Dragonfly 3B

[Dwayne27]

One of the more exciting canyoneering adventures in Moab, this route is right in Arches National Park, but offers you beautiful scenery and excitement without the hassle of other tourists crowding your view.

Rating: 3B II
Time Required: ~3-5 Hours
Longest Rappel: ~130 Feet

Permit Information
No permit required

Camping/Lodging
Devils Garden Campground in Arches National Park, abundant camping throughout the Moab Area.

Preferred Season
Spring to fall.

Water Concerns
A few pools and water filled potholes

Special Challenges
Some potholes may be difficult to escape at certain water levels

Equipment Suggestions
Standard Technical Gear (harness, descending device, helmet, multiple locking carabineers, slings, etc), 200’ rope plus enough pull cord to complete a 130’ rappel, ~ 20 feet of webbing, rap rings/links, dry bags, ascending/pothole escape kit, wetsuit if weather is cold

Topographic Maps
USGS 7.5' Maps ‘The Windows Section’

Directions to Trailhead
This route starts at a gravel pull out at mile marker 6 along the main road through Arches. It ends 1.5 miles closer to the Visitors Center at the Courthouse Wash trailhead, just past a bridge that is just under 4.5 miles from the Visitors Center.

Trailhead UTM Grid Coordinate
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Approach
From your parked car, sight a prominent dome due east, and use this as a landmark as you make your way along slickrock and sand to the canyon rim. You should intersect the canyon at ~N38 39' 43" W109 35" 03". Follow the rim north until you see a large pothole in the canyon bottom. You will find a natural ramp that leads easily down into the canyon bottom. For a little more challenge, continue north a few more minutes for a walk to the canyon bottom. This route will give you a 10' vertical downclimb to negotiate before continuing.

Canyon Entry UTM Grid Coordinate
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Description: Standard Route
Almost immediately after reaching the canyon floor, you will find the first photogenic section of potholes. Climb, swim, do what is necessary to cross this section and you will eventually reach your first rappel on the edge of another pothole. Set this up from 2 bolts and rappel over 60 feet. Be careful to avoid poison ivy at the pool beneath. The canyon will get deeper and you will find the final rappel of 130 feet.

Variations
In between the two rappels, there is away to climb out to the canyon rim for a shorter day

Exit
After the final rappel, continue down canyon until you reach Courthouse Wash. Head west (right) and follow this back to the main road through the park.

Canyon Exit UTM Grid Coordinate
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[Dwayne27]

Reserved for accident reports for this canyon

[matt]

Please do not start this hike from the Petrified Dunes pullout! Instead park and hike from the larger gravel pullout at mile marker 6. This is just before you reach the Petrified Dunes pullout.

I believe Ryan's beta has been changed to reflect this, but from what I've heard recently Shane's beta has not been changed. Don't park at Petrified Dunes! First of all there is very little room for parking there, but most importantly there is no way to hike from there to the canyon rim without trampling lots of crypto and creating obvious social trails. The National Park Service does not want any social trails being developed right off of a major designated tourist pullout. It just encourages those at the viewpoint to wander around trampling even more crypto. If you park and hike from the larger gravel pullout, you not only free up parking space for the tourists but the hike from there to the canyon rim is entirely on slickrock with no crypto crunching or social trail development. It is a circuitous route from the gravel to the rim to avoid crypto, but it only takes about 10 minutes to reach the rim even with all the winding around. Turn it into a game - avoid the crypto!

An added bonus of hiking in from the gravel pullout is that you intersect the canyon below that pesky, brushy, chossy little "slot with an exposed downclimb." After hiking from the gravel pullout, the downclimb from the rim onto the canyon looks improbable from up top, but it is actually an easy ramp that you simply walk down - no hands required. We guide in there all the time with 6- and 76-year-olds who do it with no assistance.

Also, please do not leave webbing at the anchors. The bolts in the canyon are designed to simply run your rope through the hangers. The absence of webbing at these anchors greatly reduces the visual impacts. The hikers and the NPS greatly appreciate this.

Thanks and have fun,
Moab Matt

[erstanl]

Matt, I was there last weekend. The final rappel had a monster peice of bright orange webbing on it. How do you rig on those bolts? Do you just run the rope through and rap double strand, or do you block one side?

As a side note, a big chunk of the upper canyon wall fell out and now rests in the pool below.

[matt]

Matt, I was there last weekend. The final rappel had a monster peice of bright orange webbing on it. How do you rig on those bolts? Do you just run the rope through and rap double strand, or do you block one side?

As a side note, a big chunk of the upper canyon wall fell out and now rests in the pool below.

Here's how we rig at the second rappel in Dragonfly...

http://www.deserthighlights.com/dragonfly%20anchor.JPG

We use two 150' ropes, and 8mm and 10mm. Run the 8mm through the bolts from left to right. Tie together with Figure Eight bend. Tie Double Figure Eight knot in 10mm and equalize off bolts. Make sure the 8mm isn't trapped beneath the carabiners - not good for the rope. Just below Double Figure Eight knot tie a Butterfly knot. It's a ~130' rappel, so pull up 20' of the rap line so its end is just touching the ground, tie a Munter/Mule. This leaves 20' of slackened 10mm between the Munter/Mule and Butterfly in case of emergencies.

