The rappels and interesting challenges of Cascade Canyon makes this canyon one of the most unique C class canyon in the United States.
Ouray is a beautiful mountain town located in the rugged San Juan mountains of southwest Colorado.
The town itself is surrounded by prominent peaks and beautiful mountain terrain.
The town itself has excellent vibes and appears to attract these vibes with the environment that this place situated in.
Mountains, hot springs, canyoneering, climbing, ice climbing....what can you expect, its going
to be amazing!!
There are some excellent canyoneering routes located around the town of Ouray.
Waterfalls even pour into the drainages below and you can see the canyons from the restaurants in town!
One of which is Cascade creek canyon.
Cascade creek canyon is one of the Ouray classic canyons that has major drainages and interesting fun challenges that can last a good portion to the day for some and will last all day long and into the night for others.
We got a early start but I was looking for a earlier start to the canyons approach.
We did opt to set up a shuttle and we are also got a slightly later start so people could sleep in a bit longer and be ready for canyoneering.
Some also wanted to grab some coffee which ate up some time, so time could have been saved here a bit.
We started up the mountain trail, which was a nice addition to actually see a trail leading to a canyons start.
The day was clear from rain, which
was really important but it was quite Smokey outside.
This smoke made the 1700 feet of gain we needed to earn, a bit more challenging.
It took about 2 hours to get up to the top of the canyon.
Some interesting mining artifacts where at the top but what was even more interesting was the start.
From the start of the canyon to the end, it was a beautiful and scenic canyon!
We encountered numerous rappels and downclimbs which were quite slippery.
The water flow in my opinion was in fun mode but I think others found this canyon's water to be a bit more.
We had to ghost some of the raps and some of the other downclimbs, we rapped to keep the group of 8 going.
We had beginner to expert canyoneers with minimal experience to c class canyons so leap frogging and keeping everyone moving as safe and efficient as possible.
This is one particular area on the second 200 ft rap that has a hole through the floor. This hole is where water is flowing through and is not only unstable, but potentially fatal if someone were to fall through it. The anchor is 8-10 feet above this hole. To get to this anchor, you have options. There is an option to climb to the
anchor and other options to hook the anchor with rope. Hooking the anchor will take some creativity and we chose to hook the anchor instead of attempting to climb the anchor. Choose wisely.
This canyon is a absolute MUST DO can in Ouray.
I recommend a smaller group of up to six, a early start, and people competent and leap frogging to complete this canyon.
Enjoy it!!!!
