Conditions:Tenaya Canyon-20160620171630
Latest: |
16 Aug 2014 (10 yrs, 9 mos ago) |
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| Reported by: | CC (93 reports) | |
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| Quality: | ||
| Waterflow: | Shallow wading |
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| Wetsuit: | None |
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| Water temperature: | ||
| Difficulty: | Normal |
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| Time: |  15 hours
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Team: 5 people with experience level Brand new to Beginner
Trip report URL:
Comments: Very amazing scenic granite canyon:
- SHUTTLE: Our shuttle did not get setup the night before due to the wine social hour. We spent an extra 1.5hrs and did not get the closer parking lot which meant extra walking at night. Also, it meant a later start time coming from the valley to Tenaya Lake instead of sleeping along Tioga campsites. Because of our late exit, the shuttle vehicle was left at Tenaya and we spent the next morning as a lazy drive to pick it up and take a nap at Vernal falls.
- DESCENT: After the large boulder the canyon will make a dramatic 1,000ft slab descent that needs to be. Look for boulders and cracks to get down the slab. It was a drought year so no flow and a few pools to maneuver around.
- EXIT: Faint trail. Once it got dark, finding the faint exit trail in the dark made things really slow. One member of the group was getting exhausted and stumbling so I had to carry the gear. Also, had to stop a few more times and filter water for those that did not bring enough. HEADLAMPS & EMERGENCY blanket are a good to have in case you decide to stay overnight.
- Overall a really fantastic canyon for the views and nature.
All condition reports
| Date | Quality | Waterflow | Wetsuit | Difficulty | Time | Team | Reported by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Amazing | Very Low
| None
| Normal | 13 hours
| 4 people Intermediate to Expert | Sanazestan (11 reports),Ida noe (2 reports) | |
Comment: It was the first time for everyone in the group descending Tenaya. This was a planned, one-night backpacking trip. I always wanted to do Tenaya as an overnight trip to spend a little more time enjoying the canyon. The time report is the time spent moving (13 hours), excluding the camping time as it was planned.
After reading various descriptions, reports, and talking to a ranger who had done both “a” gully route (partially different from what’s on the beta) and the slab route, we decided to take the gully route recommended by the ranger. This gully route starts from Olmsted Point instead of the Sunrise trail. From Olmsted, we hiked a short time on the established trail, dropped into the gully early on, and stayed in the gully all the way to the pool at the bottom. We believe that may be the best route. The first half of this route is pretty easy with a little boulder hopping until you get to the steeper part which requires downclimbing. In a couple of spots, we used ropes to assist with downclimbs. If you are comfortable with difficult downclimbing, you will enjoy this route. The advantage of this route to the slab is that there are footholds and rocks you can grab and hold onto, and have someone meat anchor, rather than a slick slab. Also, you will get to see the engine and propeller blade of a plane that had crashed in Tenaya back in 1959. Once we got to the Pywiack pool, we realized we made the right choice. Looking at the slab route, we saw it was wet in various areas, even though the Pywiack Cascade had very little water. It would have been dangerous and slippery if we had taken the slab route. We got to see the slide on this route but there was not enough water to slide. We had no issues traversing the gorge, which also involves downclimbing and the rappels. The raps are straightforward. We found all the anchors and they were in good shape. At this water level (low), no wetsuits were necessary. Most water can be avoided. The only part you get wet is at the second rap where the waterfall sprays on you and a shell is enough. Otherwise, there were a few other sections were your feet get wet, mostly at ankle or bellow knee level. After the gorge, we found a spot very close to the “bivy rock” where we set up camp for the night. The temperatures were pleasant all night and while we saw many bear droppings, we didn’t encounter any bears. The next day it started raining on and off at around 4:30 am. We left camp at 07:30 and were out of the canyon around 10:30. We stayed RDC the whole time and avoided the creek walking. The sporadic rain meant slippery boulders and we preferred the forest route to boulder hopping in the creek. Route finding is somewhat difficult but if you stay RDC you will eventually find a faint “trail” shortly after the bivy rock. The trail fades occasionally but as we moved forward, we would find it again and a bit later you will see cairns that you can follow all the to the established trail past Snow Creek. This would not have been easy in the dark. Overall, this was a great experience in a very beautiful canyon. I would do it again whether as another overnighter or a day trip. We rated this a 5 for its "sheer beauty and tranquility" as one of our group members described it. | |||||||
| Great | Very Low
| None
| Normal | 24 hours
| 4 people Brand new to Intermediate | Rose (1 reports) | |
Comment: Route finding was difficult, even with the beta, so we got lost a couple of times which added a significant amount of time to our trip. Accidentally down climbed before rap 3, couldn't find the bolts and ended up rapping off a boulder in the creekbed. We finished the final rappel right after sunset and opted to spend the night in the canyon with emergency bivies and blankets rather than getting lost trying to find our way in the dark. Overall a beautiful canyon and great experience, but be prepared for a potential epic.
