Nighthawk Canyon

Nighthawk approach

We parked- In the wash to be where the exit was, so we had less of an exit versus parking in the parking lot. We walked to the parking lot. It was definitely felt like a much shorter walk. At the beginning of the day than how we felt at the end of the day for Cassidy Arch.

There’s a couple of moments where we may have like almost overshot by like maybe 10 steps and then realized we needed to go up in certain moments.

Nighthawk

We opted to put on wetsuits. A little bit later, not immediately then, ’cause again, it was hot outside. Which again, it wasn’t the most time efficient thing, but it definitely like didn’t feel like a huge slowdown. And it was hot. We appreciated I think that was definitely the right move was delay wetsuits, but One person put it on already, they had a two-piece. Again, a bit more breathable. They put on the bottom and then later put on the top. But those with us with a full wetsuit, we definitely waited and opted for making that Transition later.

This again is Lindsay and I’s first big pothole experience. Although I don’t think we as it’s challenging pothole experience, it just was our first exposure. So I’d definitely think it was a like a great Pothole entry experience. We never had to use a potshot or anything of that nature, but we definitely had to get creative on some of our entrances and exits.

Nighthawk potholes

That’s where we opted to put on the wetsuits after the rappel.

We got the note that potholes full, no swims, easy to escape, and last rappel pull was fine. That was the other concern is can we pull the last big rappel easily? And come find out it was fine.

Like we didn’t need to use potshots, we didn’t have to use like any technical things, but there was like decent drops from one pothole to the next. So there was still problem-solving, a couple of rappels.

There’d be moments of like deeper water, but we were able to either walk on the edge to keep it like waist deep.

We were able to either lower people, re-anchor, or do a partner assist down or a partner assist to last person.

I think there was a longer we did kind of a two to three to four person kind of partner assist as people got down. One of them was a little long for a partner assist.

Then we noticed a bush that already had webbing and a rapide on it and we’re like, perfect.

We originally set up a one-hundred-foot rope.

It was a bit too short to make it to the next next one and have a pull. So we swapped the 100 with a 200-foot rope we had. And again, did easy pull.

There’s one rappel off of a log, so getting on rappel is a bit tricky. Kinda had a navigate sliding over. Some had no problem, some had some difficulty. Kind of climbing down in there and setting up the rappel and then getting on rappel.

Nighthawk final rappels

First was the anchor itself, the anchor was a deadman, and holy moly, it had a lot of webbing on it. I think just because they buried the snot out of it. Which made it very difficult to check. So that took quite a bit of time for us to undig, inspect the webbing, and feel good despite people running the canyon the day before.

That took quite a bit of time to fully dig out and then replace in, but that sucker was secure.

The dry area was on the anchor. So we didn’t have everyone go down until again, room cleared. So a lot of us were stuck up there waiting in the shade, so we’re getting a little cold.

At that point, we’d been in the shade and wet for a while, and we just heard a lot of rock movement and we were super curious what was happening, but that’s the nature of canyoning, so eventually we got our chance and the rappel itself, again, was quite a big rappel, and then it had a kind of, it was two stage, There’s a pothole in the middle, which was easily avoidable if you walked around it.

The other thing on rappel is we were very conscious of like kind of where our rope was above us because there was lots of rope grooves forming.

So that went smoothly, minus again, just it was a long pull.

Nighthawk exit

After the big rappel, it was one final like thirty-foot-ish rappel right down canyon. And then smooth sailing from there. We opted to take our wetsuits off before the thirty foot rappel. Me and the leader just ’cause it didn’t seem there’s a lot of like clean area below. It seemed like it would get sandy.

Below, so we changed on some hard rock above, which I appreciate that recommendation. I think some people change at the bottom.

We just took off our wet suits and kept the harness on until the car. Which again is a straightforward exit out of the wash. The only note on the exit was really pretty with the sun going down and again, I think some people’s inclination was to stay in the wash, which again, like we’ve exited the canyon at this point or we could definitely tell we were parallel with the road.

Immediately I turned like left out of the wash to go towards the road and that’s right where our cars were. So again, we didn’t spend any time in the wash once we got back to where the road was.

I, again, was very content, very happy with Nighthawk. Again, I don’t think we faced any real challenges, which again, don’t need to be challenged. It was still a technical activity and thought the pothole experience in the canyon was really pretty.