SPC 23

During Spring break of 2023, I traveled to the Southwest with two friends for a canyoneering adventure. Here is an account of the more important details of the trip.

See pictures of the trip here

The Plan

Our original idea was to fly into Las Vegas on the night of Friday, March 24, rent a car, and drive to Zion National Park on Saturday morning, and do a canyon each of Saturday, Sunday, and Monday. We planned to meet with a friend of mine who lives near Zion on Sunday to do a canyon together after the three of us got a bit of experience with canyoneering on Saturday. On Tuesday, we intended to do a hike at Zion (ideally Angel’s Landing if we got permits), and then drive to Escalante in the evening. We would do Neon Canyon at Escalante on Wednesday, drive to Capitol Reef, and do two canyons there on Thursday and Friday. On Saturday we intended to return to Las Vegas in time for our flight back to Boston leaving late Saturday night.

Friday, March 24 - Flying

We arrive at Boston Logan in time for our first flight, heading to Dallas for a layover. We are notified that the flight is delayed due to weather, and we wait as the duration of delay nears and eventually surpasses the intended duration of our layover. After we land at Dallas, we are told that we missed our connecting flight, and that we would need to spend the night in Dallas to catch the first flight to Las Vegas the next morning. I didn’t mind spending a night on the floor of the airport, but we decided to get a hotel instead. Unfortunately this meant that we had to leave the secured area of the airport and lost probably 3-4 hours of sleep in getting to and from the hotel and going through security again.

Saturday, March 25 - Las Vegas

After a short night at a hotel in Dallas, we returned to the airport and boarded a flight to Vegas arriving at around 10. For some reason, the car rental agency refused to rent the 4WD car that we had paid for, instead giving us a normal clearance sedan that did not inspire much confidence in driving on rugged backroads needed to access certain canyons, and didn’t even lower the price for us for this rental even though the rental for the sedan was supposed to be cheaper. Regardless, this was the best we could do, so we took what we could get. Zion was a 2.5 hour drive from Vegas, so there wasn’t enough time to do a canyon on Saturday anymore, and we decided to spend the day in Vegas instead. We parked at some casino that advertised free parking and walked up and down the strip. We then stopped at a Walmart and bought groceries for the week.

At night, I drove us to Zion, and since I had never been to the West before, nor seen the types of rugged mountains that exist in that region, I continuously pointed out things I found interesting, only to be met mostly with indifference from my two more well-traveled partners. Eventually, they both fell asleep in the car, leaving me to proclaim my amazement at the cacti and rocks and mesas only to myself. We originally wanted to camp, but the nightly low temperature at Zion for Saturday and Sunday were around -8C, so one of my friends wanted to once again get a hotel. The other friend and I tried in vain to convince him that it would be fine to camp and that it would beat spending money on a hotel, but he insisted and we found ourselves pulling into a Best Western in Springdale come nightfall.

Since we had been planning to camp anyway, we had ingredients to cook dinner, so we drove to a local park and made a quick meal of pasta before going to bed.

Sunday, March 26 - Dothraki Canyon

We met up with my friend in the morning at the Zion visitor center, and asked the wilderness desk about the conditions of the canyons at Zion. The news wasn’t good: low elevation canyons were flooded, and high elevation canyons were snowy and icy, dangerous, and difficult to access. We turned to the Internet and looked for easier dry canyons in the nearby areas that could be better suited for our abilities. Dothraki Canyon stood out as possibly doable, so we drove over and began our approach hike.

At the lower elevation, the temperature was reasonable, and it seemed like our trip was destined for success. But at a certain point, the trail transformed itself from a mildly steep sand path into an unmarked, very steep scramble over large rocks in a fissure between two vertical mountain faces. We began this part of the ascent a bit wary but hopeful, but the higher up we went, the colder it got, and the more snow accumulated on the ground, until it no longer felt safe to proceed. The climb felt like it would have been a doable but difficult scramble had it been dry and warm, but in this condition we were constantly postholing, or sliding several feet backward off boulders, and generally not making progress quickly enough to even make it through the canyon before nightfall.

After a couple of hours, we made the decision to bail off the approach, but downclimbing the way we had taken up the mountain felt too sketchy to be done without rope, so we set up a series of rappels off trees and rocks. This was slow to get set up, and by the time we were halfway down our hands and feet felt frozen. At some point, we set up one anchor on a thin pillar of sandstone, and being from the East coast where rocks tend to be sturdy, this felt like a good idea at the time. Unfortunately, as the last person was descending, the pillar snapped, and the person on rope fell several feet, rolled down the mountain a few more feet, and luckily was eventually stopped by a tree. This was our wake up call to take more caution with our anchors, and only anchor to sturdier trees from then on.

It was probably around 4pm by the time we made it to the car, but at least we were all in one piece, although my friend from the Zion area was probably mildly scarred from the experience.

