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| no partners | | Upper CMP Canyon North Fork
Lower canyon, starting from about halfway up 236A.
Followed the road up to the "TH" (essentially cut off the road towards the wash where there are three large pink rocks scattered in the road and then continue up the wash). For the very bottom of the wash we walked on the far side where it was flat as the wash was a bit overgrown and there was open terrain at the side, then popped back in as it began to climb. This hike is 95% boring/tedious slog through a bouldery streambed and ducking/pushing under overhanging tree limbs, and 5% wonder at the rock walls and cascades of the slabby stream bed at the end. It gets a little brushier once you pass the main fork up in the canyon (where everyone goes east/left, didn't check out west/right) but not bad, and if you take the high route below you skip the brushier section (going down it wasn't bad though).
While you can go up and down the creekbed just fine, we did a twist that I think is worth repeating. Directions heading up, as that's the better way to do this.
A ways past the fork the streambed is extremely cut out with an 8+ foot mud/rock wall on the right with a precarious tree. Just past this there's a talus field you can head up - to the right across smaller looser rock is the approach to the large cave (dwelling?) that you can see from the streambed. As my partner has PTSD from being in the middle of a significant rockslide on steep loose terrain, we stuck to the left of this where the rocks are larger and surprisingly stable until it ended. Tried going up from there and got cliffed out, so don't do that. What you should do is bushbash up and over into the drainage channel to the left of it then head up that (easy going!) until it cliffs out amongst some trees. From there's it's a simple pleasant walk (comparatively) up to the interesting part of the canyon - passing some amazing pillar formations - stop and look behind you! There's some flat spots that'd make a great lunch lookout. After a brief ledgey traverse it opens up, do a gentle traverse then drop a bit more steadily towards a small point with a dead fallen tree on it, then make your way down to the canyon floor. Once there wander around, enjoy your reward, then drop back down to the road just following the streambed.
For people comfortable on 35deg+ loose scree/talus, heading to the cave and back near the beginning of that would be interesting.
No obstacles beyond basic scrambling, some simple downclimbing on very blocky terrain you could theoretically bypass.
No water in creek until the upper slabby part, nice flow between pools and the falls had a steady stream of fat drops tossed by the wind. |
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