Canyoneering Route Description

Raven Canyon 3A(B) III R
Headless Hen Canyon 4B III
Escalante National Monument, Utah

Quick Facts

2012-10-06, 6 people, 1 Day (Travel time in route 9.3 hours) Time for combining Raven and Headless Hen.
2016-10-08, 5 people, 1 Day (Travel time in route 8 hours) - Raven Only - Includes 4 hour explore of minor slot west of Headless Hen.
2017-11-25, 7 people, 1 Day (Travel time in route 7.1 hours) - Headless Hen only - Includes time looking around at lower Headless Hen.
2022-11-04, 9 people, 1 Day (Travel time in route 6 hours) - Raven only taking a long scenic approach and taking our time.

Time Required - 8 to 11 - -  combining Raven and Headless Hen.
Distance - 6.1 miles Total, 1.5 miles Technical  - - combining Raven and Headless Hen.
Rappels - 0 Rappels, Lots of short raps or downclimbs into potholes and pothole escape work.
Elevation Range - 4720 - 4250 Feet
Shuttle Required - No Vehicle - High Clearance, 4WD incase deep sand issues. Permit Required - No

Gear Used for Canyon

Raven:
Body armor for abrasion, 35 foot rope and one potshot.   The rope and potshot are not mandatory but are a small amount of gear to haul in the event they are needed.  In cold months some may want a farmer john wet suit since most of the water is wading with a couple spots possibly chest deep.

Headless Hen:
Body armor for abrasion, sandtrap, potshots, a few ropes in the 100 foot range and pothole escape gear.  A watertrap may come in handy as well.

General Comments

The drive in to the trailhead has a section about 0.7 miles long of deep sand where high clearance / 4WD is recommended.

Raven and Headless Hen are short route next to one another and is recommended to combine both into one route to get more bang for your buck.

Raven:
Raven is short fun and full of stemming to about 35 feet off the deck with moderate difficulty crossing a few silo / gapers.  Most of the silos are easy to cross with only a couple that will have you feeling very exposed.  Crossing some of the silos presents fall potential to about 35 feet giving the canyon the R rating.  While Raven has no rappels, it is still a good idea to have a 35 foot rope and a potshot in the event they are needed.  If you combine Raven and Headless Hen into one route you will have rope and potshots along anyway.  A couple downclimbs to then across potholes can be difficult where a potshot may come in handy.

Multiple spots with waist to chest deep water possible.  The places you will get wet are short making a wetsuit more work than it is worth for most.  If the canyon is full and weather is very cold, some may consider a wetsuit but keep in mind it will only be used for a couple quick dunks.  If a wetsuit is used a farmer john would work well.

Headless Hen:
Headless Hen is pothole after pothole offering a totally different style of play than Raven.  Bring with you a sandtrap, potshots and a few ropes around the 120 foot range as working ropes.

Headless Hen is a great place to practice pothole escape and crossing.  The canyon is short enough you can do laps on it if you want more practice.  There are a couple challenging potholes in the canyon and you should have some experienced people along to assist.

Just before the end of the technical section is deep pothole about 10 feet across that commonly changes character due to sand filling in and scouring out with flood activity. This pothole is sometimes shallow enough to allow a partner assist through and go kind of un-noticed when sand has filled in. As sand scours out this pothole can be come 15 feet deep and deeper requiring a potshot toss to get out of. The danger / challenge of this pothole is when sand is scoured out revealing a deep pothole but sand has filled in the features just down canyon creating sloped sand down into the pothole making a potshot exit extremely difficult. In those conditions the potshot tossed for exit is easily dragged back into the pothole when any substantial weight is placed on it. An aggressive multi-person partner assist of your lightest team mate can help them carefully get out of the pothole placing very little weight on the potshot line.

While there are raps listed for Headless Hen, some may argue there are no true rappels in the canyon.  The drops listed here are places we have had to anchor and rappel into a pothole before exiting the other side.  Some may prefer to simply call these potholes that require technical skills to cross.  Also of note sand washes in and scours out due to flooding and you may experience and different rap count altogether.

