Conditions:Change Creek-20230517035812

Latest:	14 May 2023 (24 days ago)

Reported by:	AdamB (3 reports)
Quality:	Great
Waterflow:	High
Wetsuit:	Full wetsuit
Water temperature:
Difficulty:	Normal
Time:	5 hours

Team: 2 people with experience level Advanced

Trip report URL:

Comments: Great day in the canyon. High flow was very fun.

All condition reports

Date	Quality	Waterflow	Wetsuit	Difficulty	Time	Team	Reported by
14 May 2023	Great	High	Full wetsuit	Normal	5 hours	2 people Advanced	AdamB (3 reports)
Comment: Great day in the canyon. High flow was very fun.
8 Aug 2022	Great	Moderate Low	Thin wetsuit	Normal	6 hours	3 people Brand new to Intermediate	Mfeingol (28 reports)
Comment: Water levels were on the low side, but we had a great time taking someone very new to canyoning through the creek. Anchors were in great condition (thanks, Becca). Compared to last year, there's been some upheaval with tree and rock falls in the lower part of the canyon. The approach is also a bit more of a slog than it was in the past, thanks to giant fallen trees. We were grateful for the flagging a couple of times where the trail was hard to spot. At R8 the bolt station is very exposed. We opted to rig a traverse line from a log instead of multi-staging from the R7 anchors.
24 Jun 2022	Good	Moderate	Thick wetsuit	Normal	5 hours	4 people Advanced	Mads (46 reports)
Comment: Fun flow right now! There were huge floods in Change Creek this winter/spring and a lot of new logs and debris in the canyon. We spent time cleaning up and sawing away the most annoying stuff. R1 anchor was buried under 4” of gravel. R3 flow has been completely diverted to DCL with no flow at the rootball anchor, due to new tree fall that caused gravel to build up DCR. R7 bolts were buried by a landslide and fallen trees. We excavated them but we do NOT recommend using them as after we moved on we saw rockfall coming down right where the bolts were — use the DCR tree instead and link R7 and R8. We cleared the approach trail of overgrowth, checked and fixed up all of the anchors, and the canyon’s good to go.
15 Aug 2021	Good	Very Low	Thin wetsuit	Normal	3 hours	5 people Beginner to Intermediate	Ecakiryan (12 reports)
Comment: Good conditions. Even though water is low, it still made a fun outing. 3 of us had 3mm wetsuits on, while 2 people did not wear a wetsuit.
18 Jul 2021	Good	Low	Full wetsuit	Easy	8 hours	8 people Brand new to Advanced	Mads (46 reports)
24 Jun 2021	Good	Moderate Low	Full wetsuit	Normal	4 hours	6 people Beginner to Advanced	Beccap (37 reports)
Comment: good, friendly flow. Note: R2 does not need webbing, and the bolts are best left unlinked. While it's out of the main flow, it's not out of the path of potential winter flood damage. If a tree limb gets caught on webbing left behind, it will destroy these bolts. Please leave them unlinked. The rope pulls just fine if you back away from the base of the rappel for a good pull angle.
4 May 2021	Good	High	Full wetsuit	Normal	6 hours	9 people Brand new to Advanced	Andrewsandstrom (40 reports)
Comment: The trail is in good condition, well marked. It had rained hard the night before so the creek was full at the parking lot. Not a real issue because most rappels have the option to go to the side of the flow. Stuck a rope on the large rappel on the multi stage, but were able to release it because there was a rope going down the dry side and folks still up top to give it a yank. Really like this canyon for beginners
1 Nov 2020	Good	Moderate	Drysuit	Normal	5 hours	3 people Brand new to Intermediate	Beccap (37 reports)
Comment: I was lured by the "58 and sunny" forecast and envisioned myself rappelling in moderate-high flow with sunshine greeting me at the bottom of each drop... but if I had used my head I would have realized that of course a north facing creek doesn't get a single minute of sun on November 1. Definitely a dry suit day and two of us were in wetsuits. We stayed just above shivering but only by choosing the dry lines. The water was very cold. Still, it was nice to get out canyoning. I'm skeptical that the stream gauges mean much for flow indication in this creek, so I'll share the recent weather patterns: In the middle two weeks of October, North Bend got something like 7" of rain. The water tables were definitely saturated. This past week has been dry and sunny, with the exception of 1/4" rain early Friday morning. With a 1 mile catchment, the flows drop quickly - just a week of dry weather and it was a solid moderate flow. Change creek is really improving thanks to the efforts of a handful of folks in the community. Great to see well-placed bolts taking the place of some natural anchors that were causing quite a bit of erosion.
