— In Yahoo Canyons Group, “ilipichicuma”
Holy crap you guys are fast! Excellent TR. Glad to know that Kolob is open now!
— In Yahoo Canyons Group, “TomJones”
Awesome. Thanks for the TR, Kip.
Tom
— In Yahoo Canyons Group, “bshwakr09”
We were lucky enough to be the first group through Kolob Creek yesterday. I forgot the epic nature of this trip when exiting via The North Fork. All said and done, it may have been one of the better days of my canyoneering life. I consider it one of the great and more difficult days in Zion Canyoneering.
Friday began by calling the Water Conservancy District; they were releasing 3 CFS but would stop all flow by Saturday. We presented this information to the park and after verifying for themselves, they issued us a permit.
We dropped a car off at Canyon Junction then drove up to Lava Point. The approach trail seemed to be in normal conditions; Boundary is still flowing. We continued on until reaching Kolob Creek. Even though the WCWCSD was not releasing, there is still either residual flow or runoff to the tune of about 3-5 cfs. As we descended the canyon, signs could be seen of the floods; existing webbing was in tatters. We removed most of the anchors and replaced them with new webbing and rapids/links. Other than the high water, the technical slot did not show many signs of change, the water was clear and cold and only existing debris blocked our way. It was spectacular!
After the last rappel in the upper slot, we geared down, grabbed a snack, and headed on. I forgot how far it is from the last rappel until where Oak comes in. There was also quite a bit of swimming and trudging before arriving to the MIA.
Our group split up at the MIA; some members weren’t feeling up to 14 more miles of Canyon. We continued on through lower Kolob. There were several swims and many obstacles until we reached the Narrows. Lower Kolob had more debris than I remember. I forgot how indescribably incredible it really is.
I was feeling somewhat stained by the time The North Fork arrived. But soon enough, we passed Big Springs and as soon as we started passing Imlay groups, I knew we had almost completed a near perfect day in Kolob.
These are our times:
7:00am – Started Hiking from West Rim
> 8:00am – First Rappel of Upper Slot
> 12:00pm – Last Rappel of Upper Slot
> 1:00pm – Oak Creek
> 1:40pm – The MIA
> 3:50pm – Confluence of Kolob and The North Fork of the Virgin River
> 4:50pm – Big Springs
> 5:40pm – Imlay Canyon
> 7:00pm – The Temple of Sinawava.
Kip