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- Aug 9, 2007
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After getting our minds blown the previous two days in Mystery Canyon, Russell Gulch & The Subway. We decided on a short, mellow day of canyoneering before heading home for Salt Lake. We had heard good things about a canyon known as Yankee Doodle, so we headed out of Zion back towards I-15 and the Leeds - Silver Reef area.
It takes a bit of driving on winding dirt roads to get to the trailhead, but from there the approach was all of 100 yards or so to the first rappel. There is only one mandatory rappel in the entire canyon, some of our group opted to downclimb to it and a couple of us decided to rappel a short drop instead. The downclimb felt kind of airy so I opted to use the rope.
We had beta saying the mandatory rappel was about 50 feet, so we had just brought one 120 foot rope. We couldn't see the bottom, so we sent the first man down single-strand with a biner block, and we are glad we did! It turns out, that rap is closer to 70 feet! Our rope 120 foot rope, doubled up, sat about 7 feet off the ground.
We had more rope in the car, but we decided to just make do. I suppose we could have tied a bit of webbing onto one end and blocked it, but we just rapped off the end of the rope into the hands of those already down. It was kind of fun.
From there, the canyon just drops through obstacle after obstacle. Most of them are bolted, I hear because this canyon is very popular with guides, youth groups, etc. It's kind of ridiculous actually. There was a boulder, with about a 5 foot drop that was bolted. I really enjoyed the challenge of down-climbing all of the obstacles.
After a while, the canyon opens up a bit and there is a steep, but short exit hike back to the road and the trailhead. I think we were like 2 hours car to car but maybe someone who was there can correct me.
I carried my SLR through, but I didn't take a lot of photos, so I hope you enjoy this miraculously short 2 minute video from Yankee Doodle:
And here's a few photos:
failure2send looking dramatic on the big rap
neiloro and the end of the rope
colefeet on one of the fun downclimbs
Lower Yankee Doodle. Very pretty.
Featured image for home page:
It takes a bit of driving on winding dirt roads to get to the trailhead, but from there the approach was all of 100 yards or so to the first rappel. There is only one mandatory rappel in the entire canyon, some of our group opted to downclimb to it and a couple of us decided to rappel a short drop instead. The downclimb felt kind of airy so I opted to use the rope.
We had beta saying the mandatory rappel was about 50 feet, so we had just brought one 120 foot rope. We couldn't see the bottom, so we sent the first man down single-strand with a biner block, and we are glad we did! It turns out, that rap is closer to 70 feet! Our rope 120 foot rope, doubled up, sat about 7 feet off the ground.
We had more rope in the car, but we decided to just make do. I suppose we could have tied a bit of webbing onto one end and blocked it, but we just rapped off the end of the rope into the hands of those already down. It was kind of fun.
From there, the canyon just drops through obstacle after obstacle. Most of them are bolted, I hear because this canyon is very popular with guides, youth groups, etc. It's kind of ridiculous actually. There was a boulder, with about a 5 foot drop that was bolted. I really enjoyed the challenge of down-climbing all of the obstacles.
After a while, the canyon opens up a bit and there is a steep, but short exit hike back to the road and the trailhead. I think we were like 2 hours car to car but maybe someone who was there can correct me.
I carried my SLR through, but I didn't take a lot of photos, so I hope you enjoy this miraculously short 2 minute video from Yankee Doodle:
And here's a few photos:
failure2send looking dramatic on the big rap
neiloro and the end of the rope
colefeet on one of the fun downclimbs
Lower Yankee Doodle. Very pretty.
Featured image for home page:
