forward. One bypass at a 25 foot dryfall can be found on the right (cairned) 15 feet before the drop.
Exit
Aside from being frowned upon by the park (since hiking trails are available), I would discourage the use of a packraft to float back to the beach at Tanner delta after completing a descent of Carbon Canyon for its difficulty as well. The river is fairly narrow in this area, making it quite swift and difficult to get to shore to portage between the frequent whitewater obstacles. Even though there is only one named rapid along the way (Lava Canyon Rapids - or "Chuar" after Chuar Lava Hill - as rafters call it) which is easily portaged on river right, many of the riffles afterwards can be quite challenging and dangerous with waves up to about 4 feet and difficult hydrolic features to escape. Another section was shallow without warning and I smashed my butt on more than a few large boulders along the way. Much easier would be to take a light boat and float from Carbon Canyon to take out where you put in to float to Lava Canyon earlier in the day and hike back on the easy, scenic Beamer Trail.
Red tape
Beta sites
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Super Amazing Map : Carbon Canyon -
Grand Canyoneering Book by Todd Martin : Carbon Canyon
