Conditions:Orderville Canyon-20250415010813
Latest: |
12 Apr 2025 (6 days ago) |
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| Reported by: | Alexstoll (1 reports) | |
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| Quality: | Great |
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| Waterflow: | ||
| Wetsuit: | Thin wetsuit |
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| Water temperature: | ||
| Difficulty: | Easy |
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| Time: |  8 hours
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Team: 2 people with experience level Brand new to Beginner
Trip report URL:
Comments: Great conditions. First few miles holding consolidated snow and several inches of ice, most of which was just sitting on the creek bed. Lots of deep mud. Flow started quite far down the canyon compared to our expectations. First obstacle does not have the bolts the guidebook describes, just the holes. Waterpark section was awesome. The moki steps waterfall currently has a big log in it that can be slid down like a bull rider - fun.
All condition reports
| Date | Quality | Waterflow | Wetsuit | Difficulty | Time | Team | Reported by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
12 Apr 2025
| Great | | Thin wetsuit
| Easy | 8 hours
| 2 people Brand new to Beginner | Alexstoll (1 reports) |
Comment: Great conditions. First few miles holding consolidated snow and several inches of ice, most of which was just sitting on the creek bed. Lots of deep mud. Flow started quite far down the canyon compared to our expectations. First obstacle does not have the bolts the guidebook describes, just the holes. Waterpark section was awesome. The moki steps waterfall currently has a big log in it that can be slid down like a bull rider - fun.
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| Good | Very Low
| Rain jacket
| Easy | 8 hours
| 2 people Intermediate | Ryandc (8 reports) | |
Comment: We did the Birch -> Orderville -> Narrows route, which totaled 12 miles, on Saturday October 7 2023.
-- Red tape -- This trip requires a permit. The permit office at the visitor center has limited hours, and do not prioritize expediency in their issuance thereof. And if you say "Eh, I'll just grab my permit at Kolob Canyon VC," they didn't pick up their phone at all on Friday. Permits are also now $5 flat fee + $5 per person. I'd planned to pick up my permit on Friday, but a 90 minute delay on I15 nixed that notion. Saturday, the VC parking lot filled up super fast, and so I didn't get my permit in hand until 9:15 and wasn't at Birch until 10. -- Road conditions -- The jeep road to Orderville is dry but rocky (I spotted a car there in case we wanted to come back up Orderville). Bring a genuine high-clearance, preferably narrow-track, vehicle (4Runner, Tacoma, Ranger, etc.). Birch's trailhead is right on North Fork County Road, and no issues at all there. -- Canyons -- I'll do my Birch report elsewhere. Birch was dry, and upper Orderville was dry. Orderville had only two or three tricky downclimbs. The old bolts under the Guillotine have been pulled and replaced with a single bolt and rap ring. This was the only rappel at all in Orderville. I've seen some beta indicate 3 rappels, some indicate 2, but right now - in present conditions - it's just the one. That one's downclimbable with a handline, but due to an inflamed knee, I felt safer on rappel. I looked for bolts on the other downclimbs but didn't see any; some were present last year and I might have just overlooked them. That rappel was the only time we broke out a rope, line, or harness in Orderville. All the other downclimbs were doable without a handline, either stemmable or via proper use of the various logs that are jammed in them. Also, wetsuits were not necessary. We saw one other group in Orderville wearing shorty wetsuits. Partner and I wore cargo pants and jackets and were fine. Only one pool was neck-deep or deeper, everything else was walkable. That's... really about it. Orderville is always fun, always a good day of mild challenges. Time from car to Sinawava was 8 hours, almost on the dot (we were racing in the Narrows to make sure we made the last shuttle).
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| Good | Moderate Low
| Thin wetsuit
| Normal | | 5 people Beginner to Advanced | Tcarlisle (73 reports) | |
Comment: Group of 5. Descended Orderville via Birch Canyon (See Birch Canyon page for condition/trip report). It has rained recently and the whole canyon has a top layer of mud. It is really slick. The water doesn't start until about the last mile of the canyon--where it narrows up and gets really beautiful as well. Most of the canyon was just a muddy hike in hot sun to get to the good part. Earlier in the year with more water flows I'm sure upper portions of Orderville are much more interesting.
