Conditions:Englestead Hollow-20250512180032

Latest:	11 May 2025 (1 month ago)

Reported by:	RFontaine (282 reports)
Quality:	Great
Waterflow:
Wetsuit:	None
Water temperature:
Difficulty:
Time:	8 hours

Team: 6 people with experience level Beginner to Advanced

Trip report URL:

Comments: Fun big drop and a fairly pretty slot! We rigged the tree far down canyon left and avoided the ice slab and pool.

Very little water in canyon. All of it can be stemmed over although none of it is deeper than calf deep. 3.5hr to Orderville

Exited down Orderville out Narrows. Orderville is incredible! very beautiful sections of narrows. No water in Orderville until half way along. Took us 3hr 15min to reach the Narrows. No swimmers, water at most waist deep.

From Ordervile out Narrows to the bus took us 1.5hrs.

No wetsuits needed, water fairly warm, even with a breeze. Neoprene booties were nice.

Total 8hrs at a leisurely pace

All condition reports

Date	Quality	Waterflow	Wetsuit	Difficulty	Time	Team	Reported by
11 May 2025	Great		None		8 hours	6 people Beginner to Advanced	RFontaine (282 reports)
Comment: Fun big drop and a fairly pretty slot! We rigged the tree far down canyon left and avoided the ice slab and pool. Very little water in canyon. All of it can be stemmed over although none of it is deeper than calf deep. 3.5hr to Orderville Exited down Orderville out Narrows. Orderville is incredible! very beautiful sections of narrows. No water in Orderville until half way along. Took us 3hr 15min to reach the Narrows. No swimmers, water at most waist deep. From Ordervile out Narrows to the bus took us 1.5hrs. No wetsuits needed, water fairly warm, even with a breeze. Neoprene booties were nice. Total 8hrs at a leisurely pace
8 Jun 2024	Amazing	Deep pools	None	Normal	11 hours	7 people Beginner to Expert	Grapefruit (34 reports)
Comment: Fun people and a fun day. There is downfall but it's not a trash compactor but any means. The walking is still pretty easy. The big rap seems scary but it's not free hanging, straightforward, easy access, etc. There was a block of ice on the shelf that was easy enough to work around. The water was avoidable but cold in that spot, but it quickly warmed up. Some members in the group were glad they had wetsuits, others really didn't want anything to do with them. Exited via orderville and the narrows.
19 May 2024	Great	Very Low	None	Special challenges	10 hours		Ryandc (8 reports)
Comment: Let's get this party started! Englestead Canyon Conditions: We replaced three anchors. We put new tan webbing at the first rap (the one further to the left), new red webbing on Rap 7 or 8, and new tan webbing on the final rap, along with new stainless rapides. However, there are a few other bits of crusty webbing that will likely need to be replaced in the lower slot. The upper slot is mostly good. The bolted rap station at Rap 4 has one spinning bolt. The stewpot at the bottom of the first stage is full of water and deadfall, roughly shin deep. Do note that this rap is 100 feet on the nose; you don't really have a lot of latitude to be tying extra knots up top. And - there is deadfall everywhere. Like, everywhere. There are tons of destroyed logs at the bottom of Rap 4, a variety of well-placed logs on some downclimbs, and one that is suspended parallel to the watercourse at about 10 feet overhead in the lower slots. Water levels are low. If you can stem over the water at rap 2 or 3 and the stewpot at rap 4, you can stay entirely dry. We exited up Orderville (full of mystery mud! Can't tell if it's dry or wet) to Wild Wind Hollow. The two upclimbs were easily managed. I think there were bolts on these in previous years, but they're gone now. No handlines to be had, either. No water is flowing, and these are all easily managed. Other than the initial 300+ foot rappel, everything can be done with 100 foot ropes. We had a 100, a 90, and a 60, and didn't have any trouble with anything. 