Atlas › Henry Mountains

Conundrum Canyon

Also called Crescent Creek or Lecleed Narrows. A spring fed creek runs clear through a sandstone slot with walls up to 100 feet, and there is exactly one rappel.

That rappel is off a large tire. The drop is 40 feet but the anchor sits another 10 feet back, so a 120 foot rope is the sensible call; if a flood has taken the tire, there is other anchor material around. One downclimb of about 10 feet can be stemmed over, and roughly 200 feet of the narrows is tight enough to bridge. Pools were under waist depth as of May 2023. Approach follows the gravel road to the bottom of Crescent Creek from the trailhead parking, then downstream past Lecleed Spring on canyon left going down, after which the flow picks up: mostly ankle deep, knee deep in places near the end. Exit by scrambling a loose rock field to the old mining road above, turn left, and it meets the main gravel road within a few minutes. High clearance is needed to get there and 4x4 can be, depending on season; the road crosses the creek repeatedly and can be impassable after heavy rain or in early spring. A good short stop to rinse feet, shoes and rope on the way home from North Wash or Ticaboo.

Logistics

Sources

• manager: https://www.blm.gov/office/henry-mountains-field-station
• nearest town: https://www.blm.gov/office/henry-mountains-field-station
• permit: https://ropewiki.com/Conundrum_Canyon
• permitType: https://ropewiki.com/Conundrum_Canyon
• desc: https://ropewiki.com/Conundrum_Canyon
• notes: https://ropewiki.com/Conundrum_Canyon