Conditions:Death Pit Canyon-20211230171058

Latest:	29 Dec 2021 (3 yrs, 9 mos ago)

Reported by:	Ryhar (12 reports)
Quality:	Good
Waterflow:	Dry
Wetsuit:	None
Water temperature:
Difficulty:	Advanced
Time:	8 hours

Team: 2 people with experience level Advanced to Brand new

Trip report URL:

Comments: With a team of 2 (one of us needing twice as long as the other to hike out), we were car to car in 8 hours using the Bighorn Canyon exit.

Similar to Weeping Spring, the exit up Bighorn was the scenic highlight of the outing for me. The "Death Pit" poses an interesting problem especially for first person down. Although not terribly difficult to avoid, the risk of pendulum is not without consequence. After trying the high line (the obvious line when looking down) and deciding there must be an easier way, I descended below to check for a lower line. This resulted in the need to ascend back to the high (only) line. It is very doable but the first person needs to be competent. The second (and last) person in our group had no trouble with the confidence of a fireman belay and a redirect. The "canyon" below here is very straight forward. We went only days after some significant rain and were able to stay completely dry.

The lower portion of Bighorn is considerably more overgrown with Tamarisk than I remember from 6 or 7 years ago despite there being some obvious restoration work not far up from the beach.

All condition reports

Date	Quality	Waterflow	Wetsuit	Difficulty	Time	Team	Reported by
4 Oct 2025	Amazing	Very Low		Normal	16 hours	3 people Beginner to Intermediate	Bearett (7 reports)
Comment: First time for everyone in this canyon! Awesome day!
4 Oct 2025	Amazing	Deep pools	Thin wetsuit	Easy	1 hour	3 people Beginner to Intermediate	Lwd05 (4 reports)
Comment: Great time at Keyhole. Anchors looked to be in good condition. Water was either a swimmer or chest deep in some locations. My 3mm wetsuit worked perfectly for this canyon. Beware of the handline located near the end as it can be hard to spot if needed.
4 Oct 2025	Amazing	Deep pools	Thin wetsuit	Normal	4 hours	3 people Beginner to Intermediate	Lwd05 (4 reports)
Comment: Great time at Pine Creek today. A few swimmers scattered throughout. Should have opted some better thermals. Final rappel on the right side is in good shape. Didn't see any holes within the faux floor.
4 Oct 2025	Good	Dry	None		6 hours	3 people Intermediate to Expert	Rickinlo (18 reports)
Comment: Observation Point Canyon is open again. Replaced webbing on most drops (except 2nd to last which weirdly looked brand new). The 2nd rappel (below the long down climb) has options... People have anchored off of several ugly bushes with uglier pulls. We went further down and left and used a moderate tree, but the sandy exposed down climb sucked and had lots of loose rocks to knock off the drop. There were some large rocks that looked possible to anchor off of in the middle of the (left) watercourse that may have been the best option?
3 Oct 2025	Great	Moderate Low	Full wetsuit	Normal	3 hours	2 people Intermediate to Advanced	Canyonero (8 reports)
Comment: Great canyon with some standout fun features if you don’t mind a few spectators. R3 anchor situation is a little convoluted right now, with a pointless anchor at the very top that we’ll remove on the next run. R6 log is still there, we routed the rope below it and the pull was fine. Enjoy the flow on R2. Slide is still good and a bunch of fun. We did the loop starting from the bottom, even without the shuttle it’s an easy 30 minute approach. We took our time with a very slow relaxed pace, could easily do it in 2 hours car to car.
3 Oct 2025	Good	Moderate Low	Thick wetsuit	Easy	3 hours	3 people Advanced	Shyamv (7 reports)
Comment: All anchors were good, slides and jumps were more shallow than normal. Shallow technique is required even for jumps and slides that normally go. More moss than peak season, watch for slippery edges and climbs.
2 Oct 2025	Good		Rain jacket	Normal	4 hours	2 people	Canyoncowboy (25 reports),Ralex (4 reports)
Comment: Leisurely stroll through Bonita with plenty of breaks. Toggle was used on R2 and R4; I’d recommend ghosting R4 because pull can be difficult. R3’s anchor was difficult to pull from as well, but not too challenging and would have been easy to ascend. Water level’s picking up in Bonita, and I found myself a little chilly at times in a 2mm and rain jacket. Looking forward to running this one come spring-time!
1 Oct 2025	Great	Moderate Low	Thin wetsuit	Normal	3 hours	2 people	Canyoncowboy (25 reports)
Comment: Fun on a Wednesday afternoon, all anchors were in great condition. Had our eyes out for changes to the canyon after recent regional flooding. Noticed some quicksand early in the canyon, and the upside down tree seems to have shifted position a little bit, making the opening to rappel through even smaller. Be careful
29 Sep 2025	Great	Low	Full wetsuit	Normal	8 hours	5 people Brand new to Advanced	EricAbseil (8 reports)
Comment: On the chilly side. Sun was a little low in the sky to really warm us up, despite high of 80 degrees. Found new pull on Metlako - straight down in the rap line is a little ledge maybe 15' above the water line. Rap into the water, get pushed DCL maybe 15-20' until an obvious rib angles up & left out of the water. Scramble up & pull. Came down easily. For the exit from the lower section, continue downstream until you see a large, obvious opening - past a rather large boulder DCR. There are a couple of little use paths leading out of the stream bed prior to the boulder, they lead out but include unnecessary bushwhacking.
29 Sep 2025	Great	Dry	None	Normal	8 hours	3 people Intermediate	Spliff Riff (5 reports)
Comment: We absolutely loved this canyon. While the hike is long, it is beautiful the whole way up. All anchors were in excellent shape, even after a week of storms. While we did not use the anchor for the downclimb section between R1 and R2, we checked it, and it is also good. I updated the Descent information as R5 was inaccurate. We could not find a tree anchor LDC, and a great rock anchor was set up, essentially in the watercourse (slightly LDC). We ghosted all raps over 100' and found the pulls to be easy. Lastly, I would say that you don't need to downclimb the last ledge of R4. Set the rope to 80' and rap all the way down. Follow the watercourse to R5.
29 Sep 2025		Moderate Low	Thin wetsuit	Normal	File:TimeX.png day File:BarX.png	2 people Beginner to Intermediate	D00d3r1n022 (2 reports)
Comment: All bolt stations found except rappel 5 or 6. Found relatively new sling/ring around pinched boulders dcr and slightly higher. Skipped rap 2 or 3 and jumped 12 ft into 5-6 ft pool. Scrabble up and around dcr. Used the bailout as the top of the canyon was very fun and satisfying. Definitely plan for poison oak. Realtively easy hike out compared to Myo.
28 Sep 2025	Good	Low	Thin wetsuit	Normal	5 hours	5 people Advanced to Expert	KelMo (14 reports)
Comment: Better than expected first descent! We bolted the 2 big drops, but everything else can be done with natural anchors. I wore a 3mm wetsuit and was fine. Fun exit up the penstock pipe; there's a small amount of poison oak on the climb.
28 Sep 2025	Good	Dry	None	Normal	1 hour	2 people Beginner to Advanced	BryceM777 (24 reports)
Comment: Although there are some pretty gross algae pools that look to be about waist deep in the beginning, all of the pools can be avoided with some careful down climbing and rope-work. We started at R1 which is the toughest pool to keep out of and stay dry but overall not too challenging. Someone with good down climbing skills can rappel at the start and then stand on some good rocks just before the water RDC. After I down climbed, I set up a guided rappel to get my wife down to stay dry. I made the conservative choice to rig a 2 point anchor with webbing off the rebar and cord off a downed tree trunk to beef up R1 for the tensioned line and then cleaned up everything at the end of the trip. R2 is the next hardest pool to avoid but completely possible to walk around, just make sure not to slip on the muddy section right next to the pool. The rest of the canyon is pretty dry at the bottom but all the wraps were pretty slimy and slippery so extra care should be taken not to slip. Your ropes and shoes will also get full of mud and I certainly washed both of these right away after the canyon. This is definitely not the place to bring your brand new canyon newt. Down canyon we did see a tomato bush and colorful flowers growing which was pretty neat. The grand finale to the whole canyon was the beach exit into Lunada Bay which was a fantastic place to throw on the bathing suit and wash off any algae and canyon gunk. The beach exit and staying dry imo is what gives this canyon a passing grade. The 1 hour time includes the time in the canyon and the short hike back up (I paused the time we took for swimming which added another 1-2 hours). The anchors were pretty solid but just in case, I backed up every anchor for my wife. No anchors failed on us for the whole duration of the trip as expected. Wouldn’t recommend traveling out of your way to do this one but if you happen to be in the area it’s certainly worth a one time trip.
28 Sep 2025	Great	Moderate High	Thick wetsuit	Normal		2 people Intermediate to Advanced	Lushkiddy24 (2 reports)
Comment: Awesome time in the canyon with a little extra juice. Canyon has been cleaned out a bit so it looks lovely. Rap 2 entrance log has moved to DCR and there is a huge log on the 2nd stage to the left of the chute. Big log at the bottom of rap 4 is gone so its a clean pool. jump after 4 has changed a bit as its filled above the jump and now has a small pool and the pool below seems deeper. Log jam after jump is huge now. As always, such an amazing canyon!
27 Sep 2025	Great	Moderate	Full wetsuit	Normal	10 hours	5 people Advanced to Expert	KelMo (14 reports)
Comment: Lovely fall day out. Temperatures were more moderate, and most of us were happy we had our thicker wetsuits. Flow was moderate (or even moderate low). 10.5 hours from car to car, full canyon with 5 advanced canyoneers moving at a moderate pace. As others have noted, approximately 0.5 miles of the approach road are impassable in a vehicle, while the rest of the road is in great condition. There were fresh tire tracks past the unpassable part of the road. Considering the approach took us 3 hours, it may be worth figuring out how to drive in and shuttle from the other side. From the road to the canyon, we did not follow the GPS tracks and instead stayed on the ridge to the left and worked our way down. It was a reasonable bushwack with minimal poison oak and probably only took 15-20 minutes, unlike previous trip reports that followed the GPS tracks. We ghosted most of the canyon, but added new bolts at two of big drops to put them into the flow. Should have added one at the last big drop, but second-guessed ourselves. It would be a fantastic rappel if someone were to go back and a bolt to rap in the flow. Warning: there are boulders underwater at the last jump/rappel. We were tired and ended up with 2 sore ankles from not properly scoping the jump. Thankfully, it was nothing more than that. Beta is updated with all new information.

...additional reports

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