31 Oct 2020	Great	Moderate	Drysuit	Normal	4 hours	3 people Intermediate to Advanced	Coops (57 reports)
Comment: First time down Change Creek for the group. Started hiking up at ~10am; fully geared-up at the top by 11am; and back at the car for 2pm. We spotted the reference point from the path (and even had cell signal to compare it to ropewiki). We had fun getting pounded in the (cold) flow, but it wasn't a problematic volume, nor was it unavoidable if desired. Probably at the limit of an average wet suit, I was glad to have a dry suit on. Despite a fun & fast day we still had some rope grief. The rope wouldn't pull on R2, so had to be ascended and re-rigged with less friction. Then on R3 we core-shot the rope on the sharp lip at the top, so we "creeped" the ropes from then on. An all round great (half) day out!
19 Apr 2020	Good	Moderate	Thick wetsuit	Normal	4 hours	5 people Intermediate to Advanced	Andrewsandstrom (40 reports)
Comment: The newer trail up is in great shape and dead ends at first rappel. Brushed some of the branches out on the way down, for easier pulls. This canyon could use the benefit of a couple bolts. Beta is good, water is cold. There is no swims, waste deep at best, and a couple of good shower style rappels, with options to stay dryer on more slick rocks. Third trip this year :)
1 Mar 2020	Good	Moderate Low	Thick wetsuit	Easy	3 hours	5 people Brand new to Advanced	Skypilot (4 reports)
Comment: The new Trail up is in great condition. Checked all webbing and did not need to replace any. Placing bolts in the future would improve safety and rappel routes. Anchors were easy to locate. We ran the canyon with 3 rope teams, constantly moving ahead to set the next rappel. Hike up with a pack will test your legs but the scenery and quick succession of rappels made it worth while. Rocks not that slippery compared to Hall creek next canyon over.
22 Jul 2017	Good	Low	Thin wetsuit	Normal	7 hours	4 people Brand new to Intermediate	Beccap (37 reports)
Comment: We chose this creek for the purpose of playing around with rigging systems and practicing new skills, so we took our time. We also definitely lost 45 minutes to route finding in the beginning. The creek was running enough to be fun but not at all intimidating. Definitely a good beginner waterfall canyon, though the slippery blocky rappels were a bit heady for the climbers in our group who are used to dry rock and would be quite heady for someone new to rappelling and rope management. Still, everyone had a lot of fun, tried out some new things and got to gain experience in a pretty benign canyoning environment.
1 Jul 2017	Good	Moderate Low	Thin wetsuit	Normal	5 hours	2 people Beginner to Advanced	Screutz (12 reports)
Comment: The approach route is still flagged at the beginning and is well-flagged at the end, but the trail is hard to follow in some places in between, we definitely lost some time to route-finding. Flow level was good, most rappel anchors are currently set for dry or nearly-dry rappels; in retrospect it would've been more fun to re-set them to go down the watercourse. Very little debris/brush in the canyon, mostly easy (albeit slippery) walking between drops.
19 Jun 2016	Great	Significant	Full wetsuit	Normal	4 hours	5 people Brand new to Expert	Tiffanie (139 reports)
Comment: We ran this canyon after it had rained continuously for the past 2 days. Flows were moderate high but most of the rappels are out of the water/lower flow section of the waterfalls. Great canyon to take beginners. Those more advanced may want to adding anchors that will set the rappel line directly in the water course for more fun. The last rappel (going through the chute) is fun!
1 May 2016	Good	Significant	Full wetsuit	Normal	4 hours	4 people Intermediate to Expert	Jesseahouser (11 reports)
Comment: The water was cold, but it was a warm, sunny day. We had a relaxing few hours in the creek and also cleaned up some of the anchors. This canyon could be best enjoyed by advanced canyoners just a little earlier in the season, or perhaps after a rain.

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