We use the 8mm as a belay line and it's clipped to the Butterfly with an ATC. If someone gets their hair stuck we lock of the belay line, release the Mule hitch and immediately transfer their weight onto the belay line. To continue, retie the Mule then lower the belay line till their weight is back on the rap line. The last person down removes the biners and knots and raps double strand leaving no webbing behind. Some may argue the ADT here, but the loads on the bolts here are negligible due to the minimal angles involved. Check out this diagram:
http://www.canyoneering.net/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=154&d=1149898605
The angle "A" never is more than maybe 20 or 30 degrees at the start of this rappel and diminishes the further you go down. As for "blocking," don't do it. This is essentially creates a 90 degree angle "deviation." So whichever bolt you block will be loaded 100% while the other bolt will be loaded 141%!

By the way, there are a couple reasons we run the 8mm through the bolts from left to right. First, pulling an 8mm with a 10mm is much easier than pulling a 10mm with an 8mm. And we put the knot on the right side of the bolts so the pull at the bottom is cleaner - the ropes are not crossing over each other.

A quick note about the picture...the bolt hangers in the picture are not designed to run the rope directly through. They were just the only hangers we have at the shop for this photo. The hangers in Dragonfly are Metolius "Rap Hangers" and are designed to run ropes directly through.

That rockfall happened in early November. Very impressive!!!

[deagol]

Thanks for the info, Matt.

Question: when the last one goes down double strand, I assume they have to rap double strand with two different rope diameters (8MM and 10 MM in your case) running through the rap device ? I've never done that before, but I guess it could work....

[rcwild]

Question: when the last one goes down double strand, I assume they have to rap double strand with two different rope diameters (8MM and 10 MM in your case) running through the rap device ? I've never done that before, but I guess it could work....

It will work, but be careful. The thicker rope will have more friction on it as it passes through your rappel device. There is a risk that it could pull the thinner rope down through the rap ring(s). If this occurs it will happen slowly and can be controlled if you are paying attention to it. If it was the thicker rope that was passed through the rap ring(s) this is not a problem because the pull would be protected by the knot block.

[deagol]

We did this canyon last week (May 5th I think) and found that someone added a second set of bolts on the last rap above the original set of bolts. They also left webbing and a rap-ring. We didn't use it or remove it.....

I thought that the Park Service stated that no webbing should be left behind. Whoever set this might not have known this? Will this affect our access if it continues ?

[matt]

I placed that second set of bolts and they have been there for many years - since at least 2000. The hangers on the bolts are Metolius Rap Hangers and, thus, do not require webbing or rings to use. Just run the rope directly through the hangers and rappel. The additional thickness of the rap hangers makes for an easy pull and causes no harm to your rope.

The current regulations in Arches do allow you to replace an existing anchor. However, no new fixed anchors (beginning from the date of the notice - May 9th 2006) are allowed. The second set of bolts at the second rappel does not, or at least should not, have any effect on future access. If the slings become a visual impact then I can understand the NPS complaining about that, but that's why those anchors are Rap Hangers. No webbing is necessary. Same with the first rappel. I've placed anchors at the first rappel which you simply run the rope through the hangers so no webbing is needed for the pull. Unfortunately, every time I visit those stations there are always lengths of webbing tied to those bolts. While this may not be a bad thing elsewhere and, in fact, is accepted and expected elsewhere, in Arches National Park it's a different story and is something to avoid. The managers there are very concerned about anchors which may be considered unsightly to the other million tourists flocking to that park. While Dragonfly is in a seldom-visited area of the park, those anchors are visible to hikers walking along the rim and in the canyon bottom. The fact that it is in a seldom-visited area makes it, in my mind, even more important to conceal the anchors so as not to disturb the wilderness experience of the few non-technical visitors who actually hike around that canyon. With those rap hangers in place, this is an easy thing to do.


We did this canyon last week (May 5th I think) and found that someone added a second set of bolts on the last rap above the original set of bolts. They also left webbing and a rap-ring. We didn't use it or remove it.....

I thought that the Park Service stated that no webbing should be left behind. Whoever set this might not have known this? Will this affect our access if it continues ?

[deagol]

Hmm, OK. It was my first time in that canyon and the upper set of bolts on the big (second) rappel was shiny and new looking, so I assumed they were new. They did look well-placed and solid to me.. for whatever that's worth.

Like I said, there was webbing there when we got there. Someone must have put webbing and a rap-ring on your bolts. Like I said, we did not use it or remove it, just left it alone...

We used the rope directly through the lower (older) set of bolts, just like you described. One thing I did notice is that the rap-ring on the webbing on the upper (newer) bolts for the big rappel looked like it had seen some wear.

The first (upper) rappel did not have any other bolts that I saw, just the two older looking ones on the right. They served us just fine and we did not need to leave anything there either.

On another topic, do you usually have to use some sort of assistance to exit the first pothole that you need to down-climb into?

[mtngoat59102]

How would the water exposer and pothole difficulty be in the dead of winter? I'm thinking of doing this in colder weather in a couple of weeks. Your thoughts?

[smorga]

How would the water exposer and pothole difficulty be in the dead of winter? I'm thinking of doing this in colder weather in a couple of weeks. Your thoughts?

I was recently out to Moab. Thin ice covering potholes full of water in the canyons I descended.

I would anticipate the same for Dragonfly. Partner assist should be adequate to escape the potholes.