I was inexact. The correct statement is: It is not in the Steve Allen placenames book as Lizard Canyon. Steve puts less-important and/or secondary names under other entries. I have not found an entry for Mostly Harmless or for Rotary Dial Canyon. But under the Muley Tanks entry, he indicates the name Lizard Canyon for the canyon we are talking about, but with no attribution. (Most of his entries indicate a source of the name). So, I guess so, maybe… an attribution from SA would be useful, as his book is an encyclopedia, not a primary source.
Tom
sail2fast
Brendan here chiming in. I did scout the route well before leading the first descent (shortly after Jenny and I retreated). I named it ‘mostly harmless’ because of the big keeper at the end. It’s never been in keeper mode when I’ve been there but I checked out the big undercut at the end of the long pool and knew it could be possibly unsolvable in keeper mode. (Also the hitchhiker’s guide reference…)
There is a tiny pothole on the bench past the keeper that could firmly hold a potshot if you got one in. It’d be a tough toss but I think it has been done.
I’ve generally solved the canyon with two rappels, both with fiddlesticks. But I’ve never been there in full keeper mode. I have been there during a flash flood, which we narrowly missed. We took video and almost spent the night…
The final section should be staged and rope left in place until at least one person has seen the big keeper is not in ‘keeper’ mode…
The upper wingate section we also did first and call it ‘scary movie’. If you choose to go it has difficult access and anchoring challenges but no keepers.
Ram
Brendan Busch, Mike Schasch, Matt Brejcha, John Diener and I.
My camera stamp says APRIL 20th 2014.
I can confirm the date as we got a 5 AM start and came back to notes on all our vehicles with our names, instructing us to contact a specific Capital Reef Ranger. This gal is a real bulldog when it comes to enforcing regulations. Has done great work over the years. She did not consider that anyone would get that early a start on an Easter Sunday and assumed we were camping illegally. She left the notes a bit before 6 AM. It took a somewhat involved conversation, on the phone, 550 miles away, to persuade her otherwise. I guess Scott would have beaten us there if not for the timing of his kids birthdays.
Here is the early pothole discussed
stefan
yes brendan told me the descent of mostly harmless was april 20. i typed that incorrectly. thanks.
his attempt of mostly harmless with jenny was on 4/15/14. his scouting was 5/10/13.
Scott Patterson
Jason should get the credit of scouting out the canyon rather than me. He scouted out the canyon and invited me and we waited until we could all go.
On another note, sadly this was Charlie’s last canyoneering trip (Charly being the forth member of the team-Jason, my son, and I being the others). The next trip we went on he suffered a horrific accident while we were scouting out a canyon, which put an end to his climbing and canyoneering.
ratagonia
Ghosted? Using what tools??? How was the water level???
Tom
Scott Patterson
This is just some speculation, but on an earlier post I took a few photos of part of a story and photo of this canyon published in 1978. I just read through the story again.
Check out the paragraph immediately above the one I already posted:
It makes me wonder. Could this story or it’s author (Stephen Trimble/Capitol Reef Natural History Association) be the inspiration behind the Lizard Canyon name that Steve Allen mentions?
ratagonia
Is this canyon usually ghosted? What tools are required/used for ghosting?
I am working on the RopeWiki entry, a bit. And have not done the canyon. Sounds a little long for a November trip… but hey, one could say that about Poe too.
Tom
Scott Patterson
Supposedly there is much shorter/direct approach route than the ones we and some others took (we walked all the way from The Post; 5.6 miles each way). I haven’t done the shortcut and couldn’t point out the route though.
You could also camp near the mouth of the canyon. I would guess that the waterhole at the bottom of the last rappel is semi-permanent and would provide water most of the time, but the drought has been so bad I don’t know if it’s there right now or not.
Austin Farnworth
I’ve done both approaches and the lizard route (direct overland) is faster on the way to the canyon, but not the way back. If you only have one car, do the post, because the lizard route is horrendous hiking back out and the mileage from the post is mostly flat and easy. If you have a shuttle, start overland and end at the post for the best results. I can throw both routes up on the ropewiki.
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Ram
Time wise and ease, the Post is still the easiest approach and by a lot. One hour and 45 minutes after starting, you are there. The overland rips up crypto, has steep slopes that erode easily and roll rocks and is generally slower and a pain. If one wants variety, one can spot a car at Brimhall Arch trailhead. The distance is almost identical to the Post.
