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After descending Leprechaun Canyon on Saturday, we returned to the area to do one more canyon before heading home. Our target: Morocco. I'd heard Morocco was good for larger folks such as myself which proved to be the case. It also proved to be a fantastic canyon with a lot of character and plenty of fun obstacles.
Here's a video of the hike with photos mixed in. The music in the video is by our very own intuitive cat. Thanks, Darren!
While most of the photos below are in the video, I thought I'd still post them here with some descriptions.
The route starts out right next to Highway 95 with a very unlikely looking route up to the rim. We basically scrambled right up that and crossed over the top of the broad face high on the far right (middle of photo).
lostlandscapes evaluating the route
This is the crux of the approach and could cause some issues for people who are very afraid of heights. It's no big deal but a slip would be very bad.
Looking back at the crux, upper right corner. You can see my truck way down there on the bottom left, almost in the sun.
The first rap was off of a smooth layer of sandstone using a very large cairn anchor. I've rapped off a lot of natural anchors including deadmen and potshots, but the cairn definitely gave me some pause. There were not features in the landscape to provide friction, it was just sitting right on the smooth rock at the edge of the drop. Webbing tied around one large rock and a bunch of rocks stacked on top. Check out the preview image from the video and you can see AustinCronnelly and drclef weighting it down as I rapped off the edge.
It was only about 40 feet or so but it looked bigger from above because it was from full sun into a deep, dark abyss.
While the fourth of us was coming down the rope, we finally realized what that little ticking sound was. A tiny rattlesnake in full strike mode! I had been crouched down by this thing taking photos of people coming down the rope. So glad it didn't bite!
Soon after the first drop, we encountered the only full swim in the canyon and it was avoidable once we figured it out. It was a pothole that was hidden under a very full pool. Pay attention in the video and you'll see Tim go completely under. Austin and I learned from their moves and were able to stay pretty dry.
The next rap was awesome. The route goes under this boulder and then through a narrow spot that I had to be careful to stay high on. Again, it looks like a big rap from above but the landing is on a ledge so it shortens the length of the rap.
Looking back up at the second rap. You can see the boulder wedged in there that you can see in the above photo. This was a really, really fun one!
Rap 3 off of a boulder
Rap 4 off of a deadman anchor. Tim just hand-lined it.
Ahhh this section was so cool! This is the fifth rap and then that boulder way down below is the next obstacle. Some may rap it but we didn't need to. The skinnier folks in the group were able to squeeze under the boulder, I had to go over and use a handline.
Tim hand-lining the fifth rap.
And a little further down canyon, the sixth rap off some lightly wedged rocks in the water course.
From that last rap, it's only a hundred yards or so to the highway. What a fun canyon! It's only a few hours long but good enough that I almost wanted to go for another ride. I'll be back!
Featured image for home page:
Here's a video of the hike with photos mixed in. The music in the video is by our very own intuitive cat. Thanks, Darren!
While most of the photos below are in the video, I thought I'd still post them here with some descriptions.
The route starts out right next to Highway 95 with a very unlikely looking route up to the rim. We basically scrambled right up that and crossed over the top of the broad face high on the far right (middle of photo).
lostlandscapes evaluating the route
This is the crux of the approach and could cause some issues for people who are very afraid of heights. It's no big deal but a slip would be very bad.
Looking back at the crux, upper right corner. You can see my truck way down there on the bottom left, almost in the sun.
The first rap was off of a smooth layer of sandstone using a very large cairn anchor. I've rapped off a lot of natural anchors including deadmen and potshots, but the cairn definitely gave me some pause. There were not features in the landscape to provide friction, it was just sitting right on the smooth rock at the edge of the drop. Webbing tied around one large rock and a bunch of rocks stacked on top. Check out the preview image from the video and you can see AustinCronnelly and drclef weighting it down as I rapped off the edge.
It was only about 40 feet or so but it looked bigger from above because it was from full sun into a deep, dark abyss.
While the fourth of us was coming down the rope, we finally realized what that little ticking sound was. A tiny rattlesnake in full strike mode! I had been crouched down by this thing taking photos of people coming down the rope. So glad it didn't bite!
Soon after the first drop, we encountered the only full swim in the canyon and it was avoidable once we figured it out. It was a pothole that was hidden under a very full pool. Pay attention in the video and you'll see Tim go completely under. Austin and I learned from their moves and were able to stay pretty dry.
The next rap was awesome. The route goes under this boulder and then through a narrow spot that I had to be careful to stay high on. Again, it looks like a big rap from above but the landing is on a ledge so it shortens the length of the rap.
Looking back up at the second rap. You can see the boulder wedged in there that you can see in the above photo. This was a really, really fun one!
Rap 3 off of a boulder
Rap 4 off of a deadman anchor. Tim just hand-lined it.
Ahhh this section was so cool! This is the fifth rap and then that boulder way down below is the next obstacle. Some may rap it but we didn't need to. The skinnier folks in the group were able to squeeze under the boulder, I had to go over and use a handline.
Tim hand-lining the fifth rap.
And a little further down canyon, the sixth rap off some lightly wedged rocks in the water course.
From that last rap, it's only a hundred yards or so to the highway. What a fun canyon! It's only a few hours long but good enough that I almost wanted to go for another ride. I'll be back!
Featured image for home page:
