09/01/2006 - UT, Canyoneering Dinosaur

Here’s a great trip that we did in September of 2006.  Exploring new canyons, finding undiscovered arches, and not seeing another person over the entire Memorial Day Weekend; wow.

 

Friday 9/1/06:

We were going to explore some new territory, and a couple of canyons in Dinosaur National Monument.  This was our third attempt to get to this area.  The first trip, the water level readings on the Yampa were pretty high, but might have been doable.  We drove out there to check it out on 4/29, and the Yampa was certainly running high and fast.  I thought we could send one person swimming tied to a rope, and that person could secure the line on the other side.  (I'd done that type of thing several times before.  If trouble happens, the others can secure the line, and the swimmer will pivot back to shore.  Or they can pull the rope and bring the swimmer back in.)  After we have a secure line set up though, the rest could use the line to cross.  One person in the group wasn't comfortable with the crossing; so we explored some other canyons on the same side of the Yampa as we were.  You might remember the pictures and trip report back in April.  Even if we didn't get to explore our original canyons, we still got to do some fun canyoneering.

The second attempt was planned for the July 4th weekend.  However, the water levels were seven times worse than it was on our April trip.  We didn't even bother to drive out there that time.

This was our third attempt, the water levels looked good, so we headed out.  Stephen Ho and I drove out on Friday after work, and met up at Scott Patterson's house.  Scott lives in Craig, a small town about an hour outside of Dinosaur.  There, we sorted out our gear, and decided what we were going to bring.  Exploring canyons is usually more interesting, because you need to carry a lot more rope.  Since the drops aren't known, you need to make sure you can get back out anything you go down.  So, you either use a rope team on the rim if the canyon allows, or leave ropes at the suspect drops.  We weren't going to have a rim team, and this area has several thousand foot walls, so there could be big drops.  Thus, we were planning on some big ropes.  We chatted about the trip, packed up, and got some sleep.

 

Saturday 9/2/06:

Woke up at 5;30am, ate a quick breakfast (the rest of yesterday's Subway, of course), packed the car, and headed out.  We met up with Mike Kelsey at the Visitor center around 7am.  Mike Kelsey is the author of several guide books for hikes and technical canyoneering.  Neat guy.  He even brought us a copy of both of his canyon books, which was a very nice gesture.  This was my first canyoneering trip with Mike, and I was looking forward to it.When I think of canyoneering, I think of four main characters in Canyoneering.  Steve Allen and Mike Kelsey have done a lot of exploring, and have published canyoneering books.  Ram has done lots of canyoneering, exploring, and has an incredible memory for the canyons.  Tom Jones has started his own canyoneering gear company, and is pretty active too.  He just published a canyoneering book for the Zion area. 

Scott, one of the other people with us, has done lots of canyoneering and exploring as well; certainly very capable and knowledgeable.  I don't really put Scott in with the other four though, he's more of a multi-sport and exploring type person like myself.  Although, that's purely semantics.  All of them are great, and certainly very capable.

Anyway, we met up with Mike, and again discussed our gear choices.  We then split up all the group gear, and talked to the Rangers to find out the current road conditions and other info if they had it.  We let them know our plans, and headed out on our way.  We drove down to our entry point, near Red Rock Canyon.  We started our hike in around 9:15am.  The hike down the canyon was pretty straightforward.  We were able to follow cattle trail a lot of the way down.  There was only a small amount of bushwhacking.  A neat sight was the cow trails that made cool patterns in the hillsides.  Mike had explored this entry before, and showed us some initials from 1919 carved in a sheltered area of the rock.  We hit the Yampa river, and continued the hike over towards Outlaw Park; where we were planning on camping.  The hike over towards Outlaw was a bit more rugged, with some tighter squeezes, scrambling, bushwhacking and elevation gain/loss.  Certainly still nothing too severe though.  We were able to make it all the way there, without having to get into the Yampa.  Found a really great spot to set up camp on a sandy bank; the only downside is it was on the same side of the Yampa as the car.  Thus, we'd have to cross the Yampa first thing in the morning.  We decided it was worth it, and might be able to cross in different shoes or barefoot.  We quickly set up camp, and dropped off our camp gear.  It was nice to drop some of the pack weight. 

We then packed up, and crossed the Yampa to start our exploration around 11:45am.  The Yampa was very easy to cross, less than waist deep.  Our exploration was very successful, we found a way up to a saddle the first try.  Although, we had dropped our daypacks lower down, to make the scouting easier; so we had to go back and get them which meant we climbed to the saddle twice.)  It looked like many paths would go, some are just a little more difficult and exposed than others.  There was some interesting stuff around the saddle area, including a really loose chute and/or some exposed climbing.  Only around third or some lower fourth class moves though.  At the saddle, we took a break for something to eat.  It was now 2:21pm.  We talked and decided to drop into a canyon; which we decided to call Outlaw Canyon due to it's proximity to Outlaw Park.

