ADAM HAYDOCK

We wanted to check out something a bit more localized and different so I did a little research and found a place called Hidden Canyon, which promised to be a few hours to run and a geology makeup of limestone.

 We have been running a lot of sandstone canyons and it was interesting to visit a Limestone canyon and being cavers, we enjoyed our pleasant Sunday afternoon in this limestone cave with no ceiling which has been named, Hidden Canyon.

 once we got to the top of the mountain, we could see where the drainage headed down into a canyon with polished limestone and a tight corridor.

 It was nice to not have anyone here where we could enjoy the canyon and take our time a bit because we were literally still in the city of in las vegas.

 The beta mentioned that there were three drops but when we went through the canyon, we noticed four rap stations.   All of the raps were 35ft. or less on a sloping descent which was not difficult to work our way down.

 A couple of the drops had some interesting light stained walls with a flowstone like mold starting to form and other drops had some interesting fossils embedded into the rock which we were not able to  identify.

 I would rate this canyon as a 3AII for it straightforward descent and ease of navigation but the hike to and from the canyon can take a bit of time to get to. I can imagine this route being a boiling inferno in the summertime so I think a good time to check this one out is in the fall, winter, spring time.

 This was a great way to get out and get some exercise on a Sunday and seeing some interesting limestone features.

Englestead Hollow Canyon is a Zion classic with its 290ft entrance drop and a straightforward stroll through some nice canyon passage that spills into Orderville canyon.   this route is a 4AIII because of the 290ft entrance drop but pretty straightforward after the first drop. 

I met up with Mike Green and his fiancé Lindsay Hansen on their weeklong vacation trip to Zion National Park. Laura could not make it so the night before, the three of us stayed at the Ponderosa ranch and I got the worst sleep due to some kind of generator oscillating noise throughout the night.  There was a point where I did fall asleep and a second or two later, it was 6:30am and time to get everything set up for the day.

We packed everything up and headed out to the Trailhead of Englestead Canyon while the sun started to peak over the ponderosa Pine ridge at around 7000ft of elevation.   It was a bit cold out but as soon as the sun peaked through the pine needles, the heat started to rise quickly. 

Soon after scrambling down an obvious trail and following a wash that apparently has been travelled quite a bit, the crack into the earth known as Englestead Hollow Canyon started to emerge.

It was quite impressive as most entry point canyons are in Zion, but this canyon offers a bit more of a ride on 330ft of rope to get down into the canyon.

I like to look at it as a right of passage and a good introduction to the big 300ft+ drops that are starting to emerge out in the Western United States. Yet this ride is in a park that is starting to be overrun by mountainous numbers of tourists and people from all over the world, sort of like Disneyworld......complete with a trolley, and you have to bring your own equipment to enjoy the rides.  Sarcastic as it may sound,  it appears that Zion is turning into quite the world attraction as it is a beautiful place overrun by tourists.

Back at the canyon, We rig to the right and rope up into a face level webbing anchor with 330ft of rope.  We found that this drop is a total of 290ft. so the 330ft. of cancord 9mm rope was the perfect rope to use.

Mike drops into the canyon first and Lindsay goes down after mike so I can get some photos of them going down the drop.

I got on rope and brought all of the pull cord with me so we could have a nice pull being LMAR. On the way down I noticed a few rap stations where people could set up hanging belay stations (if needed) but at around 200-220ft, there is a large ledge with another rap station that would allow for a nice rig point to the bottom of the canyon.

Once at the bottom we pulled the rope and continued to head down canyon with a rapid fire sequence of rappels that we encountered along the way.  Mike has the 45L Rodcle pack and I was impressed with the build and the design of this backpack.  One of the key differences between this pack and other canyon packs on the market is that it stays wide open when it is put on the ground which allows easy access for packing the rope into pack itself other than the pack flopping over or concaving on itself, consequently having someone hold it open.

