January 19th to 21st, 2020

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An overnight paddle trip within driving distance of LA / Orange County with access to multiple hot springs? Sounds awesome doesn't it?

Black Canyon is an area just south of Hoover Dam that is known for the hot springs that flow out of the various side canyons.


It's the northern part of a 30 mile designated National Water Trail stretching from Hoover Dam (mile 64) to Eldorado Canyon (mile 39).

Paddling up river from Willow Beach to the hot springs has been a trip I've been wanting to do for years. There's been at least three times I was all set to go only to have to cancel the trip at the last minute due to weather extremes or other issues.

With big changes on the horizon that may limit our access to our kayaks Jen and I decided we really wanted to make doing this trip a priority. And when weekend plans cancelled in mid January we jumped at the chance and headed off for two nights and three days paddling up from Willow Beach.

I've made a solid attempt of late to stop saying no to more involved trips on account of them being too much time away from work or too expensive since quite frankly the events of the last year or two have shown the things I've been sacrificing for just aren't worth it. And so you're seeing more trips like this, Florida, and the oncoming onslaught of Summer 2019.

This was one of those bucket list trips that I'd looked at for years. Buckskin Gulch is considered the longest and deepest slot canyon in the southwest United States and possibly the world.  It's claim to fame is that you can backpack through it and them meet up with the Paria River and spend several days descending down to the Colorado River. Compare this with other slot canyons in the area where you're lucky to get the better part of the day.

I of course love me some slot canyon. So then the limiter became getting the permit which are rather limited (more on that below) but this year Jen got lucky and so the week after the Wilderness Travel Course Snow Camp wrapped up we were off!

March 30th to April 4th

Day 1: 15 -ish miles 

Day 2: 14 -ish miles 

Day 3: 12 -ish miles

Day 4: 10 -ish miles

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Yesterday had been fun but Kristen and I both felt we'd gotten our fill of dives at Kingman Wash and Willow Beach. Fortunately Bruce at Sin City Scuba had recommended we contact Jerry Portwood at Dive Shack USA in Laughlin about diving in Lake Mojave.

Similar to yesterday Dive Shack USA wasn't open on Sunday but Jerry was graciously willing to come in whenever we needed to rent us tanks and event went above and beyond to work with us around some cell coverage issues on Saturday.

January 13th, 2019

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This weekend was supposed to be a triumphant (-ish) return to diving in Southern California after the New Years trips. The plan was to join Sea Stallion on the Cee Ray dive boat to Catalina Saturday and then do shore dives around town on Sunday. And then conditions went to crap.

The Cee Ray was canceled due to swell and surf conditions ruled out anything on the shore. Going out to Catalina and diving Casino Point also looked like it wasn't an option.

And so we started to look further afield. Kristen had run into really bad weather during her Thailand trip and only been able to do a single dive so not wanting that trend to continue I said I'd drive wherever we needed to if we could find diving options.

And that's how we ended up talking to Bruce Hall at Sin City Scuba...

January 12th, 2019

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Boboquivari is one of the more memorable peaks on the Sierra Club Desert Peak Section list.  It's spectacular to look at, fun yet not trivial to climb, and is also a painfully long drive from Orange County.

I've been up the Forbes route from the west twice before and I've been saying ever since that my next time up I wanted to do one of the technical routes.  This was an attempt at the Southeast Arete Route approaching from the east via Thomas Canyon.

The Southeast Arete can be done from either side I just wanted to see a different trailhead and as it worked out that this was only a short drive from Elephant Dome.

Beta on this side was somewhat mixed with some people claiming the use trail was good (it's not) and some citing challenging route finding.  It's quite possible the comments saying it's not bad are a bit outdated as we found the route to full of thorny vegetation that was almost impossible to avoid.  The more succinct comment I read about this side was a simple "Probably best approached from the reservation (west)" and I strongly agree.

December 31st, 2017

Baboquivari Southeast Arete

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White Pocket is a remote grouping of dramatically colored rocks in the Vermillion Cliffs National Monument.  The area is better known for nearby attractions The Wave and Buckskin Gulch but due to the difficulty in getting permits for those more and more people seem to be aware of what White Pocket has to offer.

This was our second attempt to visit after the 2014 Turktacular found us out here on the final day only for me to be so floored by the sudden onset of the flu I wasn't safe to drive.  Considering the reputation of the dirt road used to access White Pocket we decided not to risk trying to have the girls drive it and instead spent the day in post Thanksgiving traffic getting back to LA.

Now it was three years later and we were back.

November 27th, 2017

White Pocket (6,128')
3 miles, 1,000' -ish

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This was the second peak on a long haul DPS road trip to eastern Nevada and northern Arizona to pick up Wheeler and Humphreys.  See the writeup for Wheeler the previous day for how we got here.

I'd been by Humphreys before during a Turktacular but weather prevented us from attempting the summit.  Now that is was summer time it looked to be a pleasant half day hike before we had to haul back home to Orange County.

August 7th, 2016

Humphreys Peak (12,633')

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I've been going slightly stir crazy after my recent knee surgery and the fact I can't hike or do any other sort of outdoor activity has greatly altered how I spend the average weekend.

Hot springs I can still do and we know a few that offer overnight accommodations.  El Dorado is one of our favorite though it's a big of a drive being located in Tonopah Az.

This time we reserved the Sunset Pool since we've only ever stayed at the Desert View Pool.

El Dorado Hot Springs is an extremely laid back private hot spring located a short distance outside of Phoenix.


It a bit of a haul from Orange County but makes for a convenient stop for any trip out past Phoenix.  It's located in Tonopah AZ (not to be confused with Tonopah NV with the awesome clown motel.)

I've been here a few times first visiting for a quick hour long soak on the way back from the New Years 2015 trip and later coming back for an overnight stay in October of 2015 right before I had knee surgery.

I've also stayed overnight at the Sunset Pool but for my money it's hard to beat Desert View.

This was part of the annual New Years trip for 2015.  This year it was a long haul out to Tucson with the main goal of finally getting to explore Cave of the Bells after missing out the previous year.

New Years 2015

• 01/01 Muggins Peak 
• 01/02 Tucson Mine Exploration
• 01/03 Cave of the Bells (this entry)
• 01/04 El Dorado Hot Spring & home

Jen and I had tried to do this cave before.  Back in December of 2013 Cave of the Bells was planned as our last activity of a multi-cave multi-peak extravaganza.  We jumped through all the hoops, had our permit and the gate key, and spent the night camped out front only to have a freak occurrence hit when Jeff was bitten in the face by a skunk while sleeping out on the ground.

January 2nd & 3rd, 2015

Cave of the Bells

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This was the 3rd day of an extended New Years 2014 trip out to the Tucson area. We'd spent a day underground in Crystal Cave, used Peppersauce Cave as a recovery day, and now we were attempting Elephant Head.

Elephant Head is a large rock outside Tucson which promises 5.6 and below climbing for 1,000 ft

December 29th, 2013

Elephant Head (5,640')

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This was the second event in an extended New Years trip out to Tucson.  We did Crystal Cave, used Peppersauce Cave as a recovery day, climbed Elephant Head, and then Finger Rock before planning to finish with Cave of the Bells.  And we probably would have done that one if wasn't for a slight animal encounter the last night.

Peppersauce wasn't as big of a draw as Crystal or Bells but it fit in well as a partial day.  We'd been warned by some of Jen's friends that this place wasn't exactly pristine but my god did they understate that.  If you wonder why they put those gates on some of the other caves just take a look at this place.

Wheeeeeeee!  The previous day had been a mad dash flying back from Sacramento where I'd spent Christmas with my parents only to stay in Orange County just long enough to throw all my climbing gear into the jeep and take off east with Jeff and Jen reaching Tucson late that night.

A long long drive later we found ourselves driving down a slightly less remote dirt road that I generally prefer in order to find a quiet -ish place to bivy for the night.  We settled down amid the scattered debris and passed out.

The only reason we were camped this close to a major city was because the following morning we were picking up a key for Crystal Cave which would kick off 5 days, 3 caves, 2 5th class peaks, and a fair amount of driving.  Throw in a middle of nowhere speeding ticket, a technical peak bailout, and one skunk attack to the face while sleeping (yes skunk and yes to the FACE), and we were in for a suitably eventful few days.

December 27th, 2013

Chiricahua Crystal Cave

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It's become a tradition the last few years to take advantage of the long weekend around Thanksgiving to get out in the wilderness somewhere.

Last year it was Valley of Fire Nevada (and some surrounding DPS peaks) and the year before that it was Zion and Bryce Canyon in Utah.  This year circumstances allowed for a longer trip so I set my sights a bit further out and planned a 6 day long haul roadtrip that would include a tour of Biosphere 2 in Arizona, the Texas state highpoint Guadalupe and nearby bonus peak El Capitan, sledding the dunes at White Sands, two days roaming around Sedona with a peak or two included, and a finish on another DPS peak I needed on the way back called Mount Tipton.

November 28th, 2013

Guadalupe Peak (8,749')

El Capitan (8,085')

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December 1st, 2012

Cerro del Pinacate (3,937') (Attempt)

Mount Ajo  (4,808')

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So while Baboquivari and Little Picacho were both repeats (the first redone because it qualified for an E provisional and the second because it's just a fun little climb) Cerro Pinacate was a peak in the area I still hadn't done.

Granted there was the small complication that it was 30 some miles into Mexico.

What: Baboquivari Peak (7,734')
When: November 30th, 2012
Where: Arizona
Who: Matthew Hengst, Neal Robbins, Mat Kelliher, Jack Kieffer, Jen Blackie, Mark Butski, Laurent Hoffman, Jeff Atijera

Pictures: Matt's Flickr  Neal's Pics
GPS Track: Matt's Track

This was to be my second time up Baboquivari after Jack Kieffer, Rudy Fleck, and myself ran down to Arizona last year and had braved 95 degree heat in order climb it along with Kino and Ajo.

This trip was also to be the second of my Sierra Club E Rock provisionals and had originally included a trip to Mexico for Cerro Pinacate followed by the always fun Little Picacho and the awesomely named Stud Mountain.

This ran afoul of Sierra Club policies and so instead we had a one day official trip followed by two unofficial days.  Fair enough.