300 foot rap was done with a Maxim Canyon Elite, which worked well. Getting started on this rappel is, I will confess, gut churning and introspective (if "What the hell am I doing?" counts as an introspective moment). Dumb stories of approach: We dropped a car at Birch Hollow and started at Englestead TH (the one accessed via Ponderosa). If you're looking for advice, don't do that. There is a use road just south of Birch Hollow TH that runs west to Bull Hollow. Take a 4x4 down this as far as you can and start there. Our plan was to start at Englestead TH, exit up WWH, then take the car at Birch back to our starter car, retrieve our rope, and go home. Well... due to a mixup with the keys, we got to walk from Birch south to the Bull Hollow road, get our rope, and exit back up to the Englestead TH. If you download a GPX track online, there's a good chance the route you downloaded is wrong. If you walk down from Englestead TH, turn breadcrumb mode on. I followed a downloaded GPX track back up after fetching our rope via Bull Hollow, and it was badly inaccurate (see the attached Gaia screencap, which shows my route following the trail Inbound, my attempt to follow a downloaded GPX track labeled Return, and the downloaded GPX track labeled Lies). TLDR: Use Bull Hollow route. If you have only a single vehicle, take your group as far as you can on the 4x4 Bull Hollow road, drop your party and gear off, take the car back to Birch TH, then trail run back. You'll catch up right around the same time your party is done rigging the long rappel.
26 Oct 2023					10 hours	3 people Intermediate to Advanced	Cheveran (92 reports)
Comment: Englestead is a beautiful canyon. The first rappel is stunning! There is ankle deep water in a couple spots right now in canyon, and knee deep heading up Orderville. We exited via the Wild Wind route. Part of our exit was in the dark, which was slow going.
7 Aug 2023	Great	Dry	None	Normal	7 hours	2 people Expert	Mason746 (12 reports)
Comment: All anchors good, well maintained. Used Redrock Shuttle from Visitors Centre, $$$ but very convenient for a two-person party. 7 hours from shuttle drop-off to Temple of Sinawava.
2 Jun 2023	Good	Deep pools	Thin wetsuit	Normal	8 hours	6 people	Natureboytimflair (68 reports)
Comment: Canyon is flowing slightly, primarily at the beginning. Heavy flash flood/mud debris in middle (use caution its unstable) also ice was was present throughout the canyon which made for a slower hike down. Was a longer day then planned with all these "fun" obstacles. Overall still very fun as usual.
26 Sep 2022	Amazing	Deep pools	Thin wetsuit	Normal	6 hours	3 people Advanced	Erek (206 reports)
Comment: Wetsuit not needed until lower section. One knee deep pool in upper section that may look deeper than really is. Friends hiked down with us and took rope for first big rap up, so we did not carry big rope through canyon. Did first rappel directly from water course, about 250 feet. Webbing looked a little worn on some rappels, did a lot of back ups and soft starts. Time is 0.5 hours approach, 2.5 hours canyon, 2 hours Orderville, 1 hour Narrows. Great route from start to end.
20 Jun 2022	Great	Very Low	None	Normal	10 hours	2 people Beginner to Advanced	Kirbside (98 reports)
Comment: First rappel no longer lands on ice. Snow is now gone from the interior of the canyon. We brought wetsuits but didn't use them. We were able to avoid all water except one almost ankle deep section. Honestly I prefer Englestead with a bit more water / snow, dry it loses some character imo. Time includes exit up Orderville out Wild Wind Hollow. While this exit is doable it is significantly longer than exiting Birch to WWH; you end up hiking ~3 miles (estimate) up Orderville before reaching the exit of Birch, then have to do the entire normal WWH exit. That said the Orderville hike isn't bad. The upclimb up the small optional rappel in Orderville is reasonable. 2 adults were able to do it without partner assist. Groups with competent climbers / partner assists should have no problems.
28 May 2022	Amazing	Deep pools	Full wetsuit	Normal	9 hours	2 people Intermediate to Advanced	Kirbside (98 reports)