The canyon walls were pretty impressive as the corridor leading down to Orderville Canyon had a twilight effect at the bottom with hints of a firey color fading into the upper reaches of the smooth cut slot canyon.

The 290ft entrance drop was the most impressive out of all of the drops in Englestead.  After the 290, there was a 40 footer through a keyed in rock which was interesting, than a tiered drop that came out to be around 160ft in total length.

We had a 330ft rope and we just barely had enough rope to double up and pull the 330 down. 

Once we came down the first sequence, the canyon opened up a bit to the fall colors and the leaves changing which was a nice variation to the towering walls of reds and oranges.

Zion in the fall is a great time to visit and I think that since it is ideal weather conditions, dry, and the leaves are changing, makes this national park a great time of the year for a visit.

After hiking through the canyon for a bit, to our surprise, the canyon closed up again and got narrow with a few more drop of less than 50ft for each drop.

Once we worked through a few of these drops and through a small natural arch, we dropped into orderville canyon just in time for lunch.

The Devil's Hole system is a vital resource for the endangered species of pupfish and a point of hydro logic geological survey and life.  Please continue to respect and treat this property as a sanctuary and respect the measures taken to protect this research.  We need the help of EVERY visitor and encourage the stewardship in facilitating a preserving environment for the devil's hole system.

Click on this link to watch a Video on the Devils Hole System

looking up at the entrance of the Devil's Hole PHOTO BY: Brett Seymourhttps://vimeo.com/141245090

Devil's Hole is a 50ft x 10ft fissure crack in at the base of a mountain located in the Ash Meadows National Wildlife Refuge just outside of Death Valley National Park.  The devil's hole entrance is part of a massive aquifer, an aquifer that has no confirmed depth or has been full explored by divers in the past.  What is known about this system is that it is faulted entrance into an aquifer of unknown measurement.  The fissure opens up to the aquifers water table and faults down into phreatic and fissure submerged passages that are mostly underwater with the exception of a few air bells.

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One of the most protected species of fish I have ever encountered, The Devil's Hole Pupfish, are and have been the subject of research, spotlight, and debate for over 70 years. These pupfish are an ancient species of fish that have been found in other fossil specimens and are noted for their particular threshold to high salinity levels in water and extreme temperatures.   The Devil's Hole Pupfish are a unique species that can thrive in environments where other fish would die. They are endemic to this section of the devils hole system

Devils Hole Pupfish, PHOTO FROM: Click HERE for photo location

and have been living in a algae shelf above 80ft where the light zone allows algae to grow subsequently allowing the pupfish to survive by eating the nutrients that the pupfish require for survival.

The Devils hole system has not been without incident and has a long history incidence as the fortified confines show that protect the devil's hole today. The Steel fencing, multiple cameras, and breach triggers with immediate access to law enforcement protect the pupfish and protect people from themselves by attempting to challenge the cave, which has had deadly results to former intruders.  Back in 1965, there was a incident where several kids jumped the fence and entered the devils hole system, two never came back out. Jim Houtz, one of the recovery divers,  was assigned to the recovery and completed a dive to 315ft. with no sign of the bodies, just an endless bottom.  

 Jim explains his account of the depth in Devils hole, " I went to the surface and notified everybody about what we found. It was a very sad, very solemn moment. I said, ‘I’m going to recover the rest of this equipment and I’ll do one more thing to confirm. So I made one dive to the last little ledge – at 325 feet. At that point, the Devil’s Hole opens up wide, and I can tell you one thing. I know it goes down to over 900 feet. We once let out 932 feet of cable from that point and there’s a current down there – so how much of the cable was bowed from the current, I don’t know, but it’s just, it’s just massive." 

