ADAM HAYDOCK

Devils Drain Canyon, Black Range, Lake Mead Nevada

The Black Canyon is a fantastic location that is located just south of Las Vegas.  The Black Canyon is apart of the Colorado river and actually borders Nevada and Arizona. Cross the river is usually done VIA the famous hoover dam or by some type of water craft either by traveling up the river or with the use of a Canoe or Kayak. The river trip is a fantastic experience going down river since you can stop off at some great hydro thermal caves and hot springs.   There are also some technical and non-technical canyon routes that people can check out as they go down the black canyon.   the waters are crystal clear and the campsites can be with other groups of people or a bit more remote so you can enjoy the experience in prive. Last year, Laura and I came down the canyon on a kayak trip with the Armstrong's and a group of friends but this year I came down another direction to meet up with the group for a night on the Colorado river, via Devils Drain Canyon.

Devils Drain Canyon, Black Range, Lake Mead Nevada

Devils Drain is typically done with a pack raft across the river to white springs hollow canyon and out to a shuttle car.  This time I came from the top and was planning to create a new loop that would connect devils drain to weeping springs canyon. I mapped out a route through a wash and I was ready to ascend the 2500ft of elevation to make a connection and a potential weekend of canyoneering future visitors. I followed the rim and stopped to view the campsite and could see someone moving around near the beach so I knew a group was there but I was not sure if the group I was meeting up with was going to be there.  I had a backup with Andy, mentioning that I would be at this campsite by 7pm in case the group was at a different camp site.

Devils Drain Canyon, Black Range, Lake Mead Nevada

 I worked my way around the rim which appeared to have volcanic properties and made my way over to a sketchy down climb on a thin ridge to a layer of crumbly yellowish rock material. I could hear bighorn sheep running about on the range and I could also see a group of kayakers in the Colorado river. I continue to make my way down onto this hill that appeared to reflect properties of a caldera more so than a top of the hill.  The basalt properties came as I quickly approached the head of Devils Drain and the first drop of the day.

Devils Drain Canyon, Black Range, Lake Mead Nevada

This drop was about 70ft through a keyhole and was a free air drop. There was a massive rock over this keyhole that turned this drop into an alcove of sorts.

Devils Drain Canyon, Black Range, Lake Mead Nevada

After I made my descent into the first drop of devils drain, I started pulling the rope, the tension increased exponentially so I stopped before I stuck the rope. I tried pull it from the other side to attempt to free it from anything that it might have been caught on and gave it another shot, nope it was snug and stuck on something at the top. I was glancing around at the walls and they appeared to be climbable but I wanted to keep working on this  rope before I made that decision, I am glad I did as I was able to free the rope and move on to the next drop.

Devils Drain Canyon, Black Range, Lake Mead Nevada

 There was a 20ft drop that was almost a down climb but I just rigged a double rope since I had everything with me. Than came the most interesting drop, it was a 100ft drop down a dry chute to a table with another drop of 40ft to the bottom. The wall was a bit fluted and appeared to be the most interesting part of the canyon. I came down both drops with out any issues. Shortly was the last sequence of drops which was in two tiers and dropped me another 100ft to the wash. The technical part was really short but the drops were pretty nice for the Black Canyon Range.

Devils Drain Canyon, Black Range, Lake Mead Nevada

 I made my way down the wash and eventually came to the hot springs where the atmosphere changed from desert to dense thorny and a heavily vegetated stream. It was nice to get my feet in the water but it was not so nice going through the bush.  It was slow going and would almost spring you backwards a bit with every step forward.  Not to mention that the thorns would tear and cut into your dermal layer of your skin.  At one point I had to crawl under these barbwire thorn trees and I was crawling over bighorn sheep skulls and skeletons.

Bighorn Canyon exit, Black Range, Lake Mead Nevada

 I contemplated taking one with me to the campsite but I elected to just leave it where it was for some other misguided soul to stumble upon while they went through the cat claw passage of devils drain.
Eventually it opened up a bit as I hiked LDC and was able to get over into another stream that eventually took me to the waterfall I remember last year. I finally made it.

Bighorn Canyon exit, Black Range, Lake Mead Nevada

woohoo.. It was easy walking down to the Colorado river from where and I greeted the rest of the group as they came back from their day in boyscout canyon.

