Colorado Mountain Club Canyoneers
Michael Rigging his Rappel into Wife 3
Becca In Middle of Multi-Stage Rappel
Jill Playing Peek-A-Boo!
On Saturday, I led a Colorado Mountain Club canyoneering trip to explore The Wives of Capitol Reef National Park. There were three other CMC trip leaders in the mix, so we were bound to have a successful day.
Thank you to Bluu Gnome for the beta and insightful comments regarding these canyons! The beta from bluu Gnome, waypoints, maps, etc, is spot on!
After scouting out the area the day before, I determined we should start with Wife 3 and then do Wife 5.
We weren’t able to locate the top of Wife 5, as the terrain was a bit confusing and the GPS point for the top was either entered wrong or I forgot to enter it! After hunting around a bit and having a lengthy discussion about the weather, we decided to go for Wife 4 instead.
As four of our most proficient members descended into Wife 4, the rest of us scrambled down to meet them at the end. The weather at the top looked a bit sketchy, so this strategy made sure that they could travel down canyon faster and the rest of us could be outside the canyon in case something happened.
Reunited at the bottom of the Wives, we headed back to the campgrounds. We got lucky with the weather in that it never rained, more than a few sprinkles, and the cloud cover moderated the temperatures. Later that night, we enjoyed a camp fire, with Michael strumming his guitar, and conversation flowing almost as freely as the brewskies.