Note:
There are two short slots up canyon of here. The first one is about 430 feet up canyon of here, about 350 feet long with very sculpted walls and can be upclimbed and downclimbed. A second slot is about 1200 feet farther up canyon is about 600 feet long. The higher up slot we went up from the bottom and down from the top leaving about 90 feet of canyon we did not go through but viewed that mid section from the rim. The upper 150 feet has medium sized potholes and about 4 drops to 15 feet, the mid 90 feet has 2 drops to about 15 feet and the lower 450 feet is easy travel with a few small potholes to bridge or galumph over.

Warning:
Just before the end of the technical section is deep pothole about 10 feet across that commonly changes character due to sand filling in and scouring out with flood activity. This pothole is sometimes shallow enough to allow a partner assist through and go kind of un-noticed when sand has filled in. As sand scours out this pothole can be come 15 feet deep and deeper requiring a potshot toss to get out of. The danger / challenge of this pothole is when sand is scoured out revealing a deep pothole but sand has filled in the features just down canyon creating sloped sand down into the pothole making a potshot exit extremely difficult. In those conditions the potshot tossed for exit is easily dragged back into the pothole when any substantial weight is placed on it. An aggressive multi-person partner assist of your lightest team mate can help them carefully get out of the pothole placing very little weight on the potshot line.

Driving Directions

To get to the Trailhead

From the city of Escalante drive about 4 miles southeast on Hwy 12 to the turn off for Hole-In-The-Rock road on the right (extHoleInRock). The condition of the dirt Hole in the Rock road varies a lot with recent rains and road maintenance.  High clearance may be needed in extreme cases but most of the time passenger cars will be fine for the first 30 or 40 miles on Hole in the Rock road.

Travel about 31.9 miles southeast on Hole-In-The-Rock road to the turn off for Chimney Rock (exChimneyRk).

Turn left (northeast) onto Chimney Rock Road and drive about 1.9 miles to a sharp left turn in the road (CimneyRk02).

Follow the sharp turn left to drive east.  Beyond this sharp left turn (CimneyRk02) the road has a lot of deep sand.  High clearance / 4WD is recommended.

About 0.7 miles farther is Chimney Rock and a place to park a few vehicles (ChimneyRock).  This is also where the deep sand ends.

Continue past Chimney Rock for about 1 mile to the end of the road to park (pkChimCoyoteA)

To leave the Exit Vehicle / Escape Pod

No exit vehicle is needed.  This is done as an out and back route.

Maps

GPS coordinate information listed at the bottom.  For information about waypoint naming and map symbols, refer to the Glossary page.

Click the links for maps of the route. Map of the drive into the route.
Map of the entire route.
Map of the technical section.
Map zoomed in of the technical section.

Details

The Approach:
From the parking spot (pkChimCoyoteA) walk northwest on a bearing of about 326 degrees for about 0.65 miles to where the open desert begins to hit slickrock. A GPS or good navigation skills will be helpful here as there are no obvious landmarks.

When the route begins to hit slickrock (ChimCoyote21) Walk north-ish down the slickrock about 0.22 miles to an open area with lots of cottonwood trees (ChimCoyote22).

Note:
There are multiple spots where you can travel down the slickrock.  To find the spot this route description is referring to, a GPS may be helpful.

From the cottonwood trees (ChimCoyote22) walk north about 225 feet to get over to Coyote Gulch where the water is flowing over a small waterfall down into the head of a short slot in Coyote Gulch.

From the top of the water fall (jCyoteChimny2) cross over Coyote Gulch and follow use trails on the LDC (north) side as they go north then turn to the east following the rim of Coyote Gulch.

Note:
The use trails going along the rim are a bypass trail for people to bypass around the small water fall and the slot of about 100 feet while hiking Coyote Gulch.  For going to Raven and Headless Hen the route will start following this bypass trail then branch off to the north away from Coyote Gulch.

