|
| | | |
| |
|
| Canyoneering | 4.50 Miles |
1,500 AEG |
| | Canyoneering | 4.50 Miles | 5 Hrs 20 Mns | | 0.84 mph |
| 1,500 ft AEG | | | | |
|
|
| | Intermediate Canyoneering - Difficult or dangerous; Tech Climb; rope reqd; descent anchor; exit technical; | | A - Dry or little water; shallow or avoidable water; no wet/dry suit | | II - Normally requires a half day |
| |
| Partners |
|
none
[ show ]
| no partners | | After exploring upper Apache Trail Canyon, I crossed FR213 and misjudged how far away I was from the Tortilla TH and accidently dropped into the next drainage to the north of Minnow which I'm personally/jokingly naming Guppy Canyon. I soon realized I was in the wrong canyon since I've done Minnow before, but I was about halfway to the major drop off above Fish Creek Bridge so I pushed on to just check it out. There we're some shiny bolts up there with no webbing and looking at the drops from above and below, they look to be about 150ft & 100ft. But I only had a 200ft rope with me and figured I'd have more fun in Minnow and save this one for another day when I have a shuttle setup below to make it more worthwhile dropping down here.  So I backtracked a quarter mile and then climbed the ridge to the southeast and couldn't find an easy way down into Minnow, so I dropped down via a drainage and setup a rappel to get past a few of the taller drops and made it into Minnow just above where the fun begins.  The boulder caves are always cool with loads of down climbing of course, though this time I was able to find slightly easier places to down climb. I spent more time exploring the caves this time and even practiced my ascending at one point. I still need to buy a 200ft pullcord, so for now I just rappel ~75ft to those midway anchors and do another ~75ft rappel to get to the bottom. Some more down climbing and you're at Fish Creek Canyon, though this time I stayed up and checked out those caves/alcoves near the bridge. I tried my luck at hitching a ride for 15-20 mins to no avail, so I just walked the road back to the Tortilla TH. It wasn't nearly as bad of a road walk as I thought it'd be, the views of Fish Creek Canyon are amazing, and it only adds about 2 miles and maybe 1000ft AEG to the hike.  |
| _____________________
| Yea, canyoneering is an extreme sport... EXTREMELY dramatic!!! =p |
| | |
|
|
|
Route Editor
Route Scout
In reality, the 4-stage 500ft cascading waterfall is VERY well bolted and much more scenic than risky as long as you're practicing good rope management. We parked at Tortilla TH off of AZ88 and walked south on the dirt road a quarter to half mile before taking one of the ridges east. Upper Zigzag has 2-3 shallow forks that come together and drop over the cliff in one HUGE drop. The drainages are rather uninteresting and bushy, so taking a ridge is the best way to approach. The top of the falls has two set of bolts but the best one to use is the one up on the fin of rock to the right of the falls LDC. The first drop is 50-80ft to an alcove with two more set of bolts. If the falls was flowing good, you'd get blasted or at least soaking wet while clipped in at these anchors while waiting for your buddy to drop down. The falls was lightly flowing today so my pants got fairly wet but that was about it... 
The ledge below is big and plenty safe to walk along as the falls zigs like 50ft to the south. Once down rap2, pull ropes again, and use the close newer anchors to make rap3 of about 60-80ft to a large angled ledge. R3 is a ledgy dirty rappel since it's not down the falls and at first it's tempting to keep on going all the way to the ground, but to continue would be an even dirtier rappel in some thick bushes. So we pulled the ropes and walked them over to another set of anchor that puts you back into the line of the falls where the rock is much cleaner and gentler on your ropes. 
The final rappel is 100-120ft and drops down a dozen small ledges or so. Since I was the first rappeler, it was my job to keep on throwing the rope further down the drop. Funny that people climb that last drop since it looks like a barely class 5 ladder climb up the ledges. 