 Cited from:

 https://www.reddit.com/r/UnresolvedMysteries/comments/37t5gk/two_divers_disappeared_in_devils_hole_in_1965/

More recently, there was a group of people caught vandalizing and trespassing onto this property that consequently disrupted the pupfish culture with evidence of pupfish fatalities after this incident. read more about the incident here.

https://www.nps.gov/deva/learn/news/devils-hole-vandals-identified.htm

The Devil's hole is also a connection to massive tectonic action with the evidence of 'tsunami activity in Devils Hole.  One earthquake caused by a 7.4 magnitude earthquake in Oaxaca, Mexico on March 20, 2012 created waves that splashed over the water table and onto the surrounding walls.

 Learn more and see another video in this Scientific American article.
 
We were invited to attend one of the dive operations where the NPS and Fish & Wildlife divers did a fauna count of the endemic pupfish in the devils hole system as well as a observation and fauna count at depth.  Water temp is a beautiful 94 degrees and the viz was excellent!  The water is believed to take thousands of years to work its way through the aquifer and out the springs, that indicate a massive system under one of the most dry and desolate places on earth.  

Chronology of previous diving operations in the Devil's Hole, Nevada. 

https://pubs.usgs.gov/of/1988/0093/report.pdf

Future diving efforts are planned and although the plan to continue a survey has been halted to protect the pupfish, a continued survey in the Devil's Hole system will not only provide a better understanding of this aquifers mystery, but will also shine light on the essential purpose of Ash Meadows and Death Valley, which is to identify and protect all species of life that already exist and have yet to be discovered in the darkness and depths of the Devils hole system.

Click on the Link Below to learn more about the Devil's Hole System.

NPS divers in Devils Hole during a recent research dive in April 2015. | Photo: Brett Seymour (NPS) 2015.https://www.kcet.org/shows/artbound/mojave-project-divining-devils-hole

There is no doubt that this system has a vast array of mystery from a geological, biological and a volcan-speleological perspective with regard to the hydro-thermal waters, tsunamis, and unknown fauna that might be thriving in the depths of this system. 

More information on the hydro-logical flow in Nevada and California.

http://pubs.usgs.gov/pp/1711/

We got to the bottom of the canyon and there were people at the head of the potholes hanging out talking about how great of an experience they had going through this canyon the day before. We walk around the potholes and get to the first pothole challenge.

It was not much of a pothole challenge as we just slid down and could walk out of it and the second pothole was a bit deep.  I set up an escape rope just to practice pothole escape and it was easy to scale the pot hole.  The first drop was right after the pothole which was around 100ft to the bottom. I set up a line to send the packs down as we made our way over the first rap and into the bottom of the canyon below.  

Once we got to the bottom the canyon was beautiful and quiet with the desert winds and a lonely dragonfly guiding us to the next drop.  The canyon was very interesting as it had a lot of charter from potholes to a nice drop and now the canyon is opening up a bit until we got to a slot and the final 120ft drop.

This drop was quite impressive and I was becoming more and more impressed with this canyon as we went along the route.  We dropped into this canyon and the walls grew taller which was a beautiful site to see the stained and tarnished sandstone walls and the dense poison ivy to the side of the canyon. Wow this was a very impressive place.

Once we got to the bottom of the canyon, we continued on our hike which took longer than we thought but it was a beautiful hike out!

It reminded me of the trail in coyote gulch with the large canyon passage and the maple and oak trees growing proud in the sand meanders away from the cut banks of the dry canyon.

Eventually we made it over to a confluence and headed left to check out the canyon and than went up canyon to head out back onto the petrified desert dunes.

We continued to walk through these massive canyon wall until we found a way to proceed up to the top through a section where the slope was not as steep which took us back out to the dunes.

What a wicked canyon this was and I was really impressed with the scenic views we had going through this place.  It was truly an amazing experience and it is a must do canyon for anyone looking to get away from the crowds it is pretty straightforward and, In my opinion, had some breathtaking views.

I am looking forward to coming back to arches to visit more of these beautiful canyons in the near future. I went into this place thinking it will be cool to check out and left pleasantly surprised as to the beauty of these wonderful places.