Canyon Extravaganza Day I - Yankee Doodle

So we made back to good ol' Roy at 11:55 last night, after an action-packed, exhausting four-day weekend in St. George. Day 1 (Thursday) I took Michelle on her first technical canyon ever, the fun (if unfortunately named) Yankee Doodle hollow. And I must say, the girl is tough as nails. She took everything the canyon threw at her, chewed it up, and spit it back out.

Yankee Doodle starts with a 25-foot rappel into a wash, anchored off a thrashed old juniper tree.

Then a few yards later, it drops a hundred feet into the canyon proper.
(The camera decided to focus on the leaves in the foreground)

From there it's a series of downclimbing problems. The nicest part is that there are no bolts or handlines anywhere, so you get to figure out each step yourself. At one point, I wrapped the rope around me so Michelle could descend about 8 feet, then I scrambled down using her shoulders as footholds.

One thing we weren't prepared for was how wet the canyon was. Southern Utah got some rain a couple weeks ago, and we waded a lot, slogged through some thick mud, and even had to swim a time or two. Freezing water, but it didn't feel too bad, since it was over 100 degrees up in the open air. The canyon only slots up briefly, but it's worth the effort, with lighter sandstone than Zion and some cool carved out grottos.

The hike out was pretty brutal, basically grabbing branches and avoiding cacti as we hoisted ourselves up a side wash. All told, it took a little less than 2 hours.

On the drive out, I just about ran this fellow over. It's actually the first rattlesnake I've seen in the wild.

Stay tuned for
Day II - The Subway
Day III - Keyhole, but not Pine Creek