Conditions:Little Santa Anita Canyon-20200906230436

Latest:	6 Sep 2020 (5 yrs, 1 month ago)

Reported by:	Willie92708 (1009 reports)
Quality:	Ok
Waterflow:	Very Low
Wetsuit:	None
Water temperature:	68F deg C
Difficulty:	Special challenges
Time:	3 hours

Team: 1 people

Trip report URL:

Comments: I started hiking before 7:00AM, but it was already hot on the approach trail (90+ F). The water is barely flowing, just enough to keep the pools through the small pothole rappel (R5) somewhat full. Below that rappel all the falls are totally dry; only a couple stagnant puddles remain. One significant challenge was climbing over the exit gate fence, since the steel posts were quite hot in full Sun at 10AM with 110F air temp, and I did not have gloves. Some sweat on my hands from my hair helped cool my hands just enough to make the climb.

I spent some time trimming in two spots where the poison oak is hard to avoid; now it's much easier. There are many PO runners that need to be trimmed back too.

All the anchors are OK, except the quick-link is missing from R9A, since it can be downclimbed using the chimney DCL.

All condition reports

Date	Quality	Waterflow	Wetsuit	Difficulty	Time	Team	Reported by
26 Dec 2024	Ok	Very Low	Rain jacket	Normal	3 hours	5 people	Mikeatran (85 reports)
Comment: Anchors are in good form; there was one that looked recently reslung with a 9/16" BW tubular webbing (i want to say R7/R8, the one DCR in that narrow v crack). Should be fine but with the propensity of canyoneers running this trade route I might change it in the near future. Water runs through the lull in the canyon and dries up halfway, leaving the last 3 rappels completely dry. Temp was manageable at night with a rain jacket and being expedient; pools were up to lower thigh deep in some areas.
25 Dec 2024	Ok	Deep pools	None	Easy	3 hours	1 people Intermediate	Canyoncowboy (27 reports)
Comment: Very peaceful Christmas in Little Santa Anita. Easy going run and a canyon to myself gave me a chance to run through some drills and practices. Hip deep pools early on gave way to a bone dry canyon around R11 or R12. It was definitely chilly through the dark+wet sections; I found myself wishing I’d brought a thin shorty, but ultimately warmed up nicely through the dry section.
4 Dec 2024	Good	Very Low	Rain jacket	Normal	3 hours	6 people	Eljefe62 (64 reports),Mikeatran (85 reports),Calvarez (17 reports)
Comment: Good night canyon run. Skeleton is still in the course and we ran into a cute little garder snake in the pothole. Anchors are in good condition and water level is slightly up from earlier in the month. Nice night.
1 Dec 2024	Ok	Low	None	Normal	5 hours	8 people Brand new to Expert	Eshi-1 (33 reports)
Comment: Perfect weather! Got wet to our knees. Pothole completely dry. Did a lot of Machete work. Changed Webbing on one rappel. Someone added/changed some bolts. Not the best locations :-(
29 Nov 2024	Good	Very Low	Rain jacket	Normal	1 hour	1 people	Mikeatran (85 reports)
Comment: Part of a 3 canyon Black Friday run. Anchors are in good condition except for the penultimate which had some really terrible knot that was hard to inspect (oh boy). I ended up spending a couple of minutes redoing it to a water knot that is well equalized. With the small rains the water has gotten further into the canyon but it’s still dry leading up to the pothole. 1:35 c2c
19 Nov 2024	Ok	Deep pools	None	Normal	2 hours	3 people Intermediate to Advanced	Mikeatran (85 reports),Llamafilm (12 reports)
Comment: Very heavy brush over the trail in many places. Pothole is completely dry. If you’re careful you can stay dry from the thighs up. Mike: cleared up some of the overgrown canyon kelp to help define a path after the slide/climb DCL through to the rest of the canyon. Anchors looked to be in good to fair shape. Water dries up on the hike past the second v rap DCR. Skeleton still in canyon. Fun night run.
1 Nov 2024	Good	Low	Thin wetsuit	Special challenges	5 hours	12 people	Willie92708 (1009 reports)
Comment: This was a night run and potluck party in the big pothole (special challenges). Water flow is still hanging in there (see pic).
28 Oct 2024	Good	Low	None	Normal	5 hours	4 people Brand new to Advanced	Greatshaitan (45 reports)
Comment: Another great trip through little Santa anita. Quite overgrown in a lot of places a lot of poison oak and we save the snake that was trapped in the pothole at the very end.
28 Oct 2024							Greatshaitan (45 reports)
Comment: Would like to add that I replaced 5 or 6 of the anchors in the canyon as the webbing was looking quite aged. All anchors are now in great shape.
13 Oct 2024	Great	Very Low	None	Normal	2 hours	2 people Intermediate to Advanced	Rockrobat (2 reports)
Comment: Water is low but still flowing up until the final section. A few anchors look aged and may need to get replaced soon. Poison oak is definitely present
13 Oct 2024	Good	Low	None	Normal	2 hours	1 people	Willie92708 (1009 reports)
Comment: Flow is still hanging in there ("low" flow for R1-R5 / see pics), but the flow completely stops before the big pothole. The canyon kelp is getting crazy thick in spots. The poison oak is starting to loose its leaves for the season. Lots of baby frogs are out and about.
15 Sep 2024	Good	Very Low	None	Normal	5 hours	5 people Brand new to Advanced	Mikeatran (85 reports)
Comment: Canyon trip with some folks new to canyoneering. Some anchors are looking sunbleached and may be up for replacement. The short rap station DCR out of the slidey pool has been replaced webbing and ring wise, so thanks to whoever did that. Pothole completely dry, water runs through the canyon past the low angle slab rappel though so that’s nice. All in all a good day to run the canyon seeing as the fires have knocked out a lot of other ones.
28 Aug 2024	Good	Very Low	Rain jacket	Normal	5 hours	5 people Brand new to Expert	Mikeatran (85 reports)
Comment: Night trip. Included a person new to canyoneering. Pothole was still a swimmer but is deep enough to not touch floor only directly down the chute (edge of the chute, you'll touch the ground if 6' or over). Went fishing for a carabiner that was dropped which gave the group a good understanding of how deep the chute portion is (I'd guess 7-8') from current water line. Lots of poison oak and a questionable orange webbing/rolled aluminum rap ring set up on the 4th rappel from the end (first "pool"). Given time, the team didn't replace but I likely will if running the canyon again (and still present).
14 Aug 2024	Great	Low	Rain jacket	Special challenges	5 hours	1 people	Willie92708 (1009 reports)
Comment: I spent an extra 3 hours pruning the overgrown plants, including a bunch of poison oak. Hopefully now it's much easier to run the canyon without battling all the brush. Water stops flowing before the big pothole, but there was some flow into it. Enough flow that it was mostly full of water (see pics)
7 Aug 2024	Good	Very Low		Special challenges	4 hours	4 people	Willie92708 (1009 reports)
Comment: Second hand report of a night run: At last, the last Pothole jump of an amazingly long season! To my dismay the flow had stopped at that last cute little slide well before the last 12-foot rappel. The Pothole was down at least 20 inches below the lip, but Steven and I both managed to jump safely. We each hit the "sweet spot" and neither touched bottom despite the longer drop into less water.

...additional reports