Comment: First rappel lands on ice. We broke this rappel into 3 stages. Additionally it was the first multi-pitch for my partner so we ended up taking about 2 hours on the first rappel. We suited legs up after the first rappel and didn't mind the warmth. Minor snow bridges throughout the canyon added to the fun. Time includes exit down Orderville to Temple of Sinawava.
27 May 2022	Good	Very Low	Thin wetsuit	Normal	8 hours	4 people Intermediate to Advanced	Nclegg (417 reports),Pam (14 reports)
Comment: Residual snow in canyon. Mud and water below knee depth. 3/2 wetsuit was not necessary for Englestead but was useful for Orderville. Time reflects an exit down Orderville and through The Narrows to the Temple of Sinawava.
26 May 2022	Great	Very Low	None	Normal	6 hours	6 people Intermediate to Expert	Natureboytimflair (68 reports)
Comment: Snow/Ice at head of canyon. Second rappel had ankle deep water. All other puddles are avoidable until end of orderville canyon. 3mm wetsuit provided enough warmth from orderville to the Temple of S. All anchors looked appropriate andsafe for my group. When in doubt replace, its your life.
1 May 2022	Ok	Very Low	Drysuit	Special challenges	8 hours	3 people Intermediate to Advanced	Jme (5 reports)
Comment: What a great canyon. There is a LOT of snow and ice in it right now. The bottom on the first rap especially had Ice with someone else’s top in it. We thought that was odd. Poor people getting their ropes stuck. The first rap went smoothly for everyone. Set it with a fiddle for an easy pull. Didn’t expect for OUR rope to get stuck behind the snow and ice at the first ledge. Ended up cutting it and continuing on to find a lot of snow bridges. We made it across all of them but it was sketchy. People had a foot fall through a few times. The anchors were all solid. We had enough rope for the rest of the day. So glad we decided to do dry suits. Wet suits would have been too cold.
24 Oct 2021	Amazing	Deep pools	Thin wetsuit	Normal	8 hours	4 people Brand new to Advanced	Greatshaitan (45 reports)
Comment: First rap is awesome, pothole is filled with water and very difficult to avoid, was over my 6'2" head. About 15 raps now in the canyon with many of them having tricky starts. The last two raps were bolted but bolts have been cut by a previous party, sharp metal now protrudes the rock face, take care. Both raps are deadman anchors.
16 Aug 2021	Great	Very Low			10 hours	6 people Beginner to Expert	ShastaKittens (6 reports)
Comment: We went to this canyon after a few rains, so we were muddy. Only one short place required swimming. There were multiple places with mud pools 1-4-ft deep. In case you face similar conditions and exit to Orderville, I encourage you not to take off your wetsuit (if you're wearing one; not really needed in the summer heat) until you pass the upclimb. Upclimb is not simple, but one person can be lifted up and set up a rope for others. There is a good anchor on the left. Generally, I haven't found this canyon challenging with the exception of the first rappel and I'm a beginner. In case you're not in a great shape, you should remember that the exit takes time. It is important to have coordinates where you must go up to find the road to your car. Now about the first 300ft-rappel. We rappelled ~ 90 ft to the tiny ledge and then 200 ft. We didn't use the anchor (tree) shown on the picture here. We used the anchor left of the tree. It is also shown on the picture. Needless to say, I can only talk about the rappel we have done. If you don't consider 300ft, it is not a challenging rappel. The worst part is getting on the ledge since you're naturally rappelling a little to the left. I think experienced people will not find it hard. If you're taking beginners with you, you should consider leaving experienced person on the ledge to help others; you should also make sure beginners know how to lock off. All of it is not relevant if you are going down 300ft in one go. In case you are aggressive, have good navigation and want to run through, you can do the canyon much faster. We were not trying to break any records
28 May 2021	Amazing	Dry	None	Normal	8 hours	3 people Beginner to Expert	Natureboytimflair (68 reports)

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