About 500 feet along the use trail on the rim is where the use trails begin to drop back down into Coyote Gulch (HeadlesRaven1).  To go to Raven and Headless Hen do not follow the use trails south back down into Coyote Gulch.  Instead turn north to drop down into a wide sandy wash, which is the non-technical portion of wash below Headless Hen and Raven.

Travel north up the wide sandy wash about 500 feet to the confluence of Headless Hen and Raven (jConfHeadRaven). 

From the confluence (jConfHeadRaven) continue north and route find your way up the dirt ridge running up between the two wide sandy washes.  Raven will be on the right (east) and Headless He will be on the left (west).

Almost 500 feet up, the ridge turns from dirt to slickrock (HeadlesRaven2). Continue north up the slickrock ridge.

Almost 0.2 miles up the ridge is a spot (HeadlesRaven3) where you choose to go to Raven or Headless Hen.

Note:
If doing the combination of Raven and Headless Hen this make a good spot to stash un-needed gear and pick it back up before the next canyon. A good flow for this route is to drop gear here, go do Raven Canyon then come back to here to pick up any gear left before going up to Headless Hen.

To go to Raven, veer right (northeast) and follow up a wide ridge and rolling slickrock for about 0.6 miles roughly following the Raven drainage about 250 feet away.  Drop into the top of Raven where slot forms below open wash.

To go to Headless Hen, walk north following rolling slickrock about 0.6 miles with the wide ridge to your right (east) and roughly following Headless Hen on the left (west) about 350 feet away.  When you get a few hundred feet from the drop in point (Headles01), look across the canyon to the rim on the other (west) side for a large rock outcropping on a hill that looks like a headless hen about 500 to 600 feet away. Follow the rim until you are directly across from the headless hen outcropping then route find your way down into to the canyon just below that rock outcropping (yHeadlessTp).

The Canyoneering / Technical Section:
Raven:
From the top of Raven (yRavenTp), where the slot begins below a wide open wash. Down canyon from the head is a slot about 200 feet long with low and easy stemming / galumphing and 2 sandy bottomed potholes to cross that may be up to chest deep if full. If the sand is scoured out by flooding, the potholes may be a little difficult to escape. 

After the slot is a short wide spot to walk down to the start of the next slot.

The next slot (Raven20) is about 350 feet long with mostly low and easy stemming / galumphing over small silos where you may find your self up to 15 feet off the deck. All the silo crossings are relatively easy and are shaped such that shorter people can easily drop down in them and stem up the other side.

Next is very shallow where you can walk out to the rim on either side (Raven21-EE) followed by is a slot about 200 feet long with easy / stemming / galumphing where you will be up to about 10 feet off the deck.

After the short slot is the start (Raven22-EE) of another shallow section of canyon where you can easily rim walk along the RDC (west) side to bypass a 325 foot long uninteresting section.

A little over 300 feet down canyon is the start (Raven23) of a deeper section where you need to galumph / stem down canyon and where the more physical portion of the canyon is.

Shortly down canyon is a moderately easy and secure feeling upclimb you will stem / galumph up at an angle to then travel about 15 feet off the deck.  Travel here works well with galumphing or back to feet stemming.

After the upclimb is a section of canyon a little over 300 feet long where you will be stemming / galumphing up to 25 feet off the deck with moderate difficulty. In this section are a few small silo / gapers to stem over, which all have good features and are not very wide.

Shortly down canyon is a large choke stone to go up over (Raven24) then galumph at an angle down to the canyon floor where you can walk in a deep narrow feeling slot. The slot will become skinny again forcing you up off the deck a few feet where you will stem / galumph to a silo about 300 feet down canyon of the big choke stone.

There will be 5 silos in this section. The first 3 silos are not too wide, have good features and easy to cross about 20 feet off the deck. These 3 silos, while not physically difficult to cross, do pose a mental challenge as they look and feel like black holes waiting to swallow you up if you fall in.

