ADAM HAYDOCK

Troy Fuqua, Derek Reneer, Adam Haydock, Mike Green, Walter Stech in Spry Canyon, Utah

We woke up early to get over to Spry Canyon but it turned out to take a bit longer than expected which is ok as long as we were all prepared and could get to the visitor center at a decent hour to get the permits and to make our way over to the canyon in good time.

Going up the Saddle in Spry Canyon, Zion National Park Utah

 I am not sure how, but an argument between some people erupted between Troy Derek and visitors on how we parked the car and how we had our gear sprawled out on the concrete.  All I can remember is a very annoying puddle barking non stop and thinking, what the heck is a puddle doing in Zion. After gearing up and loading the shuttle car, we got to the entrance of spry at around 11am and started our hike up the wash and over the saddle reaching the top of the canyon.

Mike Green looking toward Spry Canyon, Zion National Park, Utah

It took a bit of time to scale around the saddle and up the slab rock but the views were beautiful and the Zion desert environment was quite the backdrop as we climbed over to the top of the saddle.  we had some negotiating to do when we went up the saddle but we made it to the top with no incidents. unfortunately, we missed the Indian artifacts.

Adam Haydock in Spry Canyon, Zion National Park, Utah

 Once we got to the top we could look down at spry canyons gorge cutting its way in between the east Mesa and the brothers to the right. The view was beautiful!!!

Spry Canyon

 We ate some lunch and started our descent down into spry reaching some down climbs and the first of the many raps into the canyon.We each to different directions dealing with the downclimb but all ended up in the wash and took the path towards the first rap.

Troy negotiating the downclimb in Spry Canyon

The first drop was around 190 ft around a pot hole into a small pool of water at the bottom of the canyon. We all made it around and down to the bottom of the rap and pulled our rope and committing ourselves to the famous spry canyon.

Derek Reneer at the first drop in Spry Canyon, Zion National Park, Utah,

The next few raps were less than 100ft and into a series to small Canyon passages that continued to lead us down hill and through a lush micro forest of flora that appeared to be fed by the watercourse that recharges this canyon in a rain or flood stage event.

Mike and Derek at the First drop at Spry Canyon, Zion National Park, Utah,

After getting down a few more raps we encountered a rap that required us to get into the water.  It was interesting to see some people attempting to avoid the water at all costs which took up some more time climbing around and stemming the canyon rap but it was also interesting to see how everyone was working together to problem solve.

Derek Reneer in Spry Canyon

We shuttled some packs across the water and made our way into
The bottom of the canyon.

Mike Green in Spry Canyon

Afterwards, the raps started to get closer to each other and the drops got to be a bit more rapid fire. We dropped an 80footer and another 100footer that took us into a slot canyon passage that led to the infamous 100ft rope sticker rap.

Troy rapping into a slot in Spry Canyon, Zion National Park, Utah,

I rigged a fiddlestick to make the pull a lot easier than the traditional pull. I could see how people were sticking the rope at the top from all of the grooves that damaged this canyon. We all got down and continued to rap down the next drop to a drop that turned a bit confusing.

Troy rapping down a drop in Spry Canyon

 It was a beautiful view into the slot and the overlook was beautiful but the drop itself became cumbersome for one of our teammates and found himself at the edge of the canyon in another section.

Troy packing some rope in Spry Canyon, Zion National Park, Utah,

 He was not sure how he ended up like that but the theme of the day appeared to be to avoid water.

Spry Canyon, Zion National Park, Utah,

He ended up coming down but the rope became stuck.

Mike and Derek setting up a fiddlestick in Spry Canyon

I threw the rope over to Mike who was at the end of the swim and as he pulled the rope, I flicked it to reduce friction on the rope itself. It worked and we got the rope back..thankfully.

Troy and Derek with there swaygos in Spry Canyon

We continued on past more drops and a nice swim which had quite the breeze after getting out and back on rope to drop the next 100ft rap into the wash.

