Conditions:Lower Ute Canyon-20220329193542

Latest:	27 Mar 2022 (3 yrs, 1 month ago)

Reported by:	Rtadlock (2 reports)
Quality:	Great
Waterflow:	Very Low
Wetsuit:	None
Water temperature:
Difficulty:	Normal
Time:	4 hours

Team: 2 people with experience level Intermediate

Trip report URL:

Comments: We used 200 foot ropes and rapped the first rappel off a tree on the down canyon right after staying high in the canyon and scrambling through some boulders. The anchor is off a tree and was in good shape and ready to go. This put us above a small water fall that we needed to down climb. Next time, we'll stop at the fist shelf, re-anchor and then we'll be able to rap over all the down climbing on the first rap. Some of the down climbing in the canyon can be tricky, especially given the canyon is granite and slippery and you may be used to sand stone. One person in our group had a small fall on a down climb due to wet shoes on the granite. No injuries, be cautious.

All the anchors were in good shape, but we did replace a pretty rusty quick link on the second to last anchor. No poison ivy at the bottom of the last rappel on this day. Some holes had water, but we were able to avoid getting wet. All in all, a great day, nice weather, and a pretty neat canyon close to town. We'll probably hit this again on our way out to UT.

All condition reports

Date	Quality	Waterflow	Wetsuit	Difficulty	Time	Team	Reported by
4 May 2025	Good	Very Low	None	Normal		2 people Beginner to Intermediate	Jmfranz (1 reports)
Comment: My daughter and I did the canyon on Sunday 5/4 and ended up struggling a bit on the last long (165') Rappel 4. Long story short there are two ropes that got left behind on Rap 4. They are imlay canyon fires, one 200' tethered to a 120'. Either the knot or biner is jammed in the tree and/or a rock ledge mid way down the last rappel. I would be thrilled to get them back if anyone goes in the next two weeks, I'll be back in GJ in two weeks and may try to retrieve then, but perhaps someone will get there before me! Thanks in advance!
5 Nov 2024	Great	Dry	None	Special challenges	4 hours	6 people Brand new to Advanced	Nawhite (1 reports)
Comment: Someone bolted all of the drops and it really annoyed me. 1) 2 pitons high on left with red webbing. 2) two bolts on left with white webbing (grrr!). This gets you to what used to be the bottom of rap 1 in the description. 3) two well placed bolts on the right with black webbing. 4) two well placed bolts in the middle of the canyon. 5) Two terribly placed bolts below the lip at a sketchy ledge on the right below a boulder that works much better especially with courtesy rigging.
27 Oct 2024	Great	Dry	None	Normal	5 hours	6 people Brand new to Advanced	French de (33 reports)
Comment: This was a great canyon as an introduction to Colorado National Monument canyoneering. We took the Corkscrew trail from the parking area all the way to the canyon drop in. The trail is in great shape. The first rappel was off two pitons, The second rappel was off of two bolts. The Third Rappel was off bolts on the right looking down canyon. The fourth rappel was off of a chockstone and a climbing sling. Our fifth Rappel was off of a sling around a large boulder that we rigged. There is a set of bolts below the ledge right side looking down canyon, but we did not see those until we were on the webbing rap looking up at the ledge. This rappel dropped us down to the large pool which was easy to step around. The sixth rappel was from some rope around a large boulder. We used a two hundred foot to take us the bottom the the canyon. This was a great canyon for all of us including a one newby,
1 Apr 2024	Good	Dry	None				Cheveran (90 reports)
Comment: Fun, straightforward canyon. There are abundant natural anchors available at every drop. There are also bolts, at almost every drop, some of the time a little out of view. We did this together with Liberty Cap to round out the day.
19 Feb 2024	Good	Very Low	None	Normal	3 hours	1 people Advanced	Dfager55 (13 reports)
Comment: Small amount of flowing water, a fair amount of ice In the water course but avoidable. 4 raps total, I went with the slung boulder along the ledge DCL at rap 1 instead of the pitons. I replaced some very old webbing around the boulder. The small rap off the pitons is fine too as I’ve done that before but it just adds an additional rappel. Two bolts that protect rappel 2 are in good shape and the best option but this is where some careful avoiding of the icy waterfall was. Instead of combining the final drops I went with 80 feet from two bolts to the big pool before final drop and used a slung boulder after. There is some climbing rope around this boulder as the anchor instead of webbing like usual but it looks solid just not redundant. There is two bolts directly below the lip from here that makes for a easier pull but its harder to set up and more exposed. A fair bit of ice buildup on this drop too.
4 Oct 2023	Great	Very Low	None	Normal	5 hours	2 people Advanced	MMclimbhigh (24 reports)
