Merlin Canyon

Technical Gear: pothole escape gear, a couple of sandtraps, a couple of water anchors, canyoneering gear, and a small raft for a shuttle. We have not found a beta or name for this canyon. We also did not see evidence of a prior descent, though conditions may have changed. The group is Bruce, Jason, Wil, and Gus This canyon is an upgrade to the Excalibur canyon hence the name Merlin. Although it is a shorter one, it has bigger features and requires canyoners with advanced sandtrap, water anchor, fiddlestick, and pothole escape skills.

Merlin shares the same trailhead and approach as Excalibur, it takes a "shortcut" and ends at the last 3rd of Excalibur. From the start, the approach is steep for about 1,500 ft. followed by a steady climb of 500 ft until the last steep section of 100 ft. Thereafter almost no elevation hike until the top of the canyon.

There is the option to start at waypoint Top1 (36.91165, -111.32308), it has a low height narrow section followed by a Rap of 40'. This upper section can be bypassed right-down-canyon until you reach waypoint Top2 (36.91358, -111.32306), where you commit and the fun begins. It starts with a sandtrap (15’) leading to a semi keeper pothole. After a few steps, there is a pothole reachable with a handline and exit with partner assist from that lip you can see a beautiful rappel of 40' that requires a sandtrap leading to a pothole. Before descending it requires to throw a 40+ potshot to the crack to hold the pull as it is a flat area. Walk for a couple of minutes, you will find a pothole avoidable by walking left-down-canyon on a small ledge. Here will be an ideal place to set up the sandtrap rap 35' into an open area. Next, you will see a large bowl where you can set up a sandtrap (50') right-down-canyon or use a small tree left-down-canyon with a fiddlestick (our choice). After a couple of minutes, you will see the largest feature of the canyon. It is the 200' rap from a sandtrap from a tiny lip (we had to dry and dig the sand) at the edge of the cliff (you have the option to build it way back where you will need a longer rope). Half of the rap is free-hanging (scary for the LPD), in the middle, there are a lot of large size bushes where the backpack can get stock if you decide to hang it. At the end of the rap, there is a series of 3 potholes, you can use a pack toss for the first one. If you have a 240' rope you can make it a two-stage rap to skip building a water anchor or sand trap. The pull is good on this second pothole ledge. For the last pothole, we built a water (sandtrap if it is dry) anchor to the rappel down 40' to the end of the canyon, now you are in Excalibur with about a 3rd to go. Magnificent!!

If you do not find details about Excalibur, the end of Excalibur has a couple of handlines and partner captures, sandtraps/water-anchors. The end is a sequence of three-stage rappel that can be done with one 220'x2 rope from a rebar 7' high RDC or you can set up three sandtraps/water-anchors raps (watch for rope pinch, clean the narrow areas of debris). Depending on the water level you may walk for a couple to 15 min to the lake where you take the small raft to get to your boat.