Conditions:Dothraki-20250120174443
Latest: |
19 Jan 2025 (27 days ago) |
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Reported by: | Braxtagonia (6 reports) | |
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Quality: | Great |
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Waterflow: | Dry |
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Wetsuit: | None |
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Water temperature: | ||
Difficulty: | Special challenges |
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Time: | ![]() |
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Team: 5 people with experience level Intermediate to Advanced
Trip report URL:
Comments: Group of 5, car to car 5hrs 15mins Took the Dragon’s Back approach, I’d highly recommend it over the Water Canyon approach to anyone comfortable with class 3/4 scrambling. For an athletically inclined group, I’d say it’s definitely the faster approach option (we did it in ~2hrs). The views were awesome and the approach was half the fun. The canyon had gorgeous lighting and lots of fun drops. Be careful with the rope pull on the last rap. We toggled it and the end of the rope got stuck in a crack as we were pulling it down. We were able to get it down using a 3:1 MA from the bottom.
All condition reports
Date | Quality | Waterflow | Wetsuit | Difficulty | Time | Team | Reported by |
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19 Jan 2025
| Great | Dry ![]() | None ![]() | Special challenges ![]() | ![]() ![]() | 5 people Intermediate to Advanced | Braxtagonia (6 reports) |
Comment: Group of 5, car to car 5hrs 15mins
Took the Dragon’s Back approach, I’d highly recommend it over the Water Canyon approach to anyone comfortable with class 3/4 scrambling. For an athletically inclined group, I’d say it’s definitely the faster approach option (we did it in ~2hrs). The views were awesome and the approach was half the fun. The canyon had gorgeous lighting and lots of fun drops. Be careful with the rope pull on the last rap. We toggled it and the end of the rope got stuck in a crack as we were pulling it down. We were able to get it down using a 3:1 MA from the bottom.
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| | | ![]() ![]() | 4 people Beginner to Advanced | Cheveran (85 reports) | ||
Comment: Good fun. Time is car to car, including a short shuttle from Squirrel to Water Canyon TH. Kept our feet dry. Kudos to recent group through for replacing webbing on many anchors. Good canyon, mostly straightforward but has a few moves :)
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Ok | Very Low ![]() | None ![]() | Easy ![]() | ![]() ![]() | 4 people Advanced | Tcarlisle (70 reports) | |
Comment: Four advanced canyoneers. 11 hours car to car with a short, 1-mile car shuttle. Very little water, all of which can be stemmed over. Some spots with water are likely deep enough to potentially be swimmers.
We reworked one anchor on a chock stone to make is a cinch anchor with a courtesy. The webbing on the final anchor has two independent strands of webbing. One strand is good but the other one is starting to show some bleaching. All other anchors we bolted. This was our first time through. We understand that most [all] of the spicy down climbs have bolts now which makes this canyon easier than it was in the past. Given the history of down climbing accidents in this canyon none of us were feeling the need to do downclimbs that are now optional. As we descended the canyon our thoughts were with those who died in the recent Seven Teacups accident. Some of our group knew, and were even close friends with, those who perished so we kept them in remembrance while we canyoneered.
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Great | Dry ![]() | None ![]() | | ![]() ![]() | 3 people Intermediate | Dyln cole (43 reports) | |
Comment: Replaced webbing R1 and R9 or R10 (Small diameter tree LDC of descent, RDC of line of rappel). Did fewer than 17 rappels, approach was hot but cools in canyon. Overall good conditions, very dry.
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Great | Very Low ![]() | None ![]() | Special challenges ![]() | ![]() ![]() | 4 people Intermediate to Advanced | Mastyle2000 (2 reports) | |
Comment: Group of 4. We were dropped off and started hiking from Water Canyon Trailhead, just before 0700 hours. Took us 4 hours to get to the top of first rappel. Steep climb up to the top of Water Canyon and another 2 miles in mostly sand made for a tiring approach. Took us 9 hours from start of first rappel to the bottom of last rappel. Even though the write up here says there are 17 rappels, did 18 and possibly 19. We hiked out to Squirrel Canyon Trailhead.