The descent into Outlaw had some steep and exposed sections.  Still nothing we needed a rope for, but pretty close.  Many people wouldn't be comfortable without a rope there.  The canyon was pretty open, with lots of vegetation.  There was some rock scrambling and one fork ended in a pretty good upclimb.  We explored both forks a ways, and got a good feel for the canyon.  It wasn't as rugged as it looked on the topo, and everything in the upper sections were pretty much up and down-climbable.  One section was pretty tricky, and some people might want ropes.  There's a picture of Mike on it, around 3:45pm.  We still didn't know what the rest of the canyon held in store for us, so we started down so we could make it back to camp during the daylight.  The section past the confluence was a little more interesting.  The walls were steeper, and the floor was more rock with less vegetation.  It never really slotted up (the definition of a slot is that if you put your arms out, you can reach both walls) but it did have some cool sections.  Neat rock layering, and some fun downclimbing.  There was one rappel of around 40 feet, which we slung a chokestone for an anchor.  We exited the canyon around 5:30pm. 

The sun was starting to get near the top of the canyon walls.  It would be light for a while longer, but we'd be in the shadows of the huge canyon walls.  It worked out great, and we got back to camp around 7pm, as the sun was already below the canyon walls, but still light out.   

We made dinner (a Lipton Side meal for me), chatted about the day, and talked about the plans for the next day.  Scott wanted to climb a peak, so we would see if we could do that.  We were also planning on exploring a canyon we saw from the opposite rim on the April trip.  It looked pretty cool; steep with potholes, from what we could tell.

 

Sunday 9/3/06:

We woke up at 6:30am, there was just starting to get some ambient light.  We made a quick breakfast (ramen), finished packing, and were on our way shortly after 7:15am.  Crossed the Yampa river; I went barefoot which was a little tricky and painful on the rock bottom.  Wanted to keep my shoes dry as long as possible though.  We again climbed the same approach, but broke off before the key saddle to try to find the short pothole canyon.  It turned out that we did find what we think we saw from across the way.  Unfortunately, the big pothole must have been shadows, as we saw a few decent drops, but no big pothole.  Bummer.  Was looking forward to some technical stuff. The canyon we saw wasn't really even worth going down.  Really short, and not really all that great.

We decided to go see if we could make the peak climb; and once again crossed over the key saddle.  This time, we climbed up a gully, trying to get access to the next plateau.  The gully had some lower fifth class climbing which was fairly exposed, but we were able to climb up to the next plateau.  There was an old cairn built there, so we likely weren't the first up the peak.  The rest of the climb up the peak was just a scramble.  We are naming the peak Outlaw peak; again from proximity.  We reached the summit around 10:15am.  It is the flat peak marked 6489 due north of Outlaw Park.  There were some awesome views from the top.  We were able to do some recon work, and planned the rest of our day; which was to go explore another new canyon.  We also checked on a possibility for Monday, climbing up a different side canyon of Outlaw Canyon which could be a different approach to the Outlaw canyons we did the day before.  We took a few photos, and then descended to see if we could find a way into the other canyon.

The descent wasn't too bad, and we were able to get into a canyon we are calling Outlaw Arch canyon.  We made it into the canyon around noon, and decided to explore upcanyon first.  It involved mostly walking, with some scrambling.  When we were getting closer to the headwall, there was a tougher section.  Mike and I were able to climb up it.  We were all running low on water, so Stephen and Scott decided to just wait for us there.  Above the exposed climb section, there was a small pothole section.  We avoided it by climbing on the left Looking Up Canyon (LUC), but it looked like a fun little section.  We hiked and scrambled a bit further, and was able to see the headwall where the canyon started.  It was now around 12:45, so we started heading downcanyon.  We did the downclimb, and met back up with Stephen and Scott.  Shortly after we passed the area where we dropped in, the canyon turned into a shallow slot canyon.  Certainly nothing difficult, but it was nice to have a little slot section to play in. 

This canyon had a few more drops of around 50 feet that we were able to skirt around on the right, Looking Down Canyon (LDC).  A couple of the spots were pretty exposed, but we wanted to avoid setting up and leaving anchors if we could.  The canyon had lots of different terrain.  Some open walking, some rock bottom walking, some scrambling, and some fun downclimbs.  Shortly after the confluence of the canyons, there was even a cool little half-subway section.  After the confluence, the canyon walls steepened, and the canyon deepened.  Was a pretty cool section.  We had another drop that was a pretty sketchy climb around, and then the canyon narrowed to our first rappel we couldn't avoid; around 2:45pm.  The first rap was around 55 feet, from a small tree on a ledge on the left side LDC.

Not too far from Rap 1 was Rap 2; around 3:30pm.  This one was a much bigger drop, and was where one of the layers had really eroded away.  It was a cool rap down through a small eroded chute and then a mostly free-hanging drop.  It was around 90 feet, and was a neat rap.  We used a rockpile anchor with the webbing wrapped around a small Tamarisk bush for additional friction for this drop.