The 4th silo has a downclimb / slither of about 15 feet where you may need to jump down the last 3 feet to a sand floor.  The climb / stem up out of the down canyon side is easy and only a few feet up to where you will continue stemming / galumphing down canyon between skinny walls.

The 5th silo involves a wider sketchy feeling bridge to cross but with lower consequences over a shallow hole where a hand line can be set to assist people out if they go down in.

Just after the 5th silo is pothole to cross by going around an awkward nose on the LDC side. Send your better climber around first who can then reach out assist others by pulling them around the nose. A potshot or pack toss may a be a good idea here in case you can not get across it and sand scours out making the pothole deeper.

Note:
This pothole to cross with the awkward nose to go around on the LDC side while crossing can be crossed by tall people fairly easily.  I am 6 foot even and can barely reach to make this work.  To cross and go around the nose step over to the pothole and reach up and around the corner.  If you reach far enough you will find a solid edge to grab with a your hands and pull your self up around the nose and to the other side.  The hand grab spot is out of sight and feels scary to reach for since you do not want to fall in.  So support from behind can make this easier.

Shortly down canyon is rock pile debris (Raven25) where the canyon opens up after the deep silo section. Galumph down canyon and cross a few low and easy gapers before the canyon begins to widen allowing easy walking in an open area.

A little over 250 feet down canyon is a wide open spot in the canyon (Raven26-EE) where you can escape RDC up gently sloped slickrock.

Down canyon for about 400 feet is semi shallow v-shaped canyon where a long series of little potholes get deeper creating more twisted walls.

About 400 feet farther the canyon gets a little deeper (Raven27) but is still semi shallow where the potholes get deeper creating silo like features to galumph over only a few feet off the deck. Just before the end of this section is a pothole requiring a downclimb of 6 to 8 feet where a partner assist may be helpful both into and out of the pothole. With moderate effort the pothole can be partially downclimbed into then jumped over to avoid the water and climbing out.  Also of note are a few arches in various places along the canyon floor.

Shortly down canyon is the bottom of the technical portion of Raven canyon (yRavenBt) where it opens up to wide sandy wash.

Walk the sandy wash about 650 feet back to the confluence of Headless Hen and Raven (jConfHeadRaven).

Headless Hen:
Once down in Headless Hen (yHeadlessTp), turn left to start south down Headless Hen.  Down canyon is a mix of slickrock and shallow potholes for about 850 that are easy to bypass.

Note:
There are two short slots up canyon of here. The first one is about 430 feet up canyon of here, about 350 feet long with very sculpted walls and can be upclimbed and downclimbed. A second slot is about 1200 feet farther up canyon is about 600 feet long. The higher up slot we went up from the bottom and down from the top leaving about 90 feet of canyon we did not go through but viewed that mid section from the rim. The upper 150 feet has medium sized potholes and about 4 drops to 15 feet, the mid 90 feet has 2 drops to about 15 feet and the lower 450 feet is easy travel with a few small potholes to bridge or galumph over.

After bypassing the first 850 feet of minor potholes is the start (Headles02) of a committing stretch of canyon with a view of a long string of potholes and a view chimney rock off in the distance. The next 375 feet starts with a few potholes to scramble around, then a pothole about 12 feet deep where potshots and partner assists may be used for entry and exit, then 2 potholes about 6 feet deep each to partner assist through, then an easy downclimb of about 8 feet followed by a walking and galumphing.

As the galumphing turns to stemming (Headles03), the next 130 feet is stemming about 10 to 15 feet off the deck going over one easy to cross silo then drop down into and up out of another silo.

As the stemming ends and you are back on the ground (Headles04) the next 250 feet is easy galumphing over small potholes where it may be a stretch for some to get over.

Rap 1 (dHeadlesR1) is anchored using a sandtrap or hanging potshots and drops into a 15 foot deep pothole requiring a potshot toss to a good v-groove on the exit end.  Shortly after is the next rap.