That evening, we reassessed our plans and decided to cancel the remaining canyoneering in Zion, Escalante, and Capitol Reef, and instead drive west past Las Vegas and to Death Valley, where it would be warm and the conditions more favorable. We still wanted to hike in Zion, so we would spend one more night in the area and leave on Monday evening.

Monday, March 27 - Angel’s Landing

In the morning, we did the West Rim Trail, and then Angel’s Landing. Certain parts of the trail were still covered with ice and snow, but it didn’t feel particularly dangerous to me thanks to all of the chain railings. Regardless, the number of people on the trail dwindled as we proceeded along the trail, so clearly a decent fraction of people bailed before the summit. I would recommend having visited a week or two later to avoid the snow.

After the trail, we hit the road again, this time toward Death Valley. Once again, I spent most of the drive pointing out interesting things I saw in the desert, and the two passengers being less impressed. My favorite sight was the Pine Valley Mountains in the backdrop of St. George. We finally arrived at Death Valley at around 10pm, and set up camp at Sunset Campground in Furnace Creek. It was a warm, still night, and certainly was better than how camping anywhere in Utah could have been.

Tuesday, March 28 - Coffin Canyon

We woke up to a sunny, still morning. I had forgotten that there was a timezone shift from Utah to California, so we accidentally woke up at 6:40 instead of 7:40. Since the day seemed so windless, we decided to leave our tent up at the campsite, with all of our camping gear inside. It took a while to get all of our gear packed and breakfast eaten (oats with pineapple -- delicious), so we got to the start of the approach hike at around 10 (which we believed to be 11), and realized that we had eggs and chicken in the car for dinners, and that they would most likely spoil if left in the car in the sun. Therefore, we left the eggs and chicken underneath the car instead.

The approach hike was more intense than I had anticipated, with lots of scrambling. None of it felt particularly difficult, but it was tiring with a heavy pack, and it felt like if I were to slip, I would roll down half the mountain. The start of the canyon was fairly wide, and I was surprised to find signs of life -- the rattle of a rattlesnake, sounds and sights of birds, flowering plants -- amid the parched desert. We did a few rappels at the beginning that weren’t strictly necessary, but it was good practice before the actual first rappel, a beautiful 190ft drop. We only had a 200ft rope, a 150ft rope, and a 68 ft rope, so we had to attach everything together in order to make it all the way down the drop. Luckily, we didn’t have to rappel past a knot, or that would have slowed us down considerably. After the big rappel, things went relatively smoothly and quickly, and we made it out at 5pm or so, although we thought it was 6pm and we started worrying that we might not make it out by dark.

As soon as we got out of the canyon, however, we were met with extremely strong winds. I later checked the weather data, and it suggests that there were sustained winds of up to 30mph at times, with gusts up to 50+mph. Since Death Valley is so open and flat, there was no reprieve from this wind, and it was difficult to talk and walk against the wind. When we got to the car, the first thing we did was check for the chicken and eggs we had left underneath, but there was no trace of them. The wind was clearly strong enough to carry them away across the desert, and our minds jumped to the tent we had left freestanding at our campsite. We figured that every minute we spent at the end of the canyon meant a lower chance of us finding our tent. We therefore drove back to our campground, and my heart dropped when our campsite was completely empty. Clearly, the large rocks we had placed inside had not been enough to keep our tent from flying off. But as we drove around the campground, we noticed a familiar sight: a few hundred feet from our original campsite was our tent, sitting on its side and now with additional rocks on top! We went to it and were told by a nearby fellow camper that they had seen our tent fly away and had saved it from being lost to the desert. But we looked inside and found it empty of all of our camping equipment. We concluded that we probably lost over a thousand dollars of equipment either to thieves or the wind, so we were once again disheartened and started thinking about how to salvage this trip. We thanked the campers and packed our tent, shoving it into the car quickly.

Every time we opened any door to the car, everything inside threatened to fly away, so we all got inside the car and closed the door, and began discussing what we should do now. Just as we started thinking about whether to find some hotel, someone came up to our car and knocked on the window. They told us that they had seen our tent threaten to blow away, and had taken all of the stuff inside and put it inside their RV. It felt like a miracle, and suddenly it no longer seemed like our trip was a complete disaster anymore. We retrieved the things from their RV and shut ourselves into the car again to brainstorm what to do. We considered moving to a different campground if there was any with less wind around, but a quick search using our minimal phone reception showed no sign that there was anywhere within 50 miles with less wind.

We decided to go to the parking lot at Furnace Creek to cook dinner and fill up our water, and as we were sitting around the campstove, we were surprised to see a group of 7 other MIT students that we knew pull up at the same parking lot. We knew that they would also be in Death Valley doing canyoneering this spring break, but we had made no plan to meet up with them. After catching up with them about our respective adventures so far, we decided to meet up on Thursday and do either a canyon or something else together with them.

After a couple of hours with our friends, we exchanged radio frequencies and went back to our campsite. We resigned ourselves to sleeping in the wind that night, so we set up our tent again, this time tying it down with our canyoneering rope to the wheels of our car to prevent it from going anywhere. I have difficulty sleeping in the noise, so I opted to sleep in the car, while the other two slept in the noisy flapping tent. I got very little sleep as I was awoken every time a strong gust blew and rocked the car. The other two seemed to fare a bit better, but still woke up several times that night, each time more covered in sand and dust carried in by the wind.