Devils Drain Canyon, Black Range, Lake Mead Nevada

The following day, we stopped at Arizona Hot springs before parting ways in a short but grateful visit with friends. Cindy Walck and Shane Fryer were kind enough to take me on their canoe down to Big Horn Canyon where I made my exit out and back to my car.

Bighorn Canyon exit, Black Range, Lake Mead Nevada

 Bighorn canyon is normally used at the canyon out for weeping spring canyon but this option worked out fantastic as it took me up a nice section of conglomerate lave narrow canyon and up into a series of hills where I was able to climb 2500ft of elevation back up to the rim and back to my car.

Bighorn Canyon exit, Black Range, Lake Mead Nevada

  I want to thank Andy and Bonny Armstrong for inviting me on the trip once again.

Belize is known to have exceptional and historic ancient artifacts that have been a major focus of study by scientists for over 50 years now.

 Mapping and remapping of the caves have been at the forefront for more precise and detailed cave documentation while providing government Institutes the means to have the necessary information to protect the Mayan heritage.

Over the years, cavers have put out a tremendous amount of dedication into the success of their expeditions and the results have been accurate documentation and preservation of these caves.

Belize has hundreds of caves that not only provide education and a beautiful look into our past, but also protect Mayan artifacts and provide clues as to how the Mayan civilization have used these caves. 

I was surprised to see how similar that caves of Belize were in relation to the caves that I have been to in Puerto Rico.  The Limestone in Belize and the respective cave passages had a very similar look and feel to that of Puerto Rico.

Puerto Rico lifted out of the south American ocean millions of years ago so the Limestone might have similar properties and story as the Belize caves have.

Recently, there has been some damage that has been documented that has shown the impact on the caves due to tourism and vandals.  There is a constant effort to improve training programs and ensure that continued damage to the caves in kept to a minimum or, Ideally, stopped in its entirety. 

This is a beautiful country with the jungle flourishing with life.  We were able to see some monkeys swinging around on the tree branches on one of the days which was a nice occurrence.

Fortunately we did not get any of the bot fly's that have been well noted to be a problem in the rain forest. The bot fly is a mosquito that lays an egg inside of a wound after a fly bites you and the lave grow inside the wound and eventually pop out.

Its pretty nasty stuff but its not a big deal if you get one as they can be removed pretty easy.

Most of our days were spent inside the caves mapping passages and snapping a few photos here and there when we had time.

One of the caves that we visited, has trail tape marking the designated trail as the impact by going off trail can be damaging to delicate formations and the cave as a whole. 

The project focuses on quality work and also strives to ensure that the members have a comfortable time in Belize.  We stayed in a small but really nice hotel in San Ignacio.  Every meal was fantastic and the staff members were extremely helpful.

We also had a few land rovers rented as well as a van to transport all of us around which kept us centered within the group and not having to take cabs or buses around.  

The accommodations spoiled me which was a nice relaxing approach to the rain Forrest environment, than what I typically accept on trips into the jungle.

Sketching is absolutely a point of improvement for me and I am glad I was able to get more exposure with the sketch priority because I now have more of a drive to become proficient at sketching as it is a very important to understand.

We spent four days caving in some nice Belize caves and we were able to continue to develop multiple maps and complete another map for another cave. 

Afterwards, we headed out to the ocean to visit San Pedro and Caye Caulker for 3 days to wrap up the trip and change the pace a bit.

We took a water taxi from Belize City which is a reliable way to get to the islands. It took around an hour and a half to get to San Pedro on the water taxi which was not all that bad since we made a couple of stops and we were on the ocean.  San Pedro was a nice stop a nice island to spend a day on.  we rented a cart and drove around the island a bit enjoying some of the hotel amenities and food which was a relaxing twist.  No diving for me was a surprise but I did get into the water and found a place under a pier where tons of fish hung out. 

We stayed a Caye Casa hotel on the island which was a good place to rest.  Overall the island is a bit busy and if you are not diving or staying active with some kind of activity, I don't see what San Pedro can offer that the other Keys can offer.