Walter and Troy waiting to rap into a water passage in Spry Canyon, Zion National Park, Utah,

We all got down into the wash that opened up into some incredible views of pine creek.  Pine creek canyon feeds into the was below and is another beautiful canyon to visit that I highly recommend. 

Mike Green rapping off the final rappel in Spry Canyon, Zion National Park, Utah,

The final three raps were big open air raps around 100ft overlooking pine creek valley and route 9. I was nice to see how the canyon started to open up and the look of the canyon from the other side of route 9.

Mike Green on rap in Spry Canyon, Zion National Park, Utah,

The last rap was a shear drop into breakdown boulders which was another nice big view big room feel that had an overhanging life that made the rap a free rappel.  This was a nice grand finale to a beautiful classic canyon.

Troy on the Last Rap in Spry Canyon

What a nice classic canyon to pull on and a great day of canyoneering fun.We ended the day up at Kolob Lake so we could get some sleep and beat the road closure for the next day at Boundary Canyon.

Mike Green talking with Walter and Derek on Spry Canyon

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#cavinginthesun #exploreyourworld

Adam Haydock & Troy Fuqua having lunch on top of Spry Canyon

Little Brush Creek cave is located in eastern Utah. Little Brush Creek Cave has been publicly mapped for around 5.9 miles but additional survey has rendered passage that has extended this cave to 7 miles making this cave the longest cave in Utah.

This cave has a short visitation span of only a few month in the winter due to the massive amount of water that this system takes in from Little Brush creek.  The river loses right into the cave and nobody has found where the water goes as of yet.

A winter visit into this cave is the best time to go so you are not caught in a flash flood and so you can traverse around the frozen potholes that are full of water.

The first 200ft of passage is massive borehole which is all within the light zone in the entrance room.  There is a dome room to the left which is around 40ft high and 30-40ft long.

 I encountered a lot of rotting logs and debris that  have been keyed in from previous floods that creates a lot of obstacles for a continued pursuit into the cave.  Small tiered climb downs, 3ft. to around 6ft., with air sucking into the cave, tell an obvious tale that this cave holds an extensive labyrinth of passage.

There are some restrictive passages where logs that can be difficult to go through, but with a little thought, they are straightforward to breach. Continuing down the cave the room will get slightly bigger with less stoop walking and more walking until you get to the pothole canyon passage.

We found this to be interesting as the limestone was a strong reinforced strata with conglomerate stone at its contact and in the ceiling.  It was a rather gray light pale, to blue gray in color with some yellow staining sprinkled in. I made it almost a mile and decided to turn around as daylight was burning on the topside and I wanted to check on Laura and check on a few out side passages.  

The cave was a balmy 35-40 degrees as it was 15 degrees outside which made this feel quite warm as long as you kept moving.

After exiting the main corridor I found a side passage that was blowing out to the exit which was a quick realization that a possible through trip can be made in this cave. Back in the Midwest, the caves where usually blowing out or sucking in depending on the season but in this cave system the cave was doing both. We noticed the ice hexagonal ice crystal on the other entrance which were beautiful!

We found this crystallization to be quite interesting because of how the prisms should shimmer in all different direction making these a little challenge to photo. This also shows the the cave has air circulation properties.

I was able to find a crack that was bolted and appeared to be quite deep but unfortunately I did not have my vertical gear with me so I was not able to get down there.

Toothbrush cave was right next door which is a walking entrance with a breakdown slide to a 40ft pit that drops into walking passage for a couple hundred feet.  We are going to bring my vertical gear next time for that one.

Located around 4 to 5 miles south of Green River, Utah is a cold water geyser that spews water, sometimes to a height of 50ft. at intervals throughout the day.  This Geyser was once drilled for oil down to a depth of over 2000ft. but the explorers were not successful in finding any oil. 

 The previous landowners partially filled in the geyser and some locals capped the geyser with a log which prevented it from blasting water into the air. There was been a metal device placed around the hole and I believe the log was removed to allow the water to blast through the top. 

