ADAM HAYDOCK

Boundary Canyon is just on the border of Zion National Park which is why it is called Boundary Canyon, yet the canyon itself is one of the most beautiful routes that I have seen in the area.  It is rather short but it offers a high reward of beautiful scenery in a minimal impact and less visited area.

at the top, looking down into Boundary Canyon, Utah

The canyon is surrounded by Kolob Canyon, Pipe Springs, and Eye of the Needle Canyon which are all in the area so this one makes for a beautiful day trip if you are planning on visiting the other canyons. The famous MIA exit will need to be used but will take you right back to your car for a great loop trip in the high desert backcountry.

The top of Boundary Canyon, Utah

After spry canyon we made our way up to the top of Spry to get the shuttle and get up to lava point and Kolob Lake only to find out that all of the campsites were taken.  We ended up having to camp at the reservoir which was about 9000ft of elevation, yup it was quite cold at night.

Walter Descending Boundary Canyon, Utah

 The temp dropped into the lower 40s and upper 30s which woke some of us up at night with the chills which made it quite difficult to sleep.

Boundary Canyon Photo By: Mike Green

We were not prepared for cold weather camping but we made the best of it.  The sky was clear which was nice and at 9000ft up, the stars were amazing!!

Mike Green in Boundary Canyon, Utah

 We got up early to make our way over to the west rim trail and into boundary canyon.

Boundary Canyon, Photo By: Mike Green

We headed over to the trailhead and attempted to find some campsites at the Lava Point campground without success.

Boundary Canyon, Utah

Troy Derek and Daniel took the day off so Walter, Mike, and I headed over to boundary. The day was a bit more chill and the dynamic was a bit different which was nice as we got to immerse ourselves into the canyons beauty and esthetic.

Mike Green Descending down in Boundary Canyon, Utah

We could see the canyon from the top of the MIA road and headed down through the woods to the rim of boundary canyon.

Adam haydock in Boundary Canyon Photo by: Mike Green

The hike to boundary was not that bad as we basically had to go downhill and follow a few dry washes until we reached the top of the canyon.

Walter Descending a beautiful drop in Boundary Canyon, Utah

Now this was a beautiful view!!! The canyon walls had colors of pink and cream color with the top of the canyon appearing to look almost like a limestone layer. The first drop was around 170 ft into the canyon which had a shear drop and a beautiful view.

Walter descending in Boundary Canyon Utah

The raps were rapid fire and were right next to each other that took us down about 9 rappels that were all less than 200ft. The fluted walls were pastel and tarnished with a beautiful array of design that the sun gave dynamic to with regard to the shade that casted behind that sculpted walls.

Tarnished walls in Boundry Canyon

 It was spectacular to see and one unique canyon that I am so grateful to have went to visit.  I have never seen sculpted like this before in Zion. It was completely dry too!!!

Walter descending Boundary Canyon

 The beta mentioned water but we did not see any water coming into this canyon so we ended up carrying wetsuits through out this canyon and up the MIA trail.

Mike Green in Boundary Canyon

We eventually made it to the bottom of the canyon and followed the dry wash through the beautiful canyon walls and the forest at the bottom as the maple leaves changed which took us into Kolob creek.

Walter in Boundary Canyon, Utah

We had lunch at the confluence of Kolob and boundary than followed the watercourse to the MIA exit.

Boundary canyon wash, Utah

The towering walls reminded me of the narrows as the large walls towered over us which also included one plunge into the water.

Kolob Creek Narrows, Utah

Eventually we made it to the end of the route where the MIA exit starts. This is a trail that ascends 2200 ft of elevation in only a couple miles of lofty sand and scree where branches, roots, and gravity is used to balance ourselves up this canyon exit.

Kolob Creek Narrows, Utah

It was either this route or we go out the narrows which would take almost a day to complete.  The MIA exit was strenuous but it was not as bad as it was made out to be, yet it did take around 2 hours to complete and total time in route for the canyon was around 7 hours.The MIA exit is split up into two sections so once we got to the top it was nice to look back and see how far we have come from the bottom.  We ended up going back to the Kolob Lake and camped with everyone to prepare for the following day into Pipe Spring.

Last Rap in Boundry Canyon, Photo by Mike Green

Kolob Campground Photo by Mike Green

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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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