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| Great | Deep pools
| None
| | 17 hours
| 7 people Intermediate to Expert | Klass7 (5 reports) | |
Comment: It was our first time descending Tenaya Canyon and we studied all the beta from various sources. It was decided to take the slab route. We descended too early and spent about 3 extra hours fighting the brush at the edge of the steep slabs. As such, I have updated the canyon description with GPS coordinates so it should be much easier to find the correct location of the small ridgeline that descends the south west part of the bowl just southwest of the main Pywiack Cascade.
We observed the water sinking in the glacial deposits and reappearing. We opted to do all 4 rappels and completed the last one in the dark. The bolts were found relatively easy and were in excellent shape. We replaced webbing and added some quick links in several places, including at the top of LeConte Boulder. We had major problems navigating the forests below the inner gorge at night. The beta we had was to take a right fork when the creek splits. This might have been correct years ago when the beta was written in 1990. Now it is better to try to follow the discontinuous stream bed. When we were lost in the forest we used sat nav to get us back to where USGS plots Tenaya Creek. The forest and three boulder chokes below the inner gorge are difficult at night and we bivyed. Everyone was thrilled with the experience and look forward to doing it again.
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| Great | Low
| None
| Special challenges  | 10 hours
| 3 people Beginner to Advanced | Kirbside (98 reports) | |
Comment: The previous wording on ropewiki I think undersold the difficulty of this canyon (the YouTube video I found showing a small child happily gallivanting through likely didn't help). I updated this wording a bit to hopefully convey a more of the gravity and type of challenge presented.
This route requires a significant amount of fun but difficult downclimbing. If your group is not prepared for this you will likely end up sleeping in the canyon (downclimbing does not get easier after the gully route; the gully route is pretty mentally committing as well as it is unlikely you will want to climb back out of the gully even if it is the right choice). We started with 3 people but I sent the others back shortly into the the gully downclimb section. One of the members of the group was not prepared for the amount and level of downclimbing and I wanted to avoid an emergency situation. After sending the others back the canyon was relatively straightforward. It definitely seems like the bolts were set up to avoid water entirely; this is a shame as this canyon has the potential to have some fun rappels in the waterway. I suppose if you take more of the jumps this is somewhat irrelevant. Some of the bolts blend in quite well. Know that if you feel like you really need bolts they are likely around (I also added some more minor notes about where to look for bolts). Also the swampy green stuff is toxic algae blooms. Do not filter water at / below this section (there were signs in the backpackers campground about algae levels; of course at this point it is too late). Overall Tenaya Canyon is extremely enjoyable. Make sure that your group is prepared for the hours of downclimbing and you will have an amazing time.
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| Great | | None
| Special challenges | 10 hours
| 3 people Beginner to Advanced | DMonroy (188 reports) | |
Comment: The slick rock was challenging to get down because it was bleeding snowmelt and had algae. So it wasn't a nice dry walk it was more a slimy crawl. The rest of the canyon is fantastic and all the slides are goo.
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| Good | Very Low
| None
| Easy | 14 hours
| 6 people Brand new to Advanced | Johnbcaves (160 reports),Ameyer17 (2 reports) | |
Comment: We started as a party of 5, and enjoyed the views and took our time down the steep descent below the Lone Boulder. We encountered 3 other parties in canyon total, including a solo climber intent on the canyon. We invited the solo canyoneer to join us. Multiple party members received leg injuries from various causes, adding to the time considerably. All rappels were awesome bolts w/ welded rings except Rap 2, off a slung boulder. Below Rap 2, up to crotch-deep wading was necessary for ~25 ft. This was probably also bypassable by climbing/traversing canyon left.
Route finding was more challenging after dusk following the use trail between the Gorge outlet and the Mirror Lake loop trail. We made it out just in time to enjoy pizza and beer at the Curry Village Pizza Deck.
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| Shallow wading
| None
| Normal | 15 hours
| 5 people Brand new to Beginner | CC (93 reports) | ||
Comment: Very amazing scenic granite canyon:
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| Amazing | | | | | HikeArizona.com (271 reports) | ||
Comment: Most recent conditions reported at HikeArizona.com, see Trip Report for full details.
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