Wednesday, March 29 - Keane Canyon

This morning, we cleaned up our tent and left nothing at the campsite. Packing up was difficult since our tent acted as a kite, and it was my job to hold the tent down while the other two took it apart, and several times I was dragged a foot or two by the wind. We decided to do Keane Canyon, which the other group had done the day prior and had recommended. Keane Canyon is known for two abandoned mines within the canyon, along with a bunch of old mining equipment leftover from the mining days in the early 20th century.

The approach hike for Keane was easier but longer than the one for Coffin. There was a clear demarcated trail for most of the approach, although we still managed to get lost briefly. We visited the first mine during the approach, although it was blocked off by barbed wire fencing. The second mine was located at the end of the approach, where the actual canyon begins. We spent probably about an hour eating lunch and exploring the ruins of the mine, including peering into a few of the abandoned mine shafts. Some highlights included a ball mill, some minecart rails, and some buckets still suspended by aerial cables for transporting ores.

The canyon itself was nice with some good rappels, including one where the anchor was a prussik of webbing around one of the cables for transporting buckets. The winds were still very strong so it still felt cold, and when we threw ropes down on rappels, they would often get blown back onto us. Usually, though, the winds died down immediately after starting the rappels. Unfortunately, we had spent too long getting lost on the approach and at the abandoned mine, so we finished after dark and had to satphone our call-out to tell them we hadn’t died.

By this point, we were used to dealing with the wind, so we headed to Furnace Creek again to cook dinner in the relative respite from wind that the parking lot offered. It was already getting late by the time we finished dinner, so we went to the campground, set up our tent again, and this time I slept in the tent along with the other two. I can’t say I got the best night of sleep this night because of the noise of the wind, but I was tired enough from the previous sleepless night that I at least got some amount of sleep.

Thursday, March 30 - Rhyolite & Chloride City

We met up with the other group in the morning, but the weather indicated rain (but no more wind!) nearby, so we decided against doing a canyon for fear of flash flooding. Instead, we decided to check out some of the ghost towns in the area. First, we went to Rhyolite, which had several still-standing buildings, and was a tourist spot with informational signage, etc. The nearby mountains were dotted with abandoned mines, so we drove to a few and checked out the entrances. Afterward, we went to Chloride City, which is located a few miles farther up the same mountain range that Keane Canyon is in, and which doesn’t contain many still-standing buildings, but does contain various mineshafts. The road up to Chloride City is very rugged, so we were glad to have access to the other group’s high-clearance vehicles. After visiting these two ghost towns, we had dinner in Beatty and returned to Furnace Creek. Since we no longer had strong winds, setting up camp was much easier today, and I had a reasonable time falling asleep.

Friday, March 31 - Arachnophobia Canyon

Since we hadn’t managed to do a canyon with the other group the day before, we decided to do a canyon together this Friday instead. Since we had enough cars for it, we decided on Arachnophobia, a canyon that required a car shuttle. I was the designated driver for my group’s car, so we all met up at the top of the canyon, dropped off everyone but the three drivers, the three cars drove down to the end of the canyon, we left the other two cars there, and I drove the other drivers back up to the start of the canyon. The two other drivers and I hiked quickly to catch up with the rest of the group, and we met up with the other group by the time we got to the first rappel. Since our group had 10 people and plenty of rope, we leapfrogged quickly through the canyon, and made it down all 10 rappels by early afternoon. Although the rappelling was fun, it often felt more lonely in a big group because it usually required single people or pairs to hike quickly past the whole group in order to bring a rope from one rappel to another. I think I preferred going with just the group of three because it felt more like a cohesive group’s adventure. Nevertheless, I was glad to have gotten to do a canyon with them.

At the end of the canyon, the other group went their separate ways, since they still needed to drive back to Colorado for their flight on Saturday. Our flight was only on Saturday night, but we didn’t want to risk doing a canyon on Saturday and potentially missing our flight, so we decided to return to Las Vegas that night and spend another day exploring the city the next day. The drive was only 2 hours or so, and we booked a room at a hotel and casino in the center of Vegas.

Saturday, April 1 - OmegaMart

In the morning, we drove to Sloan Canyon to try and see the petroglyphs, but the parking was full and we didn’t manage to see them. We then returned to the center of Las Vegas to visit OmegaMart, which was the one touristy thing in Vegas that I had been wanting to see. I felt it was a perfect way to spend April Fool’s! I found the story aspect of it a bit too involved to try to figure out, but the supermarket section was very fun, and the back side with the themed rooms and secret passages pretty cool too. In the evening, we made our way to the airport and boarded our flight back to Boston. Never have I slept better on a plane than this flight: I was so exhausted from the week that I fell asleep during takeoff and only woke up at the beginning of the descent.