Conditions:Desperado Canyon-20201013040349

Latest:	11 Oct 2020 (4 yrs, 9 mos ago)

Reported by:	Xenonrocket (103 reports), Etphonemars (2 reports)
Quality:	Ok
Waterflow:	Dry
Wetsuit:	None
Water temperature:
Difficulty:	Normal
Time: ":10" is not declared as a valid unit of measurement for this property.	6 hours

Team: 3 people with experience level Advanced to Expert

Trip report URL:

Comments: Beta for this canyon could certainly use a re-vamp. Unfortunately we didn't take notes as we didn't expect so many discrepancies. 2nd Rappel is more like 85', unlike the 50' the map shows, or 70' longest rappel the beta originally said. 2nd to last rappel is the one with the pothole, not the last. Approach beta works fine, we took the ridge. Forecast high in Primm was 84 and temps were pretty reasonable until the last set of rappels where the rocks are quite warm and heating the air. Some wasps/bees in various bushes in the upper half of the canyon, though they didn't cause any issues. This canyon would be super fun in class C conditions with bolts if it could ever be found in those conditions-lots of smooth slides you can even do when dry. The approach has a couple of random layers of sandstone, which are kinda cool. Comparable in length and style to the Death Valley Princess Bride range canyons, though loses points for being a bit bushwaky and pokey at times

All condition reports

Date	Quality	Waterflow	Wetsuit	Difficulty	Time	Team	Reported by
2 Oct 2023	Good	Deep pools	None	Special challenges	7 hours	2 people Intermediate to Advanced	Lvbruce (13 reports)
Comment: The recent storms made the approach road very challenging to navigate. The tunnel under the I15 has waves of gravel running across it. The Tacoma brushed the top of the waves as it went over. Some of the trenches across the road could use a little fill to stop from scraping front and back of vehicle. The canyon....well it was a mess. Two anchors were completely washed away...cairn, webbing and quick link. Those are rebuilt. Three anchors only had the key rock of the cairn anchor, webbing and quick link, but no cairn. Those are rebuilt. There was a lot of water...most of it avoidable. There was one pond that had a ledge LDC about a foot under the water so you only had to get your feet wet to get around it. The water was nasty! The canyon was full of mosquitoes. I previously set an alternate anchor for the what is listed as R9 and R10 in the beta. Instead of climbing the vertical wall LDC, climb the easier climb to the right and go around a small bowl on a ledge that takes you to the last slot that has a Catclaw tree in it. There is an anchor on that tree. The rap is about 75ft (sorry forgot to measure it). The storms definitely took a toll on this canyon. Great canyon to experience and practice building cairn anchors.
29 Jan 2023	Great	Deep pools	None	Special challenges	8 hours	6 people Intermediate to Expert	Mfeingol (52 reports)
Comment: Pleasant approach with some easy climbing up laceration rock. Very pretty canyon with attractive semi-narrow sections, interesting geology, and some surprising 180 degree turns. We found several anchors in poor condition and fixed those up. The canyon is holding some water, particularly in two places that were somewhat challenging to avoid, with the first being knee deep and the latter significantly deeper. We managed to keep our party dry with some non-obvious bypassing. Exit felt long even though we'd parked along the pipeline road, which has deep trenches at each of the washes requiring extra high clearance.
14 Dec 2022	Great	Very Low		Special challenges	9 hours	3 people Beginner to Intermediate	Enswanson (3 reports)
Comment: A recent storm has really washed out a lot of the lower half of the canyon clearing a lot of brush but also filling some of the potholes. At the time of our trip there were many smaller potholes that could easily be avoided and two that required a little more problem solving if you want to remain dry. You can't always see the deeper potholes from the top of the first rappel in the series so you may want to send one person down to check out what's around the corner! I have uploaded a picture of the largest one. Again, we avoided this one but it looks pretty deep!
11 Oct 2020	Ok	Dry	None	Normal	6 hours	3 people Advanced to Expert	Xenonrocket (103 reports),Etphonemars (2 reports)
Comment: Beta for this canyon could certainly use a re-vamp. Unfortunately we didn't take notes as we didn't expect so many discrepancies. 2nd Rappel is more like 85', unlike the 50' the map shows, or 70' longest rappel the beta originally said. 2nd to last rappel is the one with the pothole, not the last. Approach beta works fine, we took the ridge. Forecast high in Primm was 84 and temps were pretty reasonable until the last set of rappels where the rocks are quite warm and heating the air. Some wasps/bees in various bushes in the upper half of the canyon, though they didn't cause any issues. This canyon would be super fun in class C conditions with bolts if it could ever be found in those conditions-lots of smooth slides you can even do when dry. The approach has a couple of random layers of sandstone, which are kinda cool. Comparable in length and style to the Death Valley Princess Bride range canyons, though loses points for being a bit bushwaky and pokey at times
9 Feb 2019	Great	Dry	None	Normal	6 hours	2 people Advanced	Tarannosaurus (26 reports)
Comment: The gps track doesn't take you to the pipeline road for the start of the approach - it takes you to a road parallel the pipeline, about 0.6 miles further away. To save yourself 1.2 miles of hiking, keep driving past the gps turnoff (i.e. keep going toward the Turtle Tears trailhead) and take the next road. The Turtle Tears trailhead is actually a closer parking area to the start of the ascent, but parking there would make the exit much worse, so parking on the pipeline road is the recommended spot. The canyon is almost entirely cairn anchors, and all were in good condition. Webbing all looked good also, with only a little bit of sun fading happening on a few pieces. Beautiful cool day for canyon (particularly when it was raining in SoCal!).
4 Dec 2016 Trip report							HikeArizona.com (271 reports)
Comment: Most recent conditions reported at HikeArizona.com, see Trip Report for full details.
28 Nov 2015	Great	Dry	None	Normal	8 hours	4 people Beginner	CC (93 reports)
Comment: The locals do a nice job with the natural anchors. Teams need be comfortable and knowledgeable on use of cairn anchors with proper rappel techniques. There is one tricky area on the approach that requires good up-climbing skills that we avoided with a bypass to the right. Access road note: the Nevada Highway Patrol shut down the road that evening at the courthouse so it prevented us from doing the other canyons the next day. Perhaps it was due to construction work or to prevent people from going off road to bypass the freeway traffic leaving the area on the busy holiday.