Cypress Creek

A short but spectacular canyon in the vicinity of Vancouver. The canyon is narrow and dark in most spots and all rappels are swimmers, so wetsuits are recommended even in summer. The water is also quite cold. The rappels are all bolted with chained dual bolts. This canyon is very good for beginners, but they must have dry rappelling experience because all rappels will be in the flow. The first rappel is a good checkpoint for water flow. All the other rappels will be more difficult. <- For some. in 2024 we found that rap 1 was the most difficult by far.

Walk up the trail from the parking lot going upstream. You will pass a view of R4, and just upstream of that will cross a bridge over the drainage. Continue uphill on the other bank (DCL) and you will reach a chainlink fence followed shortly after by a paved road. Go left up the road passing a power substation, and as the road crests and starts to go back downhill, you will see on your right a heavily used path next to a power pole that goes into the woods. Go up this. If you reach the bridge on the road, you are standing over R2 and have gone too far. Up the footpath, in about 200m, a lesser used but still obvious trail will split off to the left, as the main trail starts a number of switchbacks up the steep hillside in front of you. Take the path to the left for another couple hundred meters, and you will reach a ridge with the final part of the trail dropping down to the right with a few rope handlines. Go down this to the watercourse and suit up at the top of R1.

Four rappels of up to 100ft, all of them with swimmer pools at the bottom. Other minor drops can be jumped.