No Thoroughfare Canyon, combined with Devil's Kitchen, was our families favorite afternoon in Colorado National Monument Lower No Thoroughfare Canyon, described here, is a lovely, easy, and scenic hike along a small stream The canyon, in a black schist and migmatitic pegmatite rock, is in striking contrast to the reds and whites seen elsewhere in the monument The water makes this reasonable on fairly warm days Most hike at least to a large pool at the bottom of a small falls Motivated hikers can continue just a bit...

Known as Long Dong Silver, Black Spire, Silver Tower, Lone Tower, and many other names, this area near Hanksville has exploded in popularity recently The valley is a moonscape scene, with a couple of dramatic towers punctuating the views It is a unique and otherworldly place to visit Access Notes Reaching the trailhead requires driving 13 miles on a dirt road The road is accessible by medium clearance vehicles, except when wet Do NOT try to visit when wet, as you will definitely tear up the road and likely get stuc...

Topaz Mountain, located in Utah’s remote western desert, is a premier destination for rock hounds seeking the state’s official gemstone—topaz This rugged, sunbaked landscape offers a unique opportunity to find beautifully faceted amber-colored topaz crystals, which naturally fade to a clear or pale blue hue when exposed to sunlight The area, part of the Thomas Range, is well known for its rich deposits of topaz, as well as other minerals such as bixbyite, garnet, and red beryl On our visit, I was surprised at how e...

Ran this canyon both 2/16 and 2/19! The road is was in great condition, mostly free of snow and mud The canyon itself was almost completely dry with the most water we saw being only 5 inches deep at most and completely avoidable We had some beginners in our crew and both trips were sub 35 hours car to car We rappelled every station there was since there was some ice/snow on the rocks, making it a bit slippery All chains were in great shape! We exited out at the gully canyon left after the piton rappel The map showe...

I am hoping to do in the next week thinking backpack in from the lower trailhead and camp near the spring to the West of the Chimney trail / Spring Canyon junction and spend a day exploring Anyway, can anyone tell me if the ford of the Fremont is doable Looking at the flow gage it looks like flows are pretty average right now based on the past year of data But that gage is in Bicknell and not sure if it is a good representation of the situation further downstream ThanksLink the gage site https://waterdatausgs...

All anchors are now two bolts with hangers and either webbing and quick links or chain and quick links My wife and I did the entry via Fish Seep Draw as described by caboalta below It works but it's 5 miles of hiking for one mile of canyon Kinda makes me want to try the climbers exit when/if we do MMI The canyon is really fun One of the best we've done so far in this area Careful on the second rap if you skip the downclimb We almost got our rope stuck after pulling it Luckily it finally popped free with a full weig...

We did Sheik’s as an out and back in April The tricky part was a huge dryfall part way down Dropping into it was easy enough We followed it down a bit and then did not know what to do We saw a trail down below and kept looking The cairns to the left appeared to continue to go around to the left That did not look likely so we kept looking and found the trail to the left of a boulder by the cairnsthat partly obscured the trail We saw too many cairns en route Some directed us to go up, only to have to come back down ...

We did the short route today 09/23/23 No water on the first part of the canyon to the big rappel and junction with Upper Chute canyon But just starting up Upper Chute there is a full swimmer that involves about 12 feet where it is over your head I am 6'2" and it was a couple of inches over my head with my feet just touching the very soft and muddy bottom The water was completely muddy brown, but free of debris After that, we had two more spots with waist deep water and another one at about mid thigh on me And...

Fun times in the Upper Box Went for the short route Found the upper rappel off to the right of the drainage Very exposed downclimb getting to the ledge! There are two bolts about 20' above the ledge to belay/rappel down to the ledge with chains The rap is big and exposed Free hanging the last 40' We are not sure if this is the correct rappel as it didn't fit the description Super fun nonetheless! Be careful of the sharp edge near the top of the rappel Pretty much a full 60m to reach the canyon floor We f...

Great loop as described in this site Everything was dry The rap into Eagle from the side canyon has newer webbing and was secure The first rap of Eagle has a single piton anchor in the rock with good webbing, but it’s still a single anchor point We backed it up with a person up top and nothing moved All good The second rap has a log wedged across the top that was secure The last rap is also off of a secure log ja with newer webbing A cold, sunny day with no getting wet, so a great day!