Watch out for fine sand on rock and ledges. Makes walking slippery. All anchors are in good condition. For many/most anchors, you have to extend your reach so make sure you get your safety tether in FIRST before rigging it, especially considering there is fine sand to make the reach a little slippery. For the 150 rappel, there is another anchor we passed at about 100 feet down, on a 15-inch wide ledge. It could be useful to stop there if one wanted to make it a 2-part rappel. There was some water (less than knee-deep) in the narrow cracks. In one narrow section, a narrow ledge provided good foothold ledge while traversing. But that ledge was just under water. However, I could not touch the bottom from the side of that ledge when I tried to determine how deep the water could. After rap 2, what is described as a downclimb, we found an anchor on a bush that was set back about 10 feet from the drop. After the last rappel, getting down in the wash was a bit tricky due to sliding sand/rocks and steepness. Be careful because rock is crumbly. We hiked the wash that included going over boulders for about .25 to .50 miles. After that, it was a walk in the park.
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Great | Very Low ![]() | None ![]() | Special challenges ![]() | ![]() ![]() | 2 people | Nclegg (387 reports) | |
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Great | Dry ![]() | None ![]() | Normal ![]() | ![]() ![]() | 6 people Beginner to Expert | Rbowru (53 reports),Xenonrocket (102 reports) | |
Comment: Definitely recommend taking the approach up water canyon! Would be rad for someone to add the track of that approach to the beta in the future.
We stuck a rope at the bottom of R3 (pictured here). As I was passing on rappel, I thought to myself, "wow, what a cool and interesting unique rock column!" About 2 min later, the rope fell exactly hooking this column. One person was able to make the sketchy climb up to get it using the area up-canyon and traversing on a ledge, and then she rappelled off the column to retrieve it (which worked but I would not recommended). You could probably be spared the same fate by putting the pull side of the rope on the up-canyon side when you rig R3. Some pools, but the group was able to stem around the water. | |||||||
Amazing | Dry ![]() | | | ![]() ![]() | 4 people Advanced to Beginner | RFontaine (240 reports) | |
Comment: Back again! Flew through this time with ease, clocking in at 7hrs at a moderate pace. Loved every bit of it (see my last trip report). We Started early at 6:30am. Shuttled from squirrel TH. Took water canyon approach which is very straight forward. Not too hot, lots of shade available. All webbing in good shape, I noticed a few new anchors have been placed at some of the trickier downclimbs. Definitely a super fun dry canyon! Top notch for the area!
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Good | Dry ![]() | None ![]() | Normal ![]() | ![]() ![]() | 3 people Beginner to Advanced | Canyonman117 (7 reports) | |
Amazing | Dry ![]() | | | ![]() ![]() | 4 people Beginner to Advanced | RFontaine (240 reports) | |
Comment: Incredible canyon! Immense walls all around you, seemingly cut by a giant meat cleaver! Many intricate dissolution layers etched into the beautiful sandstone. So much grandeur in this canyon, makes you feel so small.
We took the Water Canyon Approach, which was also fantastic! Water Canyon Trail is especially enjoyable with lots to see and easy hiking up an established trail to the top. Very pretty. Once topped out and heading cross country, the travel is relatively easy with little elevation gain. Once dropped in, the canyon swallows you. Lots of downclimbs that require extra thought, especially the 1st one shortly after R1. Most of the rappels are quite grand and very enjoyable! We had no issue with pulls throughout canyon as we rigged releasable on most anchors. There was so much to see throughout this canyon, we all really loved this one. Absolutely fantastic route!! Beta has been updated!
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Great | Dry ![]() | None ![]() | Normal ![]() | ![]() ![]() | 10 people Beginner to Advanced | JonC (3 reports) | |
Comment: Decided to use the Water Canyon approach. At "Top Rock", we cut back towards the Dothraki drop in. Fun canyon, after rap 1 there was a spicy downclimb that most in our group was not comfortable with. We set an anchor pretty far back but the pull worked flawless. Some skinny sections that required pack passing. Plenty of awkward starts. The final rap says 180+/-. We noticed another anchor station down about 50'. We ended up setting another rope at the lower station but I think the 180' is counted from the top station and cuts out an unnecessary rap station. I would advise to double check this rope length before committing though.
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Good | Dry ![]() | None ![]() | Normal ![]() | ![]() ![]() | 3 people Brand new to Advanced | Davidsnaz (23 reports) | |
Comment: Great weather just over freezing at the start but the sand track gets you working quickly to warm up. . Definitely some fun scrambles up the gully. You earn the view as you reach the saddle. Canyon was dry with the exception of one small avoidable section prior to the last rap. Slower canyon movements with a couple of brand new people were a bit slow and we meat anchored a couple of the downclimbs for a total of 19 raps for day.
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