Rap 2 (dHeadlesR2) is anchored RDC from a knot chalk about head high or sandtrap and drops about 10 feet into a pothole with a slightly sloped exit requiring partner assist. Shortly after is the next rap.

Rap 3 (dHeadlesR3) is anchored using a potshot in a v-groove and drops about 12 feet to a pothole requiring a potshot toss to another v-groove on the exit side and partner assist for exit. On the other side of the exit is another pothole about 8 feet deep requiring partner assist into and out of.  Shortly after is the crux pothole.

Note:
When anchoring a rappel with the potshot, set the retrieval rope over the top of the potshot to the back tie in point so that when pulled the potshot is rolled up out of the v-groove.

The crux pothole (Headles05Crux) is a deep pothole about 10 feet across that commonly changes character due to sand filling in and scouring out with flood activity. This pothole is sometimes shallow enough to allow a partner assist through and go kind of un-noticed when sand has filled in. As sand scours out this pothole can be come 15 feet deep and deeper requiring a potshot toss to get out of. The danger / challenge of this pothole is when sand is scoured out revealing a deep pothole but sand has filled in the features just down canyon creating sloped sand down into the pothole making a potshot exit extremely difficult. In those conditions the potshot tossed for exit is easily dragged back into the pothole when any substantial weight is placed on it. An aggressive multi-person partner assist of your lightest team mate can help them carefully get out of the pothole placing very little weight on the potshot line.

A couple small potholes to partner assist through lead out to where the canyon widens out (Headless06-EE) and a short side drainage filled with small pothole that drops in from the LDC (northeast) side.  Continue walking down canyon bypassing potholes.

About 150 feet farther is a 20 foot drop (Headles07) easily bypassed on the RDC side then back down to the wash below.

A few hundred feet down canyon is a series of about a dozen small potholes (Headles08) over about a 40 foot section that are easily walked around.

About 500 feet down canyon the LDC (east) side has an easy slope (Headles09-EE) allowing a scramble into or out of the canyon.  On the exit, you can escape here on the LDC side then follow the approach route in reverse back up and over to the confluence (jConfHeadRaven) of Raven and Headless Hen.

Note:
Optionally you could play through the lower portions of Headless Hen which offers a few short sections of potholes but all are easily bypassed and not committing enough to be inviting.

The Exit:
From the confluence at the bottoms of Headless Hen and Raven (jConfHeadRaven) you can follow north up the ridge between them to go do the other route you have not done yet if combining the routes into one day.  Or you can return back to the car park by reversing the approach route.

GPS Waypoint Information

Click to show / expand the list of waypoints below........

Headless Hen and Raven (1) - Drive into Trailhead

extHoleInRock          Lat/Lon (WGS84):  N 37.72769   W -111.53143        Elev: NaN Feet Turn off to Hole-In-The-Rock road from Hwy 12. exHarrisWash          Lat/Lon (WGS84):  N 37.60644   W -111.42794        Elev: NaN Feet Turn off to Harris Wash Road to the east. extEgypt          Lat/Lon (WGS84):  N 37.54114   W -111.36176        Elev: 5,279 Feet Turn off to the Egypt Road to the east (left on the drive in on Hole in the Rock road.. extDryForkTH1          Lat/Lon (WGS84):  N 37.46638   W -111.22344        Elev: 4,890 Feet Turn off of Hole-In-The-Rock road toward Dry Fork trailhead. BLM road 252 This is about 25 miles down Hole in the Rock road. exChimneyRk          Lat/Lon (WGS84):  N 37.39317   W -111.14345        Elev: 4,831 Feet Exit to Chimney Rock off off Hole in the Rock road. This is about 31.9 miles down Hole in the Rock road. CimneyRk01          Lat/Lon (WGS84):  N 37.39800   W -111.13679        Elev: 4,878 Feet Exit off to a faint side road to the east. CimneyRk02          Lat/Lon (WGS84):  N 37.41562   W -111.12539        Elev: 4,735 Feet Junction in the road. Turn right (east) to drive out to Chimney Rock which gets deep and sandy beyond this point.. Another road contiues north. ChimneyRock          Lat/Lon (WGS84):  N 37.41085   W -111.11288        Elev: 4,685 Feet Chimney Rock with lots of area to park and camp. pkChimCoyoteA          Lat/Lon (WGS84):  N 37.41648   W -111.09846        Elev: 4,720 Feet Park at end of dirt road here to start the hike to many canyons in this area. Big Tony, DDI, Lower PINTAC, Headless Hen, Raven and others. To go toward Big Tony, walk northeast toward the indent seen on the mesa in the distance. Aim slight left (west) of the indent. Walk through rolling dirt desert about 0.6 miles to where the dirt begins to extend out into slickrock. To go toward Raven and Headless Hen, walk northwest on a bearing of about 326 degrees for about 0.65 miles to where the open desert begins to hit slickrock. A GPS or good navigation skills will be helpful here as there are no obvious landmarks.