Comment: 5 hrs car-to-car with a summit of Liberty Cap and the 3 raps off the top (8 raps total). Definitely combine Liberty Cap with this canyon. All anchors in good shape. Down in Ute Canyon, the first three raps are now bolted. Rap #3 bolts are slightly tricky to locate...the rap station is just left of the watercourse down below the old rap from the chockstone. Super scenic. A fun day out!
4 Jun 2023	Great	Very Low	None	Easy	4 hours	2 people Advanced	Rockymountainbritchic (2 reports)
Comment: Fun canyon. Water was very low and avoidable in all areas with some fun down climbs. We ran this as 5 rappels making use of the middle shelf on the last rappel as we didn't like the idea of pulling the toggle over the top portion of the rappel and over the shelf - too many catch points. Rap 1 is now bolted. Rap 3 - do not use the choke stone. It could be rigged to keep the webbing out of the water flow but it's not. There is a bolder slung one shelf down that you can easily get too and the webbing will stay dry. We pulled a lot of bad anchor rigging off the canyon including non-tubular seat belt like material. Webbing in other areas was permanently wet (in the water course) and cut like butte, and sun bleached/ crispy TAKE A LOT OF WEBBING WITH YOU **
3 Jun 2022	Good	Dry	None	Normal	4 hours	2 people Intermediate	Bsantoro (3 reports)
Comment: It rained on 5/28 but a few days later the pools are still avoidable. The first rappel could be optional as we missed the first anchor slung around a boulder on the left down canyon. The granite is very slick and requires more caution than sandstone. Last rappel was easy to pull done as single rappel instead of breaking up into two.
19 May 2022	Ok	Dry	None	Normal	4 hours	1 people Advanced	Nclegg (407 reports)
Comment: Combined with Liberty Cap. Some shallow avoidable pools, otherwise very dry. Completed 4 rappels with 160’ of rope, extending webbing at R1 and breaking up the final drop into two rappels. Highly exposed approach and exit - getting too hot for these canyons. A hiker was being rescued by SAR as I returned to the TH. Probably from heat exhaustion.
27 Mar 2022	Great	Very Low	None	Normal	4 hours	2 people Intermediate	Rtadlock (2 reports)
Comment: We used 200 foot ropes and rapped the first rappel off a tree on the down canyon right after staying high in the canyon and scrambling through some boulders. The anchor is off a tree and was in good shape and ready to go. This put us above a small water fall that we needed to down climb. Next time, we'll stop at the fist shelf, re-anchor and then we'll be able to rap over all the down climbing on the first rap. Some of the down climbing in the canyon can be tricky, especially given the canyon is granite and slippery and you may be used to sand stone. One person in our group had a small fall on a down climb due to wet shoes on the granite. No injuries, be cautious. All the anchors were in good shape, but we did replace a pretty rusty quick link on the second to last anchor. No poison ivy at the bottom of the last rappel on this day. Some holes had water, but we were able to avoid getting wet. All in all, a great day, nice weather, and a pretty neat canyon close to town. We'll probably hit this again on our way out to UT.
25 Apr 2021	Good	Dry	None	Normal	4 hours	10 people Brand new to Intermediate	C Sparkles (3 reports)
Comment: Anchors in good conditions.
21 Sep 2020	Ok		None	Easy	3 hours	2 people Beginner to Advanced	Blueshade (55 reports)
Comment: Several fun moderate DCs throughout (Most higher up or near the end, some of which could be avoided depending on route chosen. Some could be slightly spicey for newbs.) We only did 3 raps. Not sure where the short one is. Must have DCed something. Also, be aware that there could be rope catch potential on the pull on some raps. There is poison ivy at the bottom of (I think it was) the last rap. Not that pretty, fun, or challenging but one of the few options around that doesn't require going to Utah. Interesting that the entire canyon is granite and not sandstone.
30 Aug 2020	Poor	Dry	None		6 hours	2 people Intermediate to Advanced	Rbowru (54 reports)
Comment: We took some extra time to explore into Ute canyon before descending the lower section. We found the beta listed did not perfectly match the current anchors in the canyon -- we did not see webbing on the first tree anchor, and we so added webbing that may or may not be the tree and possibly extended the length of the listed rappel to above 50m. We were able to complete a tricky ~15ft down climb to finish what we think was the end of the first rappel, but it would have been nicer to use more rope and stay on rappel. The last rigging point of the canyon drops you into a bush that is poison ivy, try to avoid it if you can. We ended up exitted later in the afternoon than expected and found ourselves in 100F heat.
25 Jul 2020	Great	Dry	None	Easy	5 days	5 people Beginner to Advanced	Teboda12 (4 reports)
Comment: Easy and straight forward canyon. We took our time and enjoyed the adventure. I replaced webbing at the second rappel due to sun exposure and crispy webbing; I extended the length to have a better angle.