Caye Caulker was a bit more chill and relaxed which had a bit more of an island feel to it. We also were able to find out more about the islands as they are similar to the Yucatan karst with very solutional rock and submarine caves.  There are multiple caves that must be entered from under the ocean. The caves have pottery and formations which was really interesting to see. I am looking forward to returning to Caye Caulker to learn more about the extensive cave systems under the island look forward to helping with the survey.

 About a half hour south of Las Vegas on a lonely highway with a few shiny and remote casinos, there are some mountains of limestone hills that have some interesting geology to them.. I have been wondering if these hills will be home to a few caves but I have not been able to locate anything as of now. There are a few mines in the area but, more importantly, the state line hills have 4 canyoneering routes that might appeal to a lot of canyoneers. This particular canyon was a rough road to the TH and only about an hour hike up to the top.

 Ladder of Doom canyon was not that appealing to me as the drops were a bit open but the limestone was interesting to see.  regardless, it only took 2 hours to get through the canyon and I was back at the car, driving off the alluvial fan.  There are three other canyons here and I am willing to make another stop here to check them out.

 Keyhole canyon is a excellent Sunday afternoon canyon for the winder due to the mild conditions and close proximity to the Las Vegas area.  The canyon itself is less than an hour from Las Vegas but make sure you have a high clearance car to get to the trail head.

 Once we got to the trail head, Laura and I hiked up a wash and followed a ridge around a couple of draws to the head of Keyhole canyon.  This canyon was surprisingly beautiful as each of the 4 drops had a polished pastel pink dry fall with some sculpting and small pockets of limestone embedded in between strata. The first drop was around 40ft in length and had a small seepage spring trickling down the drop.

 Once we got to the second canyon, looking down canyon we could see a pink hue with more of a fire dark orange glow near the top which was quite beautiful.  The canyon meandered through a narrow corridor with the remaining raps yet to be encountered.

 The second drop was around 50-55ft. but the anchor is a long chain which is not exactly to the safest way to rap down this drop.  There is some webbing backing up the chain but should be tightened a bit more to narrow down the dynamic forces if the chain were to break.

 So far the canyon was beautiful and the drops were straightforward and nice.  The third drop opened up into more of a gorge but had a fluted meandering canyon wall and was around 40ft in length.

 It was a bit cooler in the canyon than it was on the outside but the weather was still really nice for this winter day in the desert.  I was imagining just how cold and boring Chicago would be at this time and we are able to enjoy a sunny day with 55 degree temps in a nice canyon, awesome!!!

 We showed up at the last drop and it was indeed the best drop out of them all.  The flutted walls were really nice and almost Zion like in nature but the rock was a harder looking rock in nature. This drop was 100ft in length and had a good anchor setup.

 We could see the desert sun setting in the distance among the corridor and hear stone monkeys climbing trad and crack climbing on the walls in the foreground.

 Once we got to the bottom of the canyon and headed out we noticed a lot of petroglyphs on the walls which was surprisingly abundant and covered a lot of the larger rocks in the area. I have not done much research on this area so I do not know more about these artifacts but I can rate this canyon as a 3AI and one of the best choices for a cooler day in the Lake Mead/Las Vegas desert region.

Anyway, we went our separate ways as she had a day off on Monday so while she headed out to Joshua tree, I headed over the desert near Lake Mead to visit a straightforward canyon loop called Sheepbone-Quarry Canyon.

Sheepbone canyon had a series of climbs that were straightforward and fixed with ropes.  The ropes appeared to be in fair condition but will need to be replaced soon.  There is some webbing that had some abrasion and cuts that should be replaced in 2017.

The canyon climbs up around 600ft weaving through this, almost volcanic mineralized rock to a saddle where you soon descend down into Quarry Canyon

I started to descend down Quarry canyon you will encounter 7-8 raps, some of them are down climbable, but most you should rap from.  Isn't that why we are in this canyon anyway?

I give this canyon a 3AII for is dry straightforwardness and beginner friendly with leadership capability.

I think that there are some tour companies that take their customers to this canyon but I am not sure. I wouldn't blame them for the relative ease of access and technical challenge. You also get some views of Lake Mead which is nice.

This took around 3 hours for me to complete, car to car, and it is worth a visit if you are in the Lake Mead area.