Conditions:Knotted Rope Canyon-20250419135352
Latest: |
13 Apr 2025 (2 mos ago) |
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| Reported by: | Dfager55 (16 reports) | |
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| Quality: | Good |
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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: |  7 hours
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Team: 3 people with experience level Advanced
Trip report URL:
Comments: April 13th, 2025, team of 3 in knotted rope. Canyon was in very low water conditions and definitely harder. This made for a good day practicing potholes escapes but was certainly not a playful romp through the water. Several partner assists, pack tosses and even a potshot toss (mostly for practice) were used. Be prepared for these conditions if doing this canyon.
All condition reports
| Date | Quality | Waterflow | Wetsuit | Difficulty | Time | Team | Reported by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Good | Deep pools
| Thin wetsuit
| Special challenges | 7 hours
| 3 people Advanced | Dfager55 (16 reports) | |
Comment: April 13th, 2025, team of 3 in knotted rope. Canyon was in very low water conditions and definitely harder. This made for a good day practicing potholes escapes but was certainly not a playful romp through the water. Several partner assists, pack tosses and even a potshot toss (mostly for practice) were used. Be prepared for these conditions if doing this canyon.
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| Good | Deep pools
| Thin wetsuit
| Easy |  11 hours
| 2 people Intermediate to Advanced | Tcarlisle (75 reports) | |
Comment: Summary:
Group of 2. Intermediate to advanced. Single vehicle so we started and ended at Hidden Splendor airstrip. Hiked the road over to the Knotted Rope approach, descended the canyon, and exited up Muddy Creek back to Hidden Splendor. 11 hours 15 minutes car to car. Wetsuits included farmer john and full. The Canyon: The approach was quite straight forward using RTR beta. Donned wetsuits at the first sign of a pothole with water. Once the potholes start they hit in rapid succession. It was hot out but with frequent pools and wind blowing up canyon at times it would be quite miserable without a wetsuit. The canyon is quite full of water. I would say water levels are around 85% full. The water is nasty. Expect oily sheens, algae blooms, and stagnation in all potholes. With the water level being nearly full most potholes are swimmers and quite a few have swim exits. With the current high water level it was pretty easy to navigate the canyon as a two-person team. As the water drops it might become a bit more challenging with just two. One particular pothole has a dead coyote in it. This one is currently a swimmer--at no point did we touch the bottom--so it is a plunge entry and a swim exit. You'll really want to minimize your time in this pool and keep your head above water. The exit geometry is flat and featureless and will become harder to exit solo as the water gets lower. A potshot likely isn't great here--maybe a packshot would work--but a partner assist should work fine; howerver, I don't know the depth or if a partner would get submerged completely. Currently the water level was high enough that a pack could be lifted up at the exit while treading water and used to beach whale up and over making for a solo exit. The lower potholes can be bypassed. At this point we were tired from a full weekend of canyons and didn't want to deal with any more putrid water, so we bypassed them and booked it out of there. Being my first time through Knotted Rope I was a bit sad to do that, so I'll be making a future return. The Exit: The last portion of the canyon has a good, obvious trail that descends down to the Muddy River. From here we exited up river back to the Hidden Splendor airstrip. The Muddy is always muddy, but currently it is the worst I've ever experienced, which is ironic because right now it is also running the clearest and most slit free I've seen it. Typically there is a layer of mud an inch or two thick on top of dryer earth which creates a muddy slip and slide through the whole canyon. Right now, though, it is just saturated deep, quicksand-like, or clay like mud that you constantly sink in swallowing your whole foot. The upside is once the you reach the old bunk house and start walking on the bank with the "trail" the sand, which is normally loose and saps energy and forward momentum, is currently drying out from recent rains. It is no longer muddy or damp, but has just enough internal moisture that it is firmly adhering to itself even under footsteps.
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Comment: Most recent conditions reported at Candition.com
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