The water is flowing for the last mile-ish. It is not a high flow, and doesn't impede the ability to down climb drops with flowing water. There is a lot of mud/quicksand in this portion of the canyon. We packed wetsuits but with low water levels and high temperatures they were not needed. Towards the end, after we had already gone through a few swimmers, two of us put on our wetsuits more to test them out since they were new. It did make it more comfortable--if not too hot at times--but adding some water helped that out. Various things slowed us down and we had to send a runner ahead to catch the last shuttle at Temple of Sinawava to bring a car back up canyon to pick up members of the group.
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| Great | Low
| Thin wetsuit
| |  9 hours
| 4 people Brand new to Advanced | Kdinger (9 reports) | |
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| Good | Deep pools
| Full wetsuit
| Normal | 7 hours
| 1 people Advanced | Kirbside (87 reports) | |
Comment: Dropped in from Birch Hollow (Time includes Birch Hollow + Narrows exit to Temple of Sinawava). Downclimbed R1 easily. R2 could have been downclimbed but as I was solo I didn't risk it; R2 is currently ~8 feet as a log is wedged under the rap.
Some avoidable water but eventually non-avoidable chest deep sections and at least one swim. 5/4/3 wetsuit was overkill for the dry section but eventually needed. As it had rained earlier in the day some of the rock was slick enough to require alternate routing (mostly jumping / sliding into pools instead of climbing into them).
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| Good | Very Low
| None 
| Easy | 10 hours
| 6 people Brand new to Intermediate | RavKhadge (5 reports) | |
Comment: Dropped in from Birch Hollow (Time includes Birch Hollow). Water in Orderville never got substantially deeper than ankle deep. Wetsuits were absolutely unnecessary. Good hike, great way to experience the Narrows after you drop in from the last rap. Replaced webbing on last rap. Highly recommend dropping in from Birch Hollow or Englestead as Orderville by itself is rather boring and untechnical, with very short rappels that could be downclimbed by an experienced person. Mostly worth it for the Narrows section and the mile preceding it, though the dry sections have their charm too.
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| Good | Very Low
| None
| Easy |  4 hours
| 1 people Expert | Dangel (157 reports) | |
Comment: Entered from Englestead, not much to report. Typical non-technical folks coming up canyon after looking for the "split". Water was about as low as I've ever seen it. Still, it springs up from the usual places.
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| Great | | | | | CanditionBot (2096 reports) | ||
| Amazing | | | | | CanditionBot (2096 reports) | ||
| Good | Shallow wading
| | Normal | 6 hours
| 4 people Advanced | CC (93 reports) | |
Comment: R1 is 17' with bolts RDC before junction with Birch. We were able to down climb and the muddy walls make it a bit tricky.
R2: 20' bolts LDC after the junction with Englestead. We were able to down limb with some awkward hugging of the slippery rock and unseen finding of slippery footing below. The flow in the narrows seemed low. Warm day but people that are cold might prefer a wetsuit. Did not put on wetsuit until water started appearing after the junction with Englestead. One person in our group only wore the bottom half of the suit. A few chest deep pools & very scenic. Water in September was probably lower than most of the year.
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| Good | Swimming
| None
| Easy | 7 hours
| 9 people Beginner to Expert | Dangel (157 reports) | |
Comment: The canyon was totally dry for the first few miles, then starts to pickup about half a mile before the guillotine. Only did one rappel. Saw tourists all the way up to the guillotine rock.
Took and drank lots of water. Retrieved part of a rope hanging from NotImlay when tourists caused a coreshot and it fell down.
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| Amazing | | | | | CanditionBot (2096 reports) | ||
| | | | | Candition.com (287 reports) | |||
Comment: Most recent conditions reported at Candition.com, see Trip Report for full details.
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| Amazing | | | | | CanditionBot (2096 reports) | ||
| Amazing | | | | | CanditionBot (2096 reports) | ||
