North Fork of Iron Wash + Stegosaur Slot + Hogwarts

On October 15th-17th, 2026, Cindy and I ventured through three great canyons.

It rained the entire week before we arrived, so every canyon in the area was as full as possible.  The weather was colder than we expected with highs in the upper 50's and lower 60's.

The first canyon we selected was the North Fork of Iron Wash.  This was Cindy's first wetsuit canyon and she was awfully excited to try out her brand new wetsuit!  There was more water than I expected in there, which made for a splashy good time.  I tried to pull the bolt over the keeper, but failed.  A breaker bar would be required to remove it.  I succeeded in removing the ugly rope. Our car-to-car time was 4h 40m.

The next day we opted for Stegosaur Slot in Capitol Reef National Park.  I made the mistake of taking a wrong turn on the approach hike, which led us to Hickman Bridge.  We opted to climb the crack behind the bridge up to the correct trail, which added some stress and adventure to our day.  Eventually, we made our way to the bolted anchor at the top of the route.  The slot itself was excellent, but short in comparison to the approach hike.  It was a good slot to do once, but not a canyon I would do twice.  Our car-to-car time was 5h 40m.

On the final day, we did Hogwarts Canyon, which is always fun.  This was Cindy's first time through and we had a great time.  It was crazy to think that 13 years had passed since my first visit.

We also visited Moonscape Overlook on this trip.  A stunningly beautiful place.

East Leprechaun + East Blarney

On October 2nd and 3rd, 2026, John, Drew, Cindy and I conquered East Leprechaun and East Blarney Canyons.  I was alarmed when I realized that it had been 3 years since I had done a canyon with my boys.  Shortening that span between canyon trips is something that I hope to change.

It rained during the days leading up to the trip, so East Lep was full of water.  Luckily, the water was warm, so we had fun splashing through the slot.  We were all covered with mud at the end of the day.

We also mixed in a hike to Long Dong Silver, epic stargazing, a swim at Hog Springs, and some fossil hunting to this trip.  Overall, one of the best trips I have been on in years!

Oh dang! It doesn't look like Drew is going to fit.

Can you see the Phoenix?

This is the dark section at the end of Middle Lep.

We ventured up a short ways after completing East Lep.

Parenting, in a nutshell. 😆

Long Dong Silver.

Pothole Fork of Woody Canyon

On May 24th, 2026, Cole, Christian, Reid, Court and I tackled the Pothole Fork of Woody Canyon.  This was an interesting step up in difficulty from the main fork of Woody.

We didn't have a SandTrap, WaterTrap, or Potshots at this drop.
We improvised and stacked three backpacks, then rappelled off the bottom one.
It was a little sketchy, but it worked great.

After our hike we went down to Lake Powell and enjoyed the afternoon.
We are a tight crew.  Note the matching highly fashionable shirts.