Conditions:Whitehorse Creek (Olympic Peninsula)-20250428231454

Latest:	2 Sep 2023 (1 yr, 9 mos ago)

Reported by:	Hangtime (34 reports)
Quality:	Great
Waterflow:	Low
Wetsuit:	Thin wetsuit
Water temperature:
Difficulty:	Normal
Time:

Team: 4 people with experience level Beginner to Intermediate

Trip report URL:

Comments: Ran the main section. Flow was low but still a great time with a couple beginners. Replaced webbing at several anchors and ended up linking R11 and R12.

All condition reports

Date	Quality	Waterflow	Wetsuit	Difficulty	Time	Team	Reported by
28 Jun 2025	Great	Very Low	None	Normal	13 hours	3 people Intermediate to Advanced	REMs11 (1 reports)
Comment: My team has been running this Canyon the past 4 years and uses it as a season opener to dust the cob webs off and get everyone in the rescue mindset. 3 years ago state parks closed the gate on the drive-in causing a 5 mile hike from the gate to the Sheep Canyon campsite, additionally since the road isn't being used it is extremely soft and sandy. With the additional hike My team decided to launch from the gate at 1 am and made it to the summit next to the rock out cropping just before the start of sunrise. We each packed 2L of water and all were out of water just upon reaching the summit. From there we enjoyed the beautiful sunrise and ate some food before dropping in for the first Rap. Water level was low in the canyon but that was expected with the time of year we went, still plenty of water to get wet and filter water. overgrowth and debris in the canyon were normal. Team was able to ghost everything except for one rappel where we used the tandem pitons left behind. Logged 18 Rappels with a handful of down climbs. Once we got the EYE the hike back to the trail head was easy but the trail out is mostly gone with the lack of people visiting the area. Once we got back to sheep Canyon campground We changed into new boots and clothes and started the 5mile hike out to the truck. We ended the day just before 2pm. We had no issue running the canyon with 2 8mm 75' ropes, with a 150' stored in a pack for emergency.
12 Jun 2025	Great	Dry	Full wetsuit	Normal	2 hours	2 people Intermediate to Advanced	Eric W (6 reports)
Comment: Another beautiful day in an AZ canyon. All the webbing looks good—only one pothole swim. Everything else is chest-deep or lower. Wearing a 5/4mm wetsuit was plenty comfortable. A 3/2 might be fine as the swims/walks are short. Luckily, the skunk decomposition has run its course. We only faintly smelled skunk in the last pot, and never saw a body. Note that if taking the sneak exit, take an immediate right out of the canyon, and to the right of the gully. We went left, which got us there, but it was very steep and loose on that side.
10 Jun 2025	Great	High	Full wetsuit	Special challenges	3 hours	4 people Advanced to Expert	Korey (66 reports)
Comment: Great day in Davis, curiously lower flow than when we ran it early July last year, despite the Cowlitz gauge reading nearly double. We replace the webbing and quicklinks above the roundy pool with stainless links, swapped the webbing for the log slide rappel, and the redirect had the nut spun nearly completely off so we removed the hanger and link, the bare bolt is still there. Even at this flow jumping into the pool at the bottom of the bridge simply flushes you straight out, and the redirect seems like it creates more of a hazard than anything. The log in the roundy pool is wedged up well above the water. It does impede the jump, but isn’t a hazard in the pool.
10 Jun 2025	Good	Dry	None	Normal	4 hours	4 people Beginner to Advanced	Eric W (6 reports)
Comment: We took the shuttle option, which saved our legs, but not our suspension. You will benefit from high vehicle clearance on the upper section of the road. Our 7" clearance was fine, but plan on scraping the bottom of your car if you have less. The canyon is packed with rappels in a short amount of time. The crack pipe anchor was something new. Everything is pretty straightforward. A couple of anchors could use new webbing with several more uses as slight abrasions were visible, but not critical. The last rappel required one member to get wet waist-deep. We rigged a guided rappel for everyone else to stay dry. Watch for mostly avoidable poison ivy on the way out!
8 Jun 2025 Trip report	Amazing	Deep pools	Thick wetsuit	Normal	10 hours	4 people	AZ Advocate (56 reports)
Comment: An excellent day through the canyon with an unfortunate injury to a party member towards the end which needed an evac. Accident report has more information.