After Rap 2, came some rock scrambling, and then a real treat!  Scott Patterson was the first to notice that one of the alcoves had disconnected from the wall, making it an arch.  We took some photos of it; it was pretty big.  (In fact, a subsequent trip to measure it came up with 206 feet, making it the 9th largest arch in the world!) 

A bit further down was yet another rappel; around 4pm.  We were able to climb down a little ledge system, and anchor to a tree for the last rappel.  It also shortened our rappel to around 65 feet.  This one was on some loose rock, so you had to be careful of the group below, but had some really neat rock layering.  At the bottom of this rappel, there was a name carved into the rock from 1941.  With this info, we were pretty sure we wouldn't have rappels from here on out.  The last rappel actually looked like you might have been able to bypass on the right LDC with a steep and loose downclimb down a gully.  Didn't have time to try to climb up it, as we still had to make it to the Yampa river, and then had a long walk (and possibly swim) upstream to get back to our camp.  There were still a few downclimbs, but we made it to the Yampa shore around 4:30pm.

We started to wade upstream towards camp.  I found a stick to test the depth in front of me, and we were able to make it most of the way to camp keeping waist level or below; usually around knee deep.  There were some awesome views, with big walls surrounding us on both sides.  On the way back to camp, we also saw a possible exit up a steep gully.  Might be something to try another time.  We made it back to camp around 5:30pm; not bad timing!  Unfortunately, along the way, Steve's camera broke.  The LCD cracked; wild, it wasn't even that old.

Back at camp, we made dinner in the fading light, and then again visited, talked about the day's adventures, and planned for the next day.  Since we were going to be hiking out, we wanted to do something shorter.  We saw a small side canyon that might be an alternate route up to access the Saturday Outlaw Canyons.  We decided to explore that, and then we would pack up camp and hike out.  We then sacked out for the night.  The night was pleasant; probably in the 50's.  The days had been warm, in the 80's, but the direct sun made it feel much warmer.  Even in the early times when we were doing the approach, it felt quite warm.

 

Monday 9/4 (Labor Day):

We again woke up early around 6:15am.  We ate a quick breakfast of granola bars, and was on our way.  We hit the mouth of Outlaw Canyon around 7am.  We decided to make a quick trip to the pictograph panel just a little way down the river on the same side as Outlaw Canyon.  We reached the panel around 7:15am, and Stephen was hamming it up.  Funny pictograph picture, and even hammed it up on another small arch we found.  We started up Outlaw canyon around 7:30am, and climbed up a steep gully to the upper plateau.  The gully was steep, with a lot of loose rock and dirt.  There was some decent bushwhacking, and even some exposed climbing and a traversal of a ledge system.  We made it up to the top, and then proceeded to hike up farther to peak 6731; around 8:30am. 

From there, we had some great views; it looked like this could be an alternate entry to Outlaw canyon.  We didn't have time to go and see, as we still had to pack up camp, hike out, and drive home today.  Thus, we headed back down, making our way down the same gully we came up.  We made it back to the Yampa river around 10:15am, went back to camp, packed up camp, and headed back out.   

We hiked out the same way we came in, but this time we stayed a little higher on some of the fields above the first cliffline.  The walking was easier than on sand, but it had more elevation gain/loss.  Kind of a wash for difficulty, but the views were fabulous from higher up.  We reached Red Rock Canyon around 1pm, and were back at the cars around 2pm.  We made great time on the hike out.  It was certainly warm hiking out.  We then returned all of our gear to it's rightful owners, said our goodbye's and headed back to Scott's.  At Scott's, we helped him unload, and he treated us to some watermelon with his family.  Good stuff.

Stephen and I then had the drive back to Boulder.  It was an awesome weekend.  Got to meet Mike Kelsey, explore two new canyons, each with a couple of forks.  Climbed a peak, and even helped discover one of the top ten biggest arches in the world!  On top of that, we spent the entire Labor Day weekend in the outdoors and saw not one single other person the entire weekend.  You can't do that many places anymore.

If you are interested, here's a couple of links from Scott's posts about the weekend:

http://www.summitpost.org/mountain/rock/225744/-Outlaw-Peak-.html

http://www.summitpost.org/route/225846/key-saddle-route-to-outlaw-peak.html

http://www.summitpost.org/canyon/231295/outlaw-arch-canyon.html

http://www.naturalarches.org/big9.htm - check out #9...

An added bonus is these canyons that we explored will be in Mike Kelsey's new canyoneering book that will be out in around a year.  Very cool and fun weekend!  It's awesome to know that there are still places to be explored; even in North America...

At the end of my photos (after the cactus one), I included a couple of my favorite photos from Mike and Steve.

 

Hope you enjoy the pics!

A.J.