December 4, 2017

Willow Canyon - Seven Cataracts -- Canyoneering

I did this passage on a beautiful day in December. December 3, 2017. Daytime temperatures were in the mid to high 70s. There was no water flow in the canyon or on any of the rappels. A few pools still held water, notably at the ends of rappel 1 and 4.

This is not a hike by any stretch of the imagination, but a canyoneering adventure.

I began my trip at about 11 AM and was done by 4:30 PM. Going alone both makes things go faster and adds the extra burden of carrying all the gear and doing all the setup and teardown. Sorry, no pictures. I was leery of taking my camera since I fully expected to end up swimming at the end of the last rappel.

Vehicles and starting points

I made arrangements for my son to pick me up after work at 5PM at the Seven Cataracts vista, which is at milepost 9 more or less. It would also be possible (not to mention better) to exit further up the road where the road crosses Bear canyon. If I had it to do again, I would probably do things this way, as it would avoid the steep climb up to the vista parking area.

I drove my truck to about mile 14.5 and parked. This is about 0.5 miles past Windy Point and at the "Colonel Birdseye" parking area if you are a climber. This was at the furthest point offering easy downhill access to Willow Canyon. Most people start this trip at Windy Point, hiking out to near Nancy's thumb tower and dropping down the steep hillside. I like my starting point much better (having done the approach from Windy Point many times going to the Iranian Wall). The hike from the road to the Canyon is a pleasant affair with a nice trail even, and then you stroll down a nice canyon. You can also start the adventure up near Lizard Rock if that appeals to you.

The Canyoneering

People ask if this descent can be done without ropes. It looked straightforward to me to bypass some of the rappels via steep thrashing on the hillsides, but I was skeptical that it could be done entirely. However, I asked my friend Lynn and he reports, "I've come down that way once, without ropes (as always), but it was pretty darned difficult. I imagine it would be much easier and more pleasant using ropes." So there you have the opinion of a person who is one of the most hardcore off trail hikers you will ever meet.

In the following, when I say left or right, this is looking down canyon, i.e. when facing in the direction of down canyon progress.

Two 150 foot ropes are the textbook recommendation for this descent. I carried at 200 foot rope and a 165 foot shabby pull cord. I used only the 200 foot rope for all but the last rappel. This allowed me to make 100 foot rappels, which worked out fine with one small exception. I found it necessary to split rappel 1 into two parts, which was no big deal and probably advisable anyway. Rappel 3 comes up a bit short doing a 100 foot rappel. This required making an early exit via an easy scramble right. To avoid abandoning my rope, I tied some extra sling to one end of the rope. This allowed me to scramble down the remaining distance and retain control of one end of the rope and then be able to pull it down. It was essential to get all the way down to get in a proper line to pull the rope without having it jam in a crack. Being able to do a 150 foot rappel here would make things simpler.

The route is obvious enough, just follow the canyon downstream. A major fork from the right joins when you get next to windy point and Arizona Cypress appear. Eventually you get to the top of rappel 1 with anchors on the left. All of the rappels now offer bolt anchors. I am sure there are people who are upset about this, but this is not the place to get into that issue. In every case I added a sling of my own and pulled off the worst looking old sling.

Rappel 1 drops into a small pool. My rope got wet, but I didn't. If you had a long rope, you could continue rappelling past a large chockstone, with some risk of the rope getting stuck alongside the chockstone when you tried to pull it down. I was rigged at this point for 100 foot rappels, so that was impossible anyway, so I pulled the rope and rerigged a second rappel here from slings around one side of the chockstone (so you could count this as two rappels). Maybe you could scramble down from the chockstone, but the rock is very smooth and I wanted no part of it.

Rappel 2 and 3 are close together, but a ways further down canyon. Rappel 2 is straightforward and steep and just under 100 feet. Rappel 3 will come up short at 100 feet and will require a a scramble off to the right. I would rig it with a longer rope if I had it to do again.

Rappel 4 is the final rappel, which definitely requires 150 feet of rope. I rigged with a tag line and a block so I could do a single rope rappel and this was fine. The rappel ends in a large pool. My ropes got wet, but I found it simple to traverse left just above the water to exit and stay dry.

The exit

A well established trail leaves the pool on the left and contours the hillside a long distance to meet Bear Canyon. This makes for a pleasant exit and given the contouring avoids a lot of descending into Bear Canyon. Also, it meets Bear Canyon above a big waterfall that blocks Bear Canyon just above where Willow Canyon joins Bear Canyon. So you don't have to deal with this big waterfall and can easily just hike up Bear Canyon, go through the big pipes under the highway and arrive at a parked car at the Green Slabs area. I had avoided this exit because I thought it would require dealing with the big waterfall and I wanted no part of that. Now that I know that isn't required, I would definitely do this rather than thrashing up the steep slope to the Seven Cataracts Vista parking area as I did.
Have any comments? Questions? Drop me a line!

Tom's hiking pages / tom@mmto.org