North Fork Kings River

North Fork Kings River Canyoneering. Justin and I traveled this canyon to determine if it would be a good trip for the SuperScouts. Conclusion: No, not unless they are extremely experienced September 11, 2006 we canyoneered the north fork of the King's river. This section of the canyon has a few rappels (we used 5), challenging down climbs, jumps and long swims. We reset the anchors with rappel rings for future travellers. The water is cold and fill length (3mm minimum) wetsuits are required (even if the ambient air temperature is over 95 degrees). I recommend that you wear some outer pants over your wetsuit to protect it from wear. The water turns black when it is deep and you can not tell if there are obstructions under the surface when you jump. Generally these jumps are safe but the risk of jumping is real and caution should be exercised. This 2 mile section of the canyon will take 6-8 hours. The gorge section of the canyon is the final challenge. Once you complete the gorge you will come upon a wire running across the canyon. This is the first sign that you have reached the gaging station which is the start of the lower end of the canyon. For a 1 day trip you can stop here and hike back to the car (about 3 miles). If you want to continue on you may consider using this as a campsite. You can cache your equipment here, retrieve it later so you dont have to carry it through the canyon. If you choose to camp here you can find flat ground a few minutes above the gaging station where the road ends.

PineCreek Canyoneering 2006

The SuperScout Crew takes a trip down Pine Creek Canyon in Zion National park in July 2006. Pine Creek is a great slot canyon

SuperScout Kolob Canyonnering

Short clips from the SuperScout Canyonnering trip down Kolob Canyon 7/19/2006

Canyoneering - Kolob Canyon 2006

The SuperScouts are a Venture Scout Crew in San Jose California. If you would like to find out more about us or support our crew visit our home page by clicking HERE.
Kolob is a great Canyon. It is remote enough that you can travel the canyon and never see anyone all day. Oh yes an entire slot canyon to yourself! The ranger told me that they average 30 groups/year that travel through Kolob's technical section.
As you can see from the picture above we had a thumbs up in the sky which meant a green light for Kolob! Kolob is a deep canyon filled with water, 12+ rapels, hard work and lots of fun. Yes Kolob can be a dangerous canyon. I read many reports extolling the dangers of this canyon and hear it from the rangers everytime I try to get a permit or check on conditions. Yes a scout group encountered a disaster in this canyon that resulted in the death of 2 leaders. I will add to the crys for caution and echo the dangerous nature of the canyon. The water level in this canyon WILL make this canyon deadly. The water is cold, the canyon is remote, the entire technical section is narrow with no avenue to escape a flash flood (simialr to most slot canyons). We traveled Kolob when 3cf/s was being released from the dam, thunderstoms were predicted in the weather (30%) chance of rain and the water levels looked to be about 4cf/s (Perfect!).
There is too much to say about travelling through Kolob so I will keep it brief. It was great, I am ready to do it again. There were lots of swimming disconnets, the rapels down the waterfalls were exciting and slippery. I wish I had taken more pcitures but the water got to my camera. We hiked out of Kolob through the Narrows and back to the Zion trail head. The hike out is full of slippery rocks, some cold swims and hard work through a great winding canyon that seems to have no end. It tooks us a full 2 days from the time we dropped into Kolob until we popped out at the Temple of Shiniwaha.

The SuperScout team, Ready for Kolob!!

Dropping into Kolob on Rap #1

The first double rap

Looking up at a great rap

The last Big rapel, 50m of Canyonnering adventure

Canyoneering - PineCreek Canyon 2006
The SuperScouts are a Venture Scout Crew located in San Jose California. If you would like to find out more about us or if you would like to support us please visit our home page by clicking HERE
PineCreek is a beautiful slot canyon with easy access and fun rapels. Access to PineCreek is a simple drop from the parking lot immediately through the tunnel. We dropped everyone at the parking lot, drove back through the tunnel, parked at the section of the road where you exit the canyon. We decided it would be easier to hitch a ride back to the parking lot clean instead of wet and dirty.
There was a change in the canyon this year adding another small but tricky rap at the begining.
The normal 1st Rap is a fun double rap.

Looking down the 2nd part of the 1st Rap

The 1st Rap is a good warm-up

Josh eaten by the canyon monster!!! The Rap just before the Cathedral is from a log into a pool of water. Or if the water level is high enough you can jump (after checking for hidden rocks and logs)

Justin looks to take on the viscious wildlife in the canyon

We did see 3 owls perched above watching us intently

The cathedral is a great Rap into an echo chamber

Josh sitting on his "throne rock" at the bottom of the Cathedral looking up.

The rap into the Cathedral ended in a short, cold swim and the end of the raps for awhile. However, this marks the start of the deep slot canyon which feels like a cave.

While we were traveling through the canyon we say 3 owls roosting and contently watching us.

After wowing the views of the canyon there were 2 Raps left, with the best rap one at the end.

Find out more by visiting the SuperScout website. Just click on the image or click HERE. Enjoy.