8 Jun 2025	Good	Moderate Low	Thin wetsuit	Normal		5 people Intermediate to Advanced	Hangtime (34 reports)
Comment: Walked up creek after running Koda. Climbed up canyon left just before the base of R7 and then traversed to drop in above R1. The steep section is pretty open, the drop in is pretty brushy. Some of us did R1 as a slide, as always check the pool first. Rebuilt R3 cairn anchor that was gone. R4 single bolt is in a really bad spot for the pull. Rope slides across sharp edges on the wall and flicking the rope to release damages the rope. Climbed up and pulled from halfway, then downclimbed and shallow jumped into the pool. Recommend last person does the same or try adding another QL to the anchor which might help. Lower section with high walls is really pretty. R6 anchor high on tree DCL should probably be relocated and I wouldn't use it again. I recommend using a tree a little further back DCL which puts the rappeler in the flow, avoids damaging the bank, and improves the pull. Did the creek walk exit down to Wind River Road, it's long with lots of logs to crawl over/under. Was about a 10 hour day car to car combined with Koda. Watch your step, we came a cross a Pacific Giant Salamander, and a couple dozen frogs. The landslide spot is actually really cool, pretty easy going DCL. A couple hundred feet before the road there is a trail that goes off DCL, take it to a campsite and an easy road walk the rest of the way to Wind River Road...could park here instead of the turn out by Paradise Creek Campground.
8 Jun 2025	Ok	Low	Thin wetsuit	Normal		5 people Intermediate to Advanced	Hangtime (34 reports)
Comment: Downclimbed/slid R1, removed old torn up webbing from R2 tree and ghosted it. R4 was a fun rappel. The downclimb groove is a cool little narrows. Followed the creek down to the confluence with Paradise then walked up creek and combined with a descent of Paradise Creek and the creek walk exit to Wind River Rd. About a 10 hour day car to car with lots of sitting in the creek to cool down.
8 Jun 2025	Amazing	High	Thin wetsuit	Normal	5 hours		Ryan Mallon (1 reports)
Comment: Return trip to finish some beta gathering, but featuring Danny and Cat this run. The full run, with a shuttle set up, has got to be one of the highest quality canyoning routes in the American SE at this moment in time. High flows made this run extremely enjoyable for a group of experienced canyoners.
8 Jun 2025	Good	Deep pools	Full wetsuit	Normal	2 hours	2 people	Nclegg (413 reports)
Comment: Full 4/3 was comfortable. Currently not much swimming and lots of walking through sand. Encountered a couple other large parties who kindly let us pass. 2.5h car-to-car moving at a moderate pace.
8 Jun 2025	Good	Dry	None	Easy	3 hours	1 people Beginner	Knotnick (3 reports)
Comment: Replaced r1 tree anchor and r2 anchor. Did not have enough webbing to replace r3, but I down scrambled to a bolt and rapped from there. Rapped kinda up canyon it was weird wasn’t sure which way to go but edges seemed less sharp rapping up canyon. Weird thing to say but you’ll see. Came across what I thought was r4 next and it seemed contrived and too easy of a down climb so dropped my gear and down scrambled only to come across the last rap in the actual chute, per beta. Too lazy to put harness on again so it can be easily skipped on a faint social trail LDC. Here you will find two fixed lines, one old and the other decent, I considered taking it cuz LNT but if someone’s doing something with it I didn’t wanna be a dick (or carry it out… my bad). Anyway you won’t need the rope to scramble down, I can’t for the life of me figure why these two fixed lines were there.
7 Jun 2025	Good	Very Low	None	Special challenges	4 hours	1 people	Willie92708 (1000 reports)
Comment: This trip finished up path access to the NEW R0 and thus completed the new Bike and Hike version of running Black Star (special challenges). The water flow is really getting low at this point (see pic). Lots of people were at the main falls on this Saturday, but not super crowded by any stretch.
7 Jun 2025	Great	Low	Thin wetsuit	Normal	12 hours	2 people Beginner to Intermediate	Jhoffer (2 reports)
