Whipplei Canyon

Whipplei Canyon is a full day canyon with 14 rappels accros the full lenght of the route. Several small cascades and a plenty of spicy downclimbs makes this canyon non-stoping adventure.

From the 210 freeway in Azusa, take exit on Route 39 north. Drive 11.6 miles north, passing the East Fork Ranger Station at the base of the San Gabriel Mountains. Pass San Gabriel Reservoir and turn right on East Fork Road. After 5.2 miles, when the road makes a sharp bend to the right, continue straight ahead on Camp Bonita Prairie Forks Road, sticking with the river for an additional 3/4 of a mile to the trailhead parking area. Due to the very popular hike to the Bridge to Nowhere, the parking lot is usually full before 8am and you need to park off the parking lot. From the parking area hike the road to Heaton Flat camping area. Take the 'Heaton Flat Trail' on the right side and hike up to the Bonita peak about 2.7 miles. The drop-in is about 850 ft before you reach the Bonita peak and it is trough the bush.

From the drop-in point proceed down and in a couple of minutes there is area where a very spicy dowclib with proper footing or handline may be the only option, so you may use first rappel wich has not an easy approach as well and is located about 50 ft to the left . The canyon is full of downclimbs and all raps are spread evenly accros the full 1.3 miles long route. Bring enough webbing, since we tried left nothing behind and retreived 10 of 14 anchors. Be sure that you know how to build cairn anchor for R14. R1: 35ft R2: 12Ft R3: 50ft R4: 12ft - can by bypassed on left R5: 20ft R6: 10ft - or slippery downclimb R7: 20ft R8: 25ft R9: 35ft R10: 25ft R11: 40ft R12: 15ft R13: 80ft R14: 55ft - cairn anchor in the stream !