Dark Canyon and the Cheesebox - cougarguard.com — unofficial BYU Cougars / LDS sports, football, basketball forum and message board

bigpiney · 07-08-2008, 11:38 PM

Went backpacking and canyoneering in Southern Utah last week with a bunch of people I had never met but that were friends of a friend. Threre were 10 of us in all and I think they were all smarter than me.

It had been years since I have been in some narrows and it did not fail to dissapoint.

The are were
Monday we hiked into Dark CAnyon,

dropping down 1300 ft to the canyon floor and set up a base camp. From there we hiked down to the colorado river/ lake powell and did some hikes in the side canyon. It was hot, but at least DArk Canyon always has water so the temps weren't too bad with a lot of swimming and the swimming was incredible.

Tuesday we hiked up canyon past lost canyon and up to where youngs canyon comes in. We really didn't hike too fast as we kept getting distracted by the great swimming holes.

Wednesday we hiked up a dry canyon, Leanto, and did more swimming until we hiked back out of the canyon on a steep, scree slope in the evening. REally a beautiful area.

The next day we (only half the group) headed over to Cheesebox canyon. Now this was fun. We had to rapel into the canyon and spent almost the entire time in some of the best narrows I have ever been in.

http://www.americansouthwest.net/slo...otographs.html

We were lucky to have a slight widening of the canyon at about 7 at night and found a place to camp. Scooping water from the stagnant pools for cooking and drinking is a bit nasty but you get over it when you are really thirsty. Plus a little crystal light goes a long way to covering the taste of nasty water.

The next morning we started with a great rappel into the void, something like this

All in all there were about 5 or 6 rappels and a few pools of 50 degree water that we had to swim through. Truly an amazing place, and I am glad the clouds that wer present when I woke up in the morning dissipated quickly.

If I get the pictures of the second canyon I will post those.

07-08-2008, 11:38 PM	#1
bigpiney Senior Member Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: Big Pine , CA Posts: 842	Dark Canyon and the Cheesebox Went backpacking and canyoneering in Southern Utah last week with a bunch of people I had never met but that were friends of a friend. Threre were 10 of us in all and I think they were all smarter than me. It had been years since I have been in some narrows and it did not fail to dissapoint. The are were Monday we hiked into Dark CAnyon, dropping down 1300 ft to the canyon floor and set up a base camp. From there we hiked down to the colorado river/ lake powell and did some hikes in the side canyon. It was hot, but at least DArk Canyon always has water so the temps weren't too bad with a lot of swimming and the swimming was incredible. Tuesday we hiked up canyon past lost canyon and up to where youngs canyon comes in. We really didn't hike too fast as we kept getting distracted by the great swimming holes. Wednesday we hiked up a dry canyon, Leanto, and did more swimming until we hiked back out of the canyon on a steep, scree slope in the evening. REally a beautiful area. The next day we (only half the group) headed over to Cheesebox canyon. Now this was fun. We had to rapel into the canyon and spent almost the entire time in some of the best narrows I have ever been in. http://www.americansouthwest.net/slo...otographs.html We were lucky to have a slight widening of the canyon at about 7 at night and found a place to camp. Scooping water from the stagnant pools for cooking and drinking is a bit nasty but you get over it when you are really thirsty. Plus a little crystal light goes a long way to covering the taste of nasty water. The next morning we started with a great rappel into the void, something like this All in all there were about 5 or 6 rappels and a few pools of 50 degree water that we had to swim through. Truly an amazing place, and I am glad the clouds that wer present when I woke up in the morning dissipated quickly. If I get the pictures of the second canyon I will post those.