Austin Farnworth
There is really only one mandatory rappel off a water pocket, though a carin anchor could be built above the sequence if someone really wanted to. We used a fiddlestick once to get around a big partner capture. There was no webbing in the canyon, so ghosting for sure. With the exception of the final death pothole, three potshots were sufficient for the pothole escapes. A sandtrap would be needed if you couldn’t jump into the potholes since some would be 20ft+ deep when dry.
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Ram
We have found it as a 1-4 raps, not only depending on water level, but also the sand scouring, which has made the canyon VERY different conditions, at times.
Yes, we ghosted it each time. We have used a fiddlestick, meat anchor raps and last man captures and shallow/deep water last person jumps.
Very long day. Spring is best both for daylight and more water which makes the canyon better, in my opinion
Scott Patterson
Those names (Almost or Mostly Harmless), Culebra, and Rotary Dial would have came after Steve Allen’s book (2012).
OK, got it (I think). So you are saying that in that book there isn’t a specific entry for “Lizard Canyon”, but under the “Muley Tanks” entry, it calls this canyon Lizard Canyon, but Steve Allen didn’t give a source for this? Do I understand correctly?
Maybe I should buy the book.
ratagonia
Yes, you correctly repeated what I said.
Did you just add “Almost Harmless” to the list of names? Ha ha… you have spent too much time with Kelsey – R/QL Rapid / Quick Link. Almost and Mostly are almost, well, mostly synonyms. But not exactly, and naming features does not usually work that way.
Tom
Scott Patterson
Now that I think of it, there is yet another name for the canyon. Back then Ram told me the 2nd party named the canyon “Cool eh Brah” (as in this is cool bro) rather than “Culebra” (Spanish for snake).
So at a minimum the canyon has been referred to with the following names:
Lizard
Almost Harmless
Mostly Harmless
Cool eh Brah
Culebra
Rotary Dial
..and maybe waterpockets by me since I was treating the canyon as a show, not tell, at least until others put the beta online.
ratagonia
And I just thought “Scott’s Smelly Socks” would be a good name… so you should add that to the list. And “Ah, Most Harmless” which is what I heard when Ram first told me about it…
I’m confused by what the point of a list that is “anything anyone has ever called this canyon”. Names are supposed to be clarifying, not obfuscating. At least not except when intentionally obfuscating. So ONE Name, distinctive, is best. Two names perhaps. But I’m not sure that a phonetic spelling of how an Anglo with no Spanish pronounces the Spanish name for Snake really adds anything to the geographic classification.
Tom
Scott Patterson
Only because I have heard both used (Mostly Harmless and Almost Harmless).
Looking at my 2014 Summitpost log, I simply called it an un-named canyon:
https://www.summitpost.org/2014-trip-log/884198
June 1: Un-named Canyon (Utah)
Jason, Charlie, Kessler, and I met at a trailhead in Capitol Reef in order to do a canyon in the Waterpocket Fold. I didn’t sleep much at all the night before, so knew that it would be a long day.
We left the trailhead fairly early and quickly walked the 5.6 miles to the approach slabs leading to the head of the canyon. We made our way through the slickrock and towards the top of the fold in order to access the canyon.
After one unintended detour we found the route into the head of the canyon where we continued down. The canyon started out tight and exciting right away and had some tight squeezes. Eventually, the slot became too tight to squeeze through and we had to resort to some chimney work and high stemming. Kessler was a little intimidated at one of the wider places on the stemming section. It was challenging.
Eventually we could drop back to the canyon floor for some more tight squeezes before hitting a pothole section. There were many downclimbs and one mandatory rappel for which we made an underwater anchor for.
After that, there were several pothole obstacles, downclimbing, and much swimming. We made our way through the canyon and to the final section. There was an exit here so we contemplated whether to exit or continue (I had to drive all the way home that night and be to work very early in the morning).
We decided to continue down canyon. There were some tricky downclimbs, more pothole obstacles, and one 13’ jump into a pool of water. This was a really spectacular section of the canyon. We eventually made our way to the final pool, where it was just a walk out.
All that was left was the 5.6 mile walk back to the trailhead. We hiked this quickly, but it was tiring after a long day. The drive was long as well! We arrived home around midnight.
It was a great trip!
On another trip report (gone) I just called it waterpocket canyon (meaning a general not a formal name) so as to not give away the location or step on any toes of anyone who didn’t want a name online.
ratagonia
Charlie whom?
Scott Patterson
Evens.