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| Hiking | 6.00 Miles |
2,000 AEG |
| | Hiking | 6.00 Miles | | | |
| 2,000 ft AEG | | | | |
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| no partners | | Upper CMP Canyon South & North Forks
naming ref: [ photo ]
Spurred on by @grasshopper - the south fork of copper canyon (and another norf fork as well). Note I only started the route at the south fork junction, so distance and elevation is off even though the track still shows the complete route.
Same entrance point obviously (3 pink rocks in the now cut off FR236A), as the route is the same up until the junction. Easy forest across a few drainages to the rocky copper creek. In the earlier flatter stages it's simpler to keep to one side or the other, then hop in the creekbeds up when things get steeper and vegetation closes in. Far less bushy than the initial cut and approach the Malicious Gap falls, but similar overall obstacles (lots of boulders, stones, deadfall, trees to brush past, etc)
While it looks like it's going to be a bushwhacking pooeyshow from above, we were pleasantly surprised at how open it was. Anticipating it tightening we explored up a beautiful grassy slope, but ended up coming back down, so you can ignore the first little side trip up the canyon wall. More canyon views and small ledges and slickrock bits than the north fork, which is just trees and boulders until that magnificent set of cascades that start the slickrock. It's a little more interesting IMO, less claustrophobic boulder hopping until it's not.
We ended up cutting out the creekbed on our way up to gain an open grassy slope to the north - that ended up being the bushbashing highlight of the trip amusingly enough. Some neat views, and access to a shallow cave we didn't get to from that route, so worth doing just for variety if you feel like it. We dropped back in near some pine trees when it got more consistently slick rocky and... huh.
It doesn't open up into that huge vista of the north fork, but it's spectacular in a more intimate way. Extremely lush, almost a jungle feel (as opposed to overgrown scrubby forest) with a scattering of scenic boulders and the odd cacti give it a feel of a Indiana Jones set or something. We kept on following the canyon as it tightened up, enjoying the pillars to either side and wondering if/when we'd get cliffed out. After various enjoyable class 3 obstacles we hit the first serious one - a chunky rock wall maybe 15 feet in height. Sara had picked up a puncture wound from an Agave leaf in her right foot so sat this out, but I went up the left side of it where it looked the simplest. It's more difficult than the malicious gap wall, a longer pitch and somewhat smoothed by water, but I made it up without any special moments.
From there it's a simple loose 4-5 minute gully scramble up to the top of the canyon and out to the top! I exited a bit NE of the main inlet and wandered around the top checking out other possible routes and views. Some great viewpoints (mind the edges, and the fact that some of these pillars are already semi detached) but didn't see any other routes down that I'd want to do without rope, so I eventually retraced my steps down.
I choose to chimney/buttslide down a crack near the canyon wall vs downclimb given the smoothness of rock and the fact I was wearing a really sloppy pair of solomon midtops (lightweight, comfy, moderately protective, but not suited for edging/smearing at all). Dropped without incident and we made our way down canyon - the creekbed we bypassed earlier had no major obstacles and we followed up a neat staircasey drainage to the canyon wall to the south because it was there. I'd recommend it. After that dropping down to the junction was more of the same, and then we went back up the north fork we'd admired the day before from the ridge.
The high route (a simplified version of what we did last time based off of previous attempts to reach the ruins) was much more straightforward having done it before. Cut along the bottom then the left of the talus, bushbash through dense but not spiky plants when the first squat pillar was reached to the next gully, follow that up (with more bushbashing and class 3 mixed in with some nice open spots), then cut across some solid rock near the top to the "pillar garden" viewpoint and an easy drop from there to the slickrock part of the upper canyon. I enjoy taking the high way up, and following the creekbed down, but it's not necessary. If there's a lot of flow in the creek it could be useful for bypassing some of the cascade drops at the end which would get complicated if wet I suppose.
From there more tree branch shoving and boulder hopping all the way back down to the road. |
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