Atlas › Cedar Mesa

Black Hole of White Canyon

The swimming is the route, not the rope work. No mandatory rappels, but long corridors of White Canyon narrows where the water spans wall to wall and the only way through is to get in.

There is a sign at the canyon entrance warning against descending. It is years old and the canyon has gone reliably in recent seasons, but the warning is not decoration: heavy flows reshape this canyon and the debris in it. If you reach the entrance and find water actually moving, treat it as a swiftwater problem and be honest about whether your party can handle one. Most people shuttle, dropping a car at the Glen Canyon Scenic Viewpoint and starting from the Highway 95 trailhead a few miles southeast. Mid canyon there is a short pinched section full of trapped debris and rank standing water, which is memorable for the wrong reasons; keep your mouth shut through it. The exit is a switchbacking trail up on canyon left where the walls break down.

Logistics

Sources

• permit: https://ropewiki.com/Black_Hole_of_White_Canyon
• manager: https://www.blm.gov/office/monticello-field-office
• desc: https://ropewiki.com/Black_Hole_of_White_Canyon
• notes: https://ropewiki.com/Black_Hole_of_White_Canyon