Headless Hen and Raven (2) - Approach to Confluence of Headless and Raven

pkChimCoyoteA          Lat/Lon (WGS84):  N 37.41648   W -111.09846        Elev: 4,720 Feet Park at end of dirt road here to start the hike to many canyons in this area. Big Tony, DDI, Lower PINTAC, Headless Hen, Raven and others. To go toward Big Tony, walk northeast toward the indent seen on the mesa in the distance. Aim slight left (west) of the indent. Walk through rolling dirt desert about 0.6 miles to where the dirt begins to extend out into slickrock. To go toward Raven and Headless Hen, walk northwest on a bearing of about 326 degrees for about 0.65 miles to where the open desert begins to hit slickrock. A GPS or good navigation skills will be helpful here as there are no obvious landmarks. ChimCoyote21          Lat/Lon (WGS84):  N 37.42447   W -111.10533        Elev: NaN Feet Route begins to hit slickrock here. This is a semi arbitrary point since you can get travel down the slick rock almost anywhere here. Walk north-ish down the slickrock about 0.22 miles to an open area with lots of cottonwood trees. ChimCoyote22          Lat/Lon (WGS84):  N 37.42717   W -111.10375        Elev: NaN Feet Big open area with lots of cottonwood trees. Walk north about 225 feet to get over to Coyote Gulch where the water is flowing over a small waterfall down into the head of a short slot in Coyote Gulch. jCyoteChimny2          Lat/Lon (WGS84):  N 37.42777   W -111.10342        Elev: 4,250 Feet Top of a small waterfall down into the head of slot in Coyote Gulch. To go over to Raven and Headless Hen, cross over Coyote Gulch and follow use trails on the LDC (north) side as they go north then turn to the east following the rim of Coyote Gulch. Note:The use trails going along the rim are a bypass trail for people to bypass around the small water fall and the slot of about 100 feet while hiking Coyote Gulch.  For going to Raven and Headless Hen the route will start following this bypass trail then branch off to the north away from Coyote Gulch. HeadlesRaven1          Lat/Lon (WGS84):  N 37.42854   W -111.10225        Elev: 4,273 Feet This is where the use trails that are bypassing a slot in Coyote Gulch begin to drop back down to Coyote Gulch. To go to Raven and Headless Hen do not follow the use trails south back down into Coyote Gulch. Instead turn north to drop down into a wide sandy wash, which is the non-technical portion of wash below Headless Hen and Raven. Travel north up the wide sandy wash about 500 feet to the confluence of Headless Hen and Raven. jConfHeadRaven          Lat/Lon (WGS84):  N 37.42976   W -111.10258        Elev: 4,270 Feet Confluence of the Headless Hen and Raven drainages. To start the approach up to Headless Hen or Raven continue north and route find your way up the dirt ridge running up between the two wide sandy washes. Raven will be on the right (east) and Headless He will be on the