Bogley

Bo_Beck · Joined: 02 Dec 2005 Posts: 857 Location: Southern Utah

canyonphile wrote: Oh, lucky you! I would love to do that again - it kicked (or tried to, anyway) our asses, and we made the huuuuuge mistake of ignoring sound advice from Sally and listening to some other backpackers there and drank the water at Toltec...its bad taste was a foreshadowing of things to come :eek2: .

We did the namby-pamby thing and followed the "official" route, I guess, where all the ropes are tied in by the 20' area.

Did you follow RA creek all the way to Elves, then? That's sweet! There are some dicey downclimbs just above Elves Chasm; I climbed up a bit and one of my partners went further up. There has been at least one death (and hopefully that's the only one) from a fall in that area.

D'oh - didn't mean to hijack Tanya's thread! :spankme: Sorry!SJ

We were dropped off on the rim above the Colorado River to the east of Royal Arch Creek almost immediately above Elves Chasm. The Tonto Trail was a mere 100 yards south of us, so we hiked to the Tonto and followed it south until we could drop into Royal Arch Creek (without rope). We then followed Royal Arch Creek north to "Royal Arch". About 100 yards north of Royal Arch the bottom drops out of the canyon. We then built an anchor and dropped 170' into the creek bottom. Shortly downstream there was another waterfall. We built another anchor and dropped another 145' and continued downstream. There were numerous downclimbs within the watercourse as well as some very sketchy traverse downclimbs around various waterfalls. The actual distance from Royal Arch to Elves Chasm and the river is quite short (maybe .5 miles) but plenty of drops in between. It is very lush with an almost tropical feel in the wash between Royal Arch and the river. The GC Helicopter then came and set down on a boulder next to the river at the mouth of Royal Arch Creek/ Elves Chasm and picked us up! "Lazy Mans/Womans Hiking" :haha:

trackrunner · Joined: 27 Nov 2007 Posts: 1011

Finally got around to posting my pics from the trip. I'm not allowed to post close up pics of Tanya anymore. These far enough away for you Tanya. :haha:

Pubalz · Joined: 06 May 2008 Posts: 19 Location: Sin City

Those are cool pic's :mrgreen: I'm going to have to do that canyon this year. how tall is that tall rap?

tanya · Joined: 18 Oct 2005 Posts: 5829 Location: Las Vegas

Wonderful photos !

dandyj · Joined: 13 May 2008 Posts: 18 Location: Provo, Utah

Where is this canyon?

trackrunner · Joined: 27 Nov 2007 Posts: 1011

Pubalz wrote: Those are cool pic's :mrgreen: I'm going to have to do that canyon this year. how tall is that tall rap?

Assuming you talking about Water and not Bo's SAR at Royal Arch in the Grand Canyon. A 200ft had room to spare. I'd say 175ft ish for the big rap. Nothing else was over 100ft.

trackrunner · Joined: 27 Nov 2007 Posts: 1011

dandyj wrote: Where is this canyon?
:haha: Did you read the thread.

Which one? Bo's picks are from a SAR in the Grand Canyon. All others are about the subject, Water Canyon. Read Tanya's beta off her site. Links on the first page.