There are some very interesting travertine rim stone dams that have formed both before the oil exploration, which are now dried out and dormant, to actively flowing travertine dams that direct the water in a bridal veil like fashion to the Green River. 

The dams are colored in orange and dark red which tells me that the water might have levels of oxidizing iron in the solution.  The water is also said to have a lot of Carbon Dioxide dissolved into the solution. 

 I remember seeing some gas that smelled like methane rising out of the drainage pipe where the water was flowing out of as well.  This place is worth a quick stop if you are driving through Green River.

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Crystal Geyser, Green River Utah

We met up with Daniel Martin, Kevin Romanak, Justin Thompson, and Lina Bachir for a trip into Zion National Parks, Telephone Canyon.

  We got an early start to Telephone canyon as I made sure to get the permits the day before, I almost forgot how Zion is more like Disney land now and you have to pay 20 dollars for a self guided ride down a canyon like a roller coaster at a theme park.

   I still enjoy Zion but it does get a bit tiring with the massive amount of people the visit there. We get off at the Grotto trailhead and head up Angels Landing and continue to follow the west rim trail all the way up to camp 2 on the top of the plateau.

 It was quite the hike but we had a good crew and were able to keep moving by passing ropes around to one another on the hike up.

We finally made it to the top in around 4 hours form starting at the grotto, so we had lunch and filled up on water from cabin spring.

We continued on down the trail and headed over to the head of Telephone canyon which was a impressive entrance drop of around 170ft to the bottom tier.

I looped around to make sure this was the correct canyon while everyone else set up for the drop. There were two separate rap stations to the RDC and LDC but we went center canyon down and got a good start to getting over the edge and into telephone canyon.

Once we all made it to the bottom, we started to work forward by passing bags of rope and setting up drops as we went along. It was slow going at first but we all started to gel together and towards the end of the canyon, everything was moving pretty good.

There were around 13-14 rappels in this canyon with short sections of walking. 

 The canyon was dry except for some very avoidable sections of pothole water. it took us a bit longer to get through the drops but I would rate this one at a 3AIII. 

 The views were fantastic looking back down canyon and the drops were less than a hundred feet except for the first one, a drop towards the middle, and the last drop might have been 100ft at the most.

  I recommend bringing 200ft of rope and pull cord. rap rings, and at least 50ft of webbing...the webbing at of 6/12/2016 looked fine.

 There is some awkward rappelling around corners and a sideways rap but other than that, everything was straightforward. 

 Telephone Canyon is quite remote in the Zion National Park but I recommend grabbing this canyon at least once and if you are looking for a dry and quiet place for a day, Telephone canyon is a good one to choose.

We made it up to the Unita Mountains and headed over to Owl Pit cave which is a really interesting feature in this range.

 Blue owl Cave is one of the more interesting caves in the area which has a nice 30-40ft entrance drop where you pass in-between a natural arch to the bottom.  You will want to stay on rope when you get to the bottom and continue to feed the rope through a hole in the ground that drops another 40 ft into a 30 x 30 ft room.

 The room cave itself reminds me of the caves back in Indiana but with the glacial till piled up on the ground but what was even more interesting is that when you go into the side passage, you will find that the rock changes from a limestone to a metamorphic sandstone with marbled layers in between each other.

 This looks like it might be hydrothermal in nature and was possibly, at one time, a hot spring of some sort.

 This side passage continues around a bend and goes up to a unknown location.  Water appears to seep through so my guess is that it is going back to the surface.

d I checked out the other direction which was indeed a pit that dropped around 40-50 ft. to a slope that went into a canyon room that ended

This was pretty interesting but I soon got back on rope and started to ascend out of the cave.  I found that the most interesting part about this one was the entrance drop and the field of flowers that the cave was surrounded by.

These caves are very important geological features so lets all please keep them in pristine condition. please use minimal impact when visiting them and do not damage the cave.  we want to keep these wonderful places in pristine condition for generations to enjoy.

I am looking forward to going back to see what is at the bottom of the main drop and continue to photo the cave.