Conditions:String of Pearls-20230910235321

Latest:	9 Sep 2023 (1 yr, 9 mos ago)

Reported by:	Celes (28 reports)
Quality:	Amazing
Waterflow:	Deep pools
Wetsuit:	Thin wetsuit
Water temperature:	60F deg C
Difficulty:	Normal
Time:	10 hours

Team: 5 people with experience level Beginner to Intermediate

Trip report URL:

Comments: We did SoP after a couple weeks of monsoon rain. The water was clear, the pearls were full with trickles, the jumps and rappels were pleasant. 1 guy had no wetsuit said it was cold. 1 guy had a vest, 2 had 3mm full wetsuit, I had on shorty, we all felt fine. It was a great adventure! Just gotta be careful about cholla cacti bits biting you on foot and lower legs on the way out! Btw don't use the gpx from ropewiki, it's off.

All condition reports

Date	Quality	Waterflow	Wetsuit	Difficulty	Time	Team	Reported by
15 Mar 2025	Great	Deep pools	Full wetsuit	Normal	8 hours	8 people	Mikeatran (84 reports)
Comment: Post storm canyon with some great canyon folk. Canyon was snowy on the approach. Took the 4wd option which shaved hike time. Anchors were in great condition and canyon was straightforward. Hike out was bushwhacky and navigating required hugging LDC. Canyon was likely in rare form and as such wouldn’t be the same conditions any other time. Amazing!
29 Mar 2024	Great	Deep pools	Thin wetsuit	Normal	7 hours	5 people Intermediate to Expert	Lvbruce (13 reports)
Comment: 4/3 wetsuits with under garment and rain jacket helped to stay warm. Water was clean and clear with a slight flow.
24 Nov 2023	Great	Deep pools	Thick wetsuit		12 hours	4 people Beginner to Advanced	Cheveran (92 reports)
Comment: Cold cold cold cold cold. There was lots of water post recent rains (several swims). The canyon was beautiful, but even with 5 mm wetsuits plus additional jackets / insulation this was a cold one. Recommend to save for warmer times of year or bring a dry suit. We found it useful to have a 230' rope, which provided a nicer landing for one of the long rappels and enabled an alternate R9 off a tree that saved some time and avoided water.
9 Sep 2023	Amazing	Deep pools	Thin wetsuit	Normal	10 hours	5 people Beginner to Intermediate	Celes (28 reports)
Comment: We did SoP after a couple weeks of monsoon rain. The water was clear, the pearls were full with trickles, the jumps and rappels were pleasant. 1 guy had no wetsuit said it was cold. 1 guy had a vest, 2 had 3mm full wetsuit, I had on shorty, we all felt fine. It was a great adventure! Just gotta be careful about cholla cacti bits biting you on foot and lower legs on the way out! Btw don't use the gpx from ropewiki, it's off.
14 May 2023	Good	Very Low	Full wetsuit	Normal	7 hours	7 people Beginner to Expert	Scientist (8 reports)
Comment: Nice cool weather for the canyon, with sun out it became hot in a wetsuit. There were series of potholes with pretty cold water. We had to rebuild cairn on rap3 since some rocks were washed away. All webbing looked good, anchors in place.
21 Mar 2021	Ok	Deep pools	Thin wetsuit	Normal	10 hours	4 people Advanced	Canderson (21 reports)
Comment: String of Pearls is open for 2021. It's been a long time since the canyon's been descended; a half dozen anchors were replaced with fresh webbing since the previous webbing had turned white. We used a retrievable anchor on a couple of rappels so you may want to bring in additional webbing. A 4/3 full wetsuit and windbreaker were worn and OK, but another layer or thicker wetsuit would have been great with the pool temp, wind in some areas, and partial cloud cover. The air temperature topped out at 65 degrees but was in the mid 50's in the morning. Most pools were deep and jumpable. We had a rope pull issue on the final rappel in the upper pool section and had to cut the rope. If you come across this, I'm curious what happened up top.
16 May 2020	Great	Deep pools	None	Normal	7 hours	3 people Advanced	Jmarvin (23 reports)
Comment: No wetsuits are needed -pools 90% full & mostly clear -only one jump - shallow -bush wacking, bolder hopping, route finding toward middle and end. -Campsite at end / private property is still closed. advise parking just outside and walking around it.
16 May 2020	Great	Very Low	Rain jacket	Normal	7 hours	3 people Advanced	DMonroy (188 reports)
Comment: Nearly full pools.
7 Mar 2020	Amazing	Deep pools	Full wetsuit		9 hours	6 people Advanced to Intermediate	Erek (206 reports)
Comment: Wetsuit for first half, then no wetsuit needed. Upper pools full, at least 5 fun jumps. Water cold though, glad to have a 5mm wetsuit. Replaced old webbing on a couple anchors.
7 Mar 2020	Great	Very Low	Full wetsuit	Special challenges	9 hours	11 people	Willie92708 (1003 reports)
Comment: This would be an amazing trip, but the cold air and wind made the shady wet pools a bit too chilly! The first set of pools were in the Sun and thus awesome, but after the canyon makes its left turn it was shady and cold in the water. Given the big group and even with many ropes in action, we still had our challenges getting everyone through in a timely fashion, and we even got a bit inventive with the anchors to keep people out of the water in some spots. Since all the jumps are shallow, most did not do any jumping. For those that did, we had to have each pool checked carefully. After the first rappel we used shallow rock horn DCR on the shelf above so everyone could rappel the next set of pools instead of climbing around DCR. Overall an amazing canyon experience with a ton of rappels (long ones too!)
2 Apr 2017 Trip report							HikeArizona.com (271 reports)
Comment: Most recent conditions reported at HikeArizona.com
8 May 2016 Trip report							KellyMathis@Facebook (1 reports)
Comment: extracts from Facebook posts, click link for full details (privacy restrictions may apply) " Did String of Pearls today for the first time. I was surprised to see all the bolts. Hadn't heard they were in there. Anyway, it's flowing nicely right now all the way through the technical section." Las Vegas Canyoneering Group
2 Apr 2016? Trip report							BradLee@Facebook (2 reports)
Comment: extracts from Facebook posts, click link for full details (privacy restrictions may apply) " Has anybody run the MUD SPRING or STRING OF PEARLS in last week or so Will I need a wetsuit" Las Vegas Canyoneering Group
18 Oct 2014	Good	Dry	None	Normal	7 hours	8 people Intermediate to Advanced	Freddy (51 reports)
31 Mar 2014							360nomad (4 reports)
Comment: Wetsuit needed for the first half of the canyon until the 2 bigger drops. All anchors are in good condition. There are 1 or two cairn anchors. Bigger drops are bolted. Always look for bighorn at canyon exit!