Route Editor
Route Scout
The Highway's First Treasure by fricknaley Anyone who's ever gone up the Catalina Highway will be familiar with the first hard right you make as soon as you get to the mountains. There is a beautiful canyon that rumbles down on you from the northwest forcing that characteristic turn. I've always wondered what the heck was up there, and after hiking the Soldier Trail I realized it led to Soldier Canyon. Now I knew there was some sweetness hiding in the canyon...Time to go look at it. This is a total canyon bushwhack with no trail whatsoever, so be prepared for some climbing and fighting, or this may not be the hike for you. From the road start right up the canyon in whatever fashion works best. In the spring there may well be flowers and water flowing everywhere. Go for it. The takeoff point is the canyon that comes feeding in from your right. You can actually see it from the road. It is about 0.3 miles to the mouth of this canyon, again, which is on your right. This is Soldier Canyon. Immediately there is a pretty significant sheer wall, which may have a very narrow fall in it. You can scramble up the left side of this wall and gain the top of the fall, only to see a more gorgeous cascade right above it. Take a million pictures if it's flowing and then climb up the left side of this too. There is some exposure here, as there is on much of this route so please be very careful. Once above this two-tiered obstacle you have smooth sailing for a little while. Pick your way up and along the canyon, which occasionally narrows down nicely and towers above you. There may be a little creek flowing at the right time of year with whimsical little falls everywhere. This section is picturebook. You are rock-hopping most of the way. At about 1 mile a narrow, rough side canyon comes feeding in from the right. You can see a rugged, pile of massive boulders to your left that seem to be blocking your way up the main canyon. You do need to make the left and stay in the main canyon. Though it seems impossible, you can climb up the left side of this mess. It's a rough scramble but there is a way. Eventually the tiniest use path dumps you in underneath the rocks. A very narrow, knifelike rocks leads you up about 8 feet or so and then you are free. It seems this is the only way up and if you just start right and exhaust all your options until you are on the left side of the pile you will find it. Be careful here, a fall would be BAD. Climb up more piles until the canyon levels out a bit. From here it is about 0.7 miles or so of more easy canyon climbing and creek crossing until the canyon ends at a vertical wall. There are two beautiful thin falls here. One in front, that is two-tiered and a second multitiered fall further back to the left. This area is just peaceful and wonderfully secluded. Worth the trip to be sure. Head back the way you came, as much as you can anywhere and watch that footing. The total climb is a little over 1240 feet and extremely rugged. Check out the Official Route and Triplogs. Leave No Trace and +Add a Triplog after your hike to support this local community.
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WARNING! Hiking and outdoor related sports can be dangerous. Be responsible and prepare for the trip. Study the area you are entering and plan accordingly. Dress for the current and unexpected weather changes. Take plenty of water. Never go alone. Make an itinerary with your plan(s), route(s), destination(s) and expected return time. Give your itinerary to trusted family and/or friends.
Most recent Triplog Reviews
Soldier Canyon
From Nick's photoset, it was obvious this was a technical canyon and armed with two 100ft ropes & recent canyon beta from the ACA forums I descended this short & sweet canyon from the Prison Camp TH down to the Catalina highway down below. 
From the trailhead, we started briefly on the Soldier trail but left it after about a quarter mile and headed down the drainage towards some narrows. We hit that cool slickrock narrows sections that looked like it'd present some rappels but after a few tricky down climbs & jumps, we were able to make it thru them without having to break out the gear or get wet in the pools. 
Another easy slickrock section was encountered before the canyon flattened out and we had loads of rock hopping & bushwhacking. The trail crossed over the flat dry wash and we followed it briefly to take a break from bushwhacking but it soon crossed back over the wash and headed up the hillside just before another sweet narrows section. 
We made our way into the chute at the beginning of the narrows and soon encountered a 20ft drop & some shredded webbing indicating the first rappel. We geared up, made a new anchor, rappelled down the chute, avoided a small pool at the bottom, and found another 15ft drop on the other side of a van-sized chockstone. The webbing appeared to have been washed out and was laying in the sand below, but instead of building another we decided to slide down the 15ft slope to the sandpit below. 
Another 20ft drop was below the sandpit, so I used the failed anchor to make an anchor for this next short yet awkward rappel. This was followed by a tricky down climb and then a living room sized chockstone with a 50ft rappel to get past it. This was definetly the most awkward rappel of the day since there was a 4ft long by 1ft wide crack to rappel past to get below the chockstone. I used a stiff leg-in-the-crack & lean back technique to prevent my body from sliding in and getting helpless wedged in there. 
A little further down and we hit the big falls that stopped Nick on his trip and found a sturdy tree with webbing around it to make the final 70ft rappel down these sweet falls to the sandy bottom. There was still plenty of rock hopping & down climbing past a few more drops & small falls before reaching the highway and a popular small climbing wall known as Left Hand Wall. We dropped our gear while briefly watching the climbers before crossing the highway to our lower vehicle and driving back up to the Prison Camp TH. Yet another amazing short & sweet winter canyon in the lower Catalinas! 
From the trailhead, we started briefly on the Soldier trail but left it after about a quarter mile and headed down the drainage towards some narrows. We hit that cool slickrock narrows sections that looked like it'd present some rappels but after a few tricky down climbs & jumps, we were able to make it thru them without having to break out the gear or get wet in the pools. Another easy slickrock section was encountered before the canyon flattened out and we had loads of rock hopping & bushwhacking. The trail crossed over the flat dry wash and we followed it briefly to take a break from bushwhacking but it soon crossed back over the wash and headed up the hillside just before another sweet narrows section. We made our way into the chute at the beginning of the narrows and soon encountered a 20ft drop & some shredded webbing indicating the first rappel. We geared up, made a new anchor, rappelled down the chute, avoided a small pool at the bottom, and found another 15ft drop on the other side of a van-sized chockstone. The webbing appeared to have been washed out and was laying in the sand below, but instead of building another we decided to slide down the 15ft slope to the sandpit below. Another 20ft drop was below the sandpit, so I used the failed anchor to make an anchor for this next short yet awkward rappel. This was followed by a tricky down climb and then a living room sized chockstone with a 50ft rappel to get past it. This was definetly the most awkward rappel of the day since there was a 4ft long by 1ft wide crack to rappel past to get below the chockstone. I used a stiff leg-in-the-crack & lean back technique to prevent my body from sliding in and getting helpless wedged in there. A little further down and we hit the big falls that stopped Nick on his trip and found a sturdy tree with webbing around it to make the final 70ft rappel down these sweet falls to the sandy bottom. There was still plenty of rock hopping & down climbing past a few more drops & small falls before reaching the highway and a popular small climbing wall known as Left Hand Wall. We dropped our gear while briefly watching the climbers before crossing the highway to our lower vehicle and driving back up to the Prison Camp TH. Yet another amazing short & sweet winter canyon in the lower Catalinas! 2010-12-26 Vaporman
Soldier Canyon
I needed a distraction in a bad, bad way today. Wow, did I get it. This canyon is just gorgeous in places, rugged in others and awesome always. Luckily I think I caught the tailend of the snowmelt, so there was some decent water flowing along. Hillsides were mostly yellow.
My dad and I just picked along until the canyon said "No more" and then we turned around. I studied the topo pretty closely so I though we would be able to make it to the wall and we did. Excellent, excellent canyon.
My dad and I just picked along until the canyon said "No more" and then we turned around. I studied the topo pretty closely so I though we would be able to make it to the wall and we did. Excellent, excellent canyon.
2008-03-22 fricknaley