Comment: The canyon itself was amazing. Great rappels with minimal flow but decently deep pools (maybe waist-chest high), anchors were in great shape although a couple used rope instead of proper webbing. We did the normal exit back to the bridge/road and the down-climbing during the exit was a lot of fun; there's probably a couple dozen little waterfalls to navigate down or around. Lots of fallen redwoods to climb over and under. The downsides are that the approach (without shuttle) and exit are very overgrown. The approach (after the road) was a dry grass field without a proper trail so lots of prickly seeds and branches clogged up our shoes & socks. I'd recommend on wearing thicker pants (we had regular climbing pants) and 2 pairs of socks to prevent this. Waterproof or neoprene socks would also probably work. The approach from the ridge down to the stream follows a little crevice that is so overgrown we had to roll over and under branches constantly. The approach is also quite steep and lots of loose soil so trying to find a passable, less-overgrown path is also difficult. Once you finally reach the stream, it is much better. The actual rappel section of the canyon is not overgrown at all, extremely pretty, and a lot of fun. I think with a bit higher flow, the canyon would be even more fun. The exit was even worse. The exit is completely overgrown, including parts of the stream itself. Knowing when to down climb the stream or go LDC/RDC was challenging; if we went too far LDC/RDC we would find that we were now unsafely high above the stream or on a ~45deg slope with tons of loose rock. The dense foliage made estimating the slope difficult and could easily hide sharp drop offs. After nightfall, this became even more perilous. Eventually we came to non-downclimable ledge in the stream; below a fallen ladder and old webbing are present. LDC at this point there are some trees; there is actually a fixed rope left on these trees. Unfortunately we didn't see the rope before adding our own webbing & quicklink (so can't comment on it's condition). A bit after the fallen ladder, we did finally see the bridge even in the dark using headlamps. We kept LDC along the supposed "trail" back to the road. Even the final "trail" from the stream to the gated trail exit was completely overgrown and some parts were completely eroded away to just >45deg slope. All in, the 1 mile exit took 3-4 hours. Despite the dense foliage we did not become victims of poison oak. (Or maybe we are immune? We certainly were hit in the face by lots of foliage). If someone could post the quicker ascent and quick exit, this canyon would be a lot easier. Looking at a slope-angle shaded map, I can make out some possible shorter approaches and exits but hard to say for sure.
7 Jun 2025	Amazing	Deep pools	Thick wetsuit	Special challenges	11 hours	3 people Beginner to Intermediate	Hikerdude5 (1 reports)
Comment: Very beautiful canyon, Illusions did not disappoint. Must see for Arizona canyoneers. We were very comfortable temperature-wise in 7+7mm farmer john wetsuits. The log jam described in bluu gnome for rap 6 was washed away so we tossed a log down from the top of rap 5. Final pothole is full to a couple inches above the lip.
7 Jun 2025	Good	Very Low	None	Normal	4 hours	5 people Intermediate to Advanced	Toddk (17 reports)
Comment: A lovely day in Suicide Canyon. Great weather. If you are careful, you can run the entire canyon (including the approach) without getting wet. Approach was easy to follow but some trimming would be helpful, especially at the top of the short use trail up the hill just off the main trail. All anchors were in good shape. 4.5 hours C2C. Lots of PO - look out for it.
7 Jun 2025	Great	Very Low	None	Normal	8 hours	4 people Beginner to Advanced	Burlesos (2 reports)
Comment: Did full Granary as a group of 4, just under 8 hours car to car. Webbing looked to be to good condition at all the major rappels. Instead of doing the normal exit rappel next to jughandle we followed the watercourse of Lower Granary (~400-500 headwall). Exiting Lower lower granary can be down in 3 rappels. The first rappel was off of a tree on the left side of the canyon and is just short of 200ft to a descentish anchor slung around some rocks on a slabby ledge (honestly the rock the anchor was slung on was not the best looking, would not count on that being there forever). The second was about 150ft into a slot canyon. Third and final rappel was about 100ft into a beautiful alcove, the anchor was around a very large chockstone in the slot canyon. Exit to the road follows the drainage navigating through large boulders until it flattens out to a flat stream bed until the road.

...additional reports

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