Camping and Rock Climbing in Maple Canyon

[wildmanh]

Some friends and I went camping and Rock Climbing in Maple Canyon in Central Utah over Fathers day weekend. I took a bunch of pictures and thought I would share some with you.


Here is the group shot minus me cause I'm taking the picture. Most of the people I went with are from Colorado down here in Utah for the summer for some training. A great group of people:

Here's lunch at the rock face we climbed Sunday:

A cute Red head about 15 feet up the wall:

Another cute girl climbing the wall. She's almost to the top:

Our guide on this trip buleying for one of the girls:

A couple Rock formations in the canyon:

Our camp fire after we cleaned up to go rock climbing but before we dumped water on it. It sat on an embankment about 10 feet from a stream right off the road. My tent was about 15 feet from the fire and 10 feet or less from the water Listening to the stream as I fell asleep was really nice:

Here is the West ridge of Maple canyon seen from the spot where we climbed and had lunch at:

I'm from Sanpete County, went to High School and College in Ephraim which is about 20 minutes from Maple Canyon. The Mountains around Sanpete are full of views like the picture of the ridge. Maple Canyon sits a few miles south of the Mount Nebo Wilderness area. That area has some very unique rock formations and slot canyons. When I was an assistant Cub Scout leader in High School we would take our Scouts here on day hikes. In College I hiked Maple canyon a lot.

There are 3 main slot canyons there, Right fork, Center Fork and Middle fork. If you hike the Right fork trail it winds its way back to Center fork after passing by a Large cave in the rock wall and it also goes past the Maple Canyon Arch which is a lot like the Arches in Arches National Monument. South Fork I've done a lot of Bouldering in back in College. Talk about good times.

I hope you enjoy the pictures. Anyone else been to Maple Canyon and if so, what did you think?

Heber

 

[mtnfolk mike]

great pics man... looks like everyone had an awesome time...:thumbup: i love utah...

 

[BarberFobic1992]

Looks like a good time. Thanks for the pictures.

 

[Leanwolf]

Enjoyed the pictures.... but I must ask, why weren't those young men and women rock climbing wearing protective helmets?? Just a small, dislodged rock falling from above onto someone's head, can ruin that person's whole day... and maybe beyond.

Just wondering, considering you had a rock climbing coach along.

L.W.

 

[wildmanh]

Enjoyed the pictures.... but I must ask, why weren't those young men and women rock climbing wearing protective helmets?? Just a small, dislodged rock falling from above onto someone's head, can ruin that person's whole day... and maybe beyond.

Just wondering, considering you had a rock climbing coach along.

L.W.

Thats a good question, I wondered the same thing. I was invited to go bouldering in Zion National Park in a few weeks, the person inviting me was admit that if I came I needed to borrow safety equipment. BTW The guide wasn't a real guide just someone that knew the area from a college trip. I actually knew the area way better then he. He had just climbed more. Next time I'll talk about safety equipment! Thanks for the reminder.

Heber

 

[kgd]

Nice pictures - you all look so young - must be nice to be young... Seems like a really great activity to get the gang involved in and I bet the camping was a lot of fun sitting by the fire and such. I would echo the use of a helmet, you only have one head.

 

[wildmanh]

Nice pictures - you all look so young - must be nice to be young... Seems like a really great activity to get the gang involved in and I bet the camping was a lot of fun sitting by the fire and such. I would echo the use of a helmet, you only have one head.

Thanks! We are kind of young, most of us were between 23 and 30 years of age. Sitting next to the fire, sipping herbal tea and eating a Cop-O-Noodles was rather nice. Looking away from the fire and up at the stars between the canyon walls while listening to the babbling brook not 10 feet away. Thats the life for me. It was sooo hard coming home Sunday.

 

[tonym]

Great pics, looked like a great way to spend a weekend.

Thanks for sharing.

 

[Mikel_24]

Great pictures! Sport climbing is a great outdoors activity but the apparent lack of objective risks makes people lazy... and they quit paying attention to what they are doing. I won't tell you again about the urge to get a helmet because others already did so. It is not only the risk of something falling on you... if you are leading, fall and tangle your legs in the rope due to a not so great rope routing... you may end up falling upside down and banging your head against the wall. Even if you route the rope corretly... if the wall is not vertical enough, your feet may touch the wall before the rope tightens and you will do a beautifull back flip. It happened to me once because I broke a handhold. A #2 Camalot stopped me 20 meters below but the wall was not vertical and I did at least one back flip on my way down. I ended up hanging upside down (even I was wearing a chest harness as well) all bruised up, hands cut, my butt pretty messed up (yeah... I know... this could be Winne and Cheese material) and sore back. Thank God I was wearing one of my trusty helmets and a backpack. The helmet was ok, but I had nasty cuts on the backpack.

Anyway, read as much as you can about climbing and stay safe. Stay away from posers in magazines that are only showing up. You won't see any of them wearing helmets or even doing propper belays.

Mikel

PD: Go check out the last pictures HERE (snow/ice climbing in the Pirinees!)