Iron Wash
Last Candition: November 3, 2012
Crux keeper pothole was dry and 7 feet deep. Only slightly difficult to mantle up with no aid. Water to knee deep. Very beautiful though short slot section. We drove to the derrick cutting off some hiking time. Approach 35 minutes, descent 25 minutes, exit 1 hour including a couple times we overshot. We did not use ropes.
North fork- we decided to make a deadman rappel at the 40 ft dryfall instead of finding a down climb but a down climb shouldnt be to hard to find. the webbing at the dead man may need to be extended to prevent the rope from getting stuck in a chockstone. water in the canyon is easily avoidable (ankle deep) just rap around it when you get to the three large pools. the first main rappel in the canyon could be taken out and downclimed or put webbing on it to extend past the lip to make the retrieval of the rope much easier. the keeper at the moment is filled with 12/15 feet of sand i have no idea how long the sand will stay but i expect for a while. if empty you will have to climb high to a log jam 30 ish feet up (log looks old and sketchy but still useable) the exit is easy not to many loose stones. overall the canyon was beautiful and short nice canyon to do if you are in the area and have a few hours to kill (total time to do the canyon 3 hours)
Easy approach and FULL of water. Everything was a swim out or wade. Enjoy it before the keeper drops too low to ease though it!
North Fork - Low water conditions. You can stay dry the entire day if you can climb up to the log (we didn't, we did the pothole, very fun) the bugs were pretty bad on the approach, but not in the canyon. The hike out was very hot. Wait until the fall to do this one. 3 rating due to bugs and heat.
Ankle deep water except last pothole at exit. Last pothole obstacle was less than waist deep, and easily escaped with a partner boost. Above angled log and rap to avoid it is dangerous, but doable.