
From the trailhead, starting up a wash. The weakness we're headed to is obscured on the left.

An old mining road leading to the weakness, an opening within the cliff face.

Through the weakness, descending into Quandary Canyon.

Quandary Canyon begins with some nice narrows.

The first drop, which we used a handline for.

Quandary Canyon opens up for a bit.

Views of the Henry Mountains in the distance.

Passing under a nice natural bridge.

An obstacle before Quandary Canyon narrows. Everyone down-climbed, but I avoided it left down canyon. This shot is taken from my bypass.

And then Quandary Canyon narrows into the fun stuff.

We managed to stem for most of the canyon without getting wet.

A pothole. We avoided it on the left using an exposed slab.

View back at the bypass using an exposed slab. Here you can see a silly rigging job we set up to create a handline across the pool.

Just past the pool, a short downclimb or handline.

A short opening in Quandary Canyon, followed by more narrows.


Bypassing yet another pool.

View back at the pool we just bypassed. Sometimes pretending the floor is lava is more fun than getting wet.

A narrow section with more water.

We managed to bypass this pool as well by stemming. Past here we got at least a little bit wet.

View back at some cool pothole formations.

An escapable pothole.

And now we were in the business!

Very fun potholes to climb in and out of. None of the earlier ones required more than Class 4 moves or partner assists.

And a bit of narrows.

Dropping into another pothole.

Avoiding this one by stemming across.

More fun obstacles.


More fun pothole obstacles.

Rappelling down a short drop after a pothole escape. Apparently at a certain point there is an escape option on the left somewhere to avoid the upcoming technical potholes, but it seems a little strange to check out Quandary Canyon without intending to do the potholes since they're the best part about it.

Rather than a pack toss, the water was low enough that four people stacked could get us out. It was very silly and resulted in at least one tweaked neck.

Amber made it up! We're safe!

View from within the pothole at Amber, who just escaped.

A view back at the pothole.

This pothole is avoidable on the left via a ledge, but it was fun!

Our second serious pothole escape sequence.


View back at the pothole escape (left) and the bypass (right).

Quandary Canyon narrows into a series of fun potholes and obstacles again, these more tricky.

Short down-climbs into pools.



These potholes definitely required more partner assistance and handlines.

View back up the narrows.

Another fun pothole with tricky climb to escape.

Amber climbing up the escape.

View down-canyon.

Amber climbing out of another pothole.

Opposite side of the previously pictured pothole, which we rappelled down.

More fun partner assistance obstacles to escape potholes. This one required a short down-climb using an arch as an arm hook.

Same obstacle, but from below.


View back at a short rappel from a bolted anchor.

View back up the canyon.

Descending to the final rappel.

It was too high-angle to downclimb.

Another short section of narrows.

And then Quandary Canyon begins to open up.

Gorgeous walls on the way out.


Quandary Canyon opens up to the point where it's hard to follow the actual watercourse.

There's a major drop on the right, which we avoided on a wide ledge on the left.

A little scramble as we near the mouth of Quandary Canyon.

Pretty grasses at the mouth of Quandary Canyon. A social trail led us out.


We headed south, taking a major wash.

View back as we hike south within the major wash.

Crossing Muddy Creek. From here you can return up Muddy Creek, or take Knotted Rope Canyon as an ascent.
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