MTfred19 - May 18, 2019 3:08 pm Date Climbed: Apr 21, 2019
Beautiful Canyon
I came prepared to do the rappel so I went and checked it out and it looked fun. But I realized I needed to make sure the exit strategy was going to work out. Went out to the drill hole and looked down at the ledges along the river from above. That looked unlikely, but I didn't want to miss out on that part. New plan. Leave ropes at the sneak route, start out for the ledges along the Green, explore up Three Canyon to the dryfall, then exit the sneak route. Whaddaya know 5 minutes into the hike I met a guy from France doing the same route so we ended up hiking and chatting the whole day - nice guy! Glad the ropes were there on the sneak route, and also thankful for the helping hand I got on the lower section. Not a huge fan of steep slickrock, am I. In a few years I'm sure I'll come back and do the big rappel and exit either of those 2 ways (the ledges along the river go just fine). That's my story, but more importantly- this is a very beautiful canyon and area!
Liba Kopeckova - Dec 5, 2017 8:29 am Date Climbed: Dec 3, 2017
nice canyon
with Ben and my brother. Fun canyon, really the only technicality is one rappel at its start - we used a different and more clean rappel than described. There were fixed anchors just a few meters on skier's left (little steeper, but cleraner), and the 2nd technicality is the exit. As Scott mentions, if you are not 5.6 climber, fix a handline prior heading into the canyon.
I did both variations of the exit - the chimney (no gear) and thought it was easier than the slab a 1-2 meters to the left of the chimney. The slab was protected with 3 bolts.
The canyon is fun, not a slot though. The stream was pleasant.
Scott - May 18, 2015 7:35 pm Date Climbed: May 9, 2015
Three Canyon
May 11 2019
A group of six of us met in Green River to canyoneer Sneak Canyon and Baby Slot, which are side canyons of Three Canyon. We did Sneak Canyon first and used the climbers exit. WE got one rope stuck and Josh had to ascend the rope to unstick it. From the top of the exit we headed directly to Baby Slot and completed it before heading up Three Canyon and then Sneak Canyon to the exit. It was a nice trip.
March 2 2018
After leaving Craig late morning and driving to Utah, Justin, Kessler, and I canyoneered through Sneak Canyon south of Green River. While on the rim of the canyon, Kessler’s helmet blew away and flew all the way to the bottom of the canyon.
The canyon had some avoidable potholes and was nice as always
.
We used a new exit that uses a technical climbing route out of the canyon. We arrived at the vehicle right at dark.
May 9 2015
I drove to Green River in the rain before checking in the Robbers Roost Motel. Staying there was a good move since it did rain hard at night.
I was surprised when I woke up in the morning to sunny skies. I drove to the head of Sneak Canyon, where the exit is and hid my bike. Since I was alone, I hiked and scrambled to the top of the crux exit route of the canyon and left behind an aider and a rope. I didn’t want to free solo the route alone.
After placing the aider, I hiked back to the vehicle and drove to the head of Three Canyon. I hiked down through some narrow sections to the head of the rappel. The 100 foot rappel is the only technical obstacle in the canyon until the exit.
Once I completed the rappel, I left the rope behind and hiked down the canyon. It was delightful to experience the canyon and I had forgotten just how beautiful it was.
After completing the rappel, I hiked down the canyon, passing one obstacle which was a 10’ downclimb. After that it was smooth sailing (with one more minor obstacle at a big pool and small waterfall and some very minor bushwhacking) through a very beautiful canyon.
At first the canyon was dry until the downclimb and then a little creek began to seep out of the rocks and sand. The gurgling stream added to the aura of the canyon and at times the water flowed over little cascades and over the slickrock. There was one big pool with water dripping out of the rock as well.
I reached the exit in Sneak Canyon faster than expected. I hiked up the canyon and scrambled the bypass ledges around two falls, just like we had done years ago. This time though, there was a faint path of use that had developed.
After locating the Sneak Route, I made the exposed 4th class scramble up to the “sneak route” 5.6 pitch. With the aider behind, it was pretty easy.
Once out of the canyon, I retrieved my bike and rode the three and a half miles of dirt road back to the trailhead. It was a great little trip.
Since the canyon took less time than expected, I still had a little time on my hands. I visited the Chaffin Geyser on the way back. Luckily it was having a small eruption right when I got there. I watched the eruptions for a while before heading for home.
It never did rain.
Past Trips
As early as the early 1980’s I had hiked up the canyon from the river on two separate river trips.
In the early 1990’s, my dad, my brother Mark, and I came overland via Junes Bottom. We explored the canyon thoroughly, including all three of the side canyons from the bottom. On the way out we explored around the old and long abandoned ranch at Junes Bottom and found some rancher bolted routes up the cliffs behind the ranch.
In the mid-1990’s, two of my brothers (Mark and Richard) and I hiked down the canyon to a big fall.
A few month later, Barb, my cousin Bronwyn, and my wife Kimberly, we decided to make the descent.
We hiked down the drainage to the big dropoff and made the first rappel. At the time, there was no information at all available on the canyon, so we had no idea of what to expect. After completing the rappel and after hiking down canyon for quite a ways, I had come to realize that the drop we reached from the bottom and the top were one and the same. We had underestimated the difficulty of the canyon and made our way quickly down to the beach at the Green River, where we set up camp.
At night, I had one of the most “interesting” camping experiences that I have ever had. We slept under the stars and at night, this BIG wet bull frog jumped right on my face while I was sleeping! I woke up screaming and I’m sure the bullfrog got as big of a scare as I did. When I screamed my wife asked me what was wrong, I and I told her that a big wet frog jumped on my face.
In the morning we packed up and hiked the old cattle trail along the Green River to Junes Bottom and we took the bolted shortcut our.
Early in 2002, I joined Penny Martins, Kent Beverly and headed for Three Canyon. I had one last thing to do to complete the exploration of the canyon system. I still hadn’t descended the two side canyons on the north side near the mouth of the canyon.
After some scouting of the canyon from the rim, Kent, Penny, and I hiked over to the head of the western most slot and rigged an anchor. We rappelled and downclimbed through the canyon (possibly a first descent). It was a nice little adventure. After the technical section, I looked up and saw a sling high on the wall at the top of an exposed scramble. We checked it out.
We then hiked down the canyon, explored around and exited the Sneak Route.
Once back to the vehicle, the last thing to do was to explore the slot to the east. We explored the canyon down to the big drop in Three Canyon. I named the slot canyon, the “Baby Slot” for both its short length and in honor of the baby that my wife was about to have.
MTfred19 - May 18, 2019 3:08 pm Date Climbed: Apr 21, 2019
Beautiful CanyonI came prepared to do the rappel so I went and checked it out and it looked fun. But I realized I needed to make sure the exit strategy was going to work out. Went out to the drill hole and looked down at the ledges along the river from above. That looked unlikely, but I didn't want to miss out on that part. New plan. Leave ropes at the sneak route, start out for the ledges along the Green, explore up Three Canyon to the dryfall, then exit the sneak route. Whaddaya know 5 minutes into the hike I met a guy from France doing the same route so we ended up hiking and chatting the whole day - nice guy! Glad the ropes were there on the sneak route, and also thankful for the helping hand I got on the lower section. Not a huge fan of steep slickrock, am I. In a few years I'm sure I'll come back and do the big rappel and exit either of those 2 ways (the ledges along the river go just fine). That's my story, but more importantly- this is a very beautiful canyon and area!
Liba Kopeckova - Dec 5, 2017 8:29 am Date Climbed: Dec 3, 2017
nice canyonwith Ben and my brother. Fun canyon, really the only technicality is one rappel at its start - we used a different and more clean rappel than described. There were fixed anchors just a few meters on skier's left (little steeper, but cleraner), and the 2nd technicality is the exit. As Scott mentions, if you are not 5.6 climber, fix a handline prior heading into the canyon.
I did both variations of the exit - the chimney (no gear) and thought it was easier than the slab a 1-2 meters to the left of the chimney. The slab was protected with 3 bolts.
The canyon is fun, not a slot though. The stream was pleasant.
Scott - May 18, 2015 7:35 pm Date Climbed: May 9, 2015
Three CanyonMay 11 2019
A group of six of us met in Green River to canyoneer Sneak Canyon and Baby Slot, which are side canyons of Three Canyon. We did Sneak Canyon first and used the climbers exit. WE got one rope stuck and Josh had to ascend the rope to unstick it. From the top of the exit we headed directly to Baby Slot and completed it before heading up Three Canyon and then Sneak Canyon to the exit. It was a nice trip.
March 2 2018
After leaving Craig late morning and driving to Utah, Justin, Kessler, and I canyoneered through Sneak Canyon south of Green River. While on the rim of the canyon, Kessler’s helmet blew away and flew all the way to the bottom of the canyon.
The canyon had some avoidable potholes and was nice as always
.
We used a new exit that uses a technical climbing route out of the canyon. We arrived at the vehicle right at dark.
May 9 2015
I drove to Green River in the rain before checking in the Robbers Roost Motel. Staying there was a good move since it did rain hard at night.
I was surprised when I woke up in the morning to sunny skies. I drove to the head of Sneak Canyon, where the exit is and hid my bike. Since I was alone, I hiked and scrambled to the top of the crux exit route of the canyon and left behind an aider and a rope. I didn’t want to free solo the route alone.
After placing the aider, I hiked back to the vehicle and drove to the head of Three Canyon. I hiked down through some narrow sections to the head of the rappel. The 100 foot rappel is the only technical obstacle in the canyon until the exit.
Once I completed the rappel, I left the rope behind and hiked down the canyon. It was delightful to experience the canyon and I had forgotten just how beautiful it was.
After completing the rappel, I hiked down the canyon, passing one obstacle which was a 10’ downclimb. After that it was smooth sailing (with one more minor obstacle at a big pool and small waterfall and some very minor bushwhacking) through a very beautiful canyon.
At first the canyon was dry until the downclimb and then a little creek began to seep out of the rocks and sand. The gurgling stream added to the aura of the canyon and at times the water flowed over little cascades and over the slickrock. There was one big pool with water dripping out of the rock as well.
I reached the exit in Sneak Canyon faster than expected. I hiked up the canyon and scrambled the bypass ledges around two falls, just like we had done years ago. This time though, there was a faint path of use that had developed.
After locating the Sneak Route, I made the exposed 4th class scramble up to the “sneak route” 5.6 pitch. With the aider behind, it was pretty easy.
Once out of the canyon, I retrieved my bike and rode the three and a half miles of dirt road back to the trailhead. It was a great little trip.
Since the canyon took less time than expected, I still had a little time on my hands. I visited the Chaffin Geyser on the way back. Luckily it was having a small eruption right when I got there. I watched the eruptions for a while before heading for home.
It never did rain.
Past Trips
As early as the early 1980’s I had hiked up the canyon from the river on two separate river trips.
In the early 1990’s, my dad, my brother Mark, and I came overland via Junes Bottom. We explored the canyon thoroughly, including all three of the side canyons from the bottom. On the way out we explored around the old and long abandoned ranch at Junes Bottom and found some rancher bolted routes up the cliffs behind the ranch.
In the mid-1990’s, two of my brothers (Mark and Richard) and I hiked down the canyon to a big fall.
A few month later, Barb, my cousin Bronwyn, and my wife Kimberly, we decided to make the descent.
We hiked down the drainage to the big dropoff and made the first rappel. At the time, there was no information at all available on the canyon, so we had no idea of what to expect. After completing the rappel and after hiking down canyon for quite a ways, I had come to realize that the drop we reached from the bottom and the top were one and the same. We had underestimated the difficulty of the canyon and made our way quickly down to the beach at the Green River, where we set up camp.
At night, I had one of the most “interesting” camping experiences that I have ever had. We slept under the stars and at night, this BIG wet bull frog jumped right on my face while I was sleeping! I woke up screaming and I’m sure the bullfrog got as big of a scare as I did. When I screamed my wife asked me what was wrong, I and I told her that a big wet frog jumped on my face.
In the morning we packed up and hiked the old cattle trail along the Green River to Junes Bottom and we took the bolted shortcut our.
Early in 2002, I joined Penny Martins, Kent Beverly and headed for Three Canyon. I had one last thing to do to complete the exploration of the canyon system. I still hadn’t descended the two side canyons on the north side near the mouth of the canyon.
After some scouting of the canyon from the rim, Kent, Penny, and I hiked over to the head of the western most slot and rigged an anchor. We rappelled and downclimbed through the canyon (possibly a first descent). It was a nice little adventure. After the technical section, I looked up and saw a sling high on the wall at the top of an exposed scramble. We checked it out.
We then hiked down the canyon, explored around and exited the Sneak Route.
Once back to the vehicle, the last thing to do was to explore the slot to the east. We explored the canyon down to the big drop in Three Canyon. I named the slot canyon, the “Baby Slot” for both its short length and in honor of the baby that my wife was about to have.