Conditions:James Canyon-20250802021825
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Latest: |
1 Aug 2025 (3 days ago) |
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| Reported by: | Nclegg (428 reports) | |
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| Quality: | Great |
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| Waterflow: | Deep pools |
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| Wetsuit: | Thin wetsuit |
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| Water temperature: | ||
| Difficulty: | Special challenges |
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| Time: |  4 hours
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Team: 2 people
Trip report URL:
Comments: FR 631 was closed at the junction with the I-17 so we took the 253 instead and approached the canyon from the south rim, pioneering an extra spicy exit route. Plenty of water - a few swims and several wades. A 3/2 was nice. No dead things today.
All condition reports
| Date | Quality | Waterflow | Wetsuit | Difficulty | Time | Team | Reported by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Great | Deep pools
| Thin wetsuit
| Special challenges | 4 hours
| 2 people | Nclegg (428 reports) | |
Comment: FR 631 was closed at the junction with the I-17 so we took the 253 instead and approached the canyon from the south rim, pioneering an extra spicy exit route. Plenty of water - a few swims and several wades. A 3/2 was nice. No dead things today.
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| Great | Deep pools
| Rain jacket
| Easy |  5 hours
| 2 people Intermediate to Expert | MountainMongo (12 reports) | |
Comment: Looped with a car parked midway on FR631. Found a great drop in via an elk trail just before the first pool. Excited via sneak route just before the confluence with pump house on canyon right. Replaced webbing on the 2nd drop down climb and the 3rd drop which used to have a deadfall tree with webbing to assist down climbing. It is now a short rappel with the tree gone. Fall colors were off the hook and. No dead animals to contend with. Water levels were quite low compared to normal.
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| Good | Deep pools
| None 
| Normal | 3 hours
| 2 people | Nclegg (428 reports) | |
Comment: A couple swims and few deep wades. Water was shockingly cold in the long hallway swim, but we warmed up quick afterwards. This same pool had a deceased, maggot infested skunk floating in it. We planted a shuttle at the end of a forest road above the James / Pumphouse confluence. The canyon took 3h 15min car-to-car but a large and / or slow moving group could take much longer, so plan accordingly. Lots of non-existent forest roads shown on gaia in this area. KML track has been added to the page. Paired this canyon with Wilson Seep which made for a fuller day.
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| Good | Deep pools
| None
| Easy | 3 hours
| 1 people Intermediate | Coalemus (160 reports) | |
Comment: Deer is a foul rotting mush with ribs sticking out. Even if you rap, the water is low enough that the carcass is in its own pothole, which is avoidable. Was pretty easy to just climb down the big log here. 2 swims, a couple deep wades and some shallow wades. Water was cold but I didn't get chilled even though it was windy and overcast (monsoons). Some scum and algae in the water but they didn't smell too foul. Webbing was fine. You could do the rap as a ~20' by getting off on a big flat ledge and just stemming down from there, if you wanted to bring minimal rope.
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| Good | Deep pools
| None
| Easy | 5 hours
| 2 people Beginner to Intermediate | Coalemus (160 reports) | |
Comment: The time is exiting halfway down the canyon on the big drainage RDC just after the 40' rap (member of party had footwear difficulties). Pools were pretty full, we did a couple swims. The ungulate (deer, I think), was right where you would have to climb out of the first pool and looked pretty foul, so we simply skipped that rap LDC, which wasn't too hard. You could also climb down a large log that straddles the pool and would drop you just past it on the little rim between the 2 pools. Was hot enough that wetsuits would have been overkill but I don't know how much swimming we skipped by exiting halfway. Webbing at 2nd rap looked good.
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| Great | Deep pools
| Thin wetsuit
| Normal | 4 hours
| 3 people Intermediate to Advanced | Commonrider (1 reports) | |
Comment: Great run thru James Canyon. Most sections had pooled water, definitely cold, but a wetsuit wouldn't have been required. The pool below the first rappel has a dead and decomposing elk in it that is unavoidable. Smells pretty awful. Second rappel has two anchors, one in the watercourse off a live tree DCR. Second anchor is LDC that allows you to avoid the pool below.
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| Great | Deep pools
| Thin wetsuit
| | | The ninja ginja (1 reports) | ||
| | | | | HikeArizona.com (271 reports) | |||
Comment: Most recent conditions reported at HikeArizona.com, see Trip Report for full details.
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| | | | | Candition.com (287 reports) | |||
Comment: Most recent conditions reported at Candition.com, see Trip Report for full details.
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| Amazing | | | | | CanditionBot (2103 reports) | ||
