Monday, March 24, 2008

The Black Hole of White Canyon

The Black Hole of White Canyon is probably one of the most renowned and most dangerous canyons in San Juan County.  This canyon is spectacular in nature, awesome in landscape and deadly if not treated with the respect that it deserves.  The White Canyon complex is a canyon extending approximately 40 miles.  White Canyon stretches all the way from Natrual Bridges National Monument, coming out of Dark Canyon, and extends into the Glen Canyon National Recreation Area (Lake Powell). 

This spring, I decided to get into the Black Hole on a free day and see how it was.  Due to scheduling this year I was unable to attend the annual Freeze Fest trip of the Black Hole, taking place on January 1st.  The weather had been decent and was starting to warm up, this lent to a hope that the day would be nice for a trip through the Black Hole.  The day chosen was March 7th, having time off and the freedom to be able to go through was chosen.  Unfortunately the day chosen wasn't as free as I had thought.  It happened to be my oldest daughter's Birthday, and there was a party planned for 3:00 that I was supposed to be there for.  This required an earlier than planned start, fortunately Bluff isn't too far from the Black Hole. 

I left Bluff at 7:00 am and picked up Dave Black in Blanding and leaving Blanding by 8:00 we headed out to the Hole.  Arriving around 9:00 we, suited up and headed down the trail into White Canyon.  I think I'll let the pictures do most of the talking from here.  The trip was fun.  I didn't want to put my wetsuit on until absolutely necessary, and managed to hold off putting it on until just before the "Hole" itself.  This was accomplished with a lot of stemming, and a bit of wading.  We did encounter some ice in a few of the holes.  Once to the "Hole" it was tip top full with long swims as usual.  Needless to say the water was frigid as expected.  We got through it, and hit the sun as quick as we could.  We finished the trip around 1:00 and then headed for the cars.  Walking back to the car park took about 45 min. and we headed out.  I managed to make it home just before 4:00 and my daughter's party was waiting for me to get there to start.  A fun trip, a great canyon with some cooooold water.







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