Canyoneering "The Squeeze"

Recently Scott and Everett went canyoneering in a canyon called "The Squeeze". It was a technical canyon, not for beginners, but fun. It's located in the San Rafael Swell in the Moroni Slopes.

It took a little more than 4 hours from our house to drive there. They camped right on the turnoff to the canyon. This photo looks east at sunrise

And this is a photo of the "camp site" looking west at sunrise.

This is the Muddy Creek which goes passes by the trailhead. The first hour of hiking is right next to this creek.

After about an hour of hiking, they came to these cottonwood trees near the exit of the canyon.

The next two hours required hiking up the Moroni Slopes to get above the canyon. There was a fair amount of route finding.

They thought this rock fragment looked like Lowly Worm (a character from Richard Scarry's books) in profile.

This photo is from the highest elevation point in the approach. One of these folds leads down into the main canyon. The view looking the other direction is equally amazing, although it wasn't really clear that the canyon behind us had a way into it without a gigantic rappel.

In the Squeeze! From the time they dropped in until they emerged by the cottonwood trees took about 5 hours. In a normal water year, the canyon has a lot of water. But most of the canyon was dry.

At the bottom of one of the potholes was a rotting mountain lion, smelling pretty bad. There was nothing to do but go into the pothole and get out as fast as possible.

The canyon had several short rappels, some downclimbing, and partner assists. There were also a few longer rappels, like these two.

Then it was back to the cottonwood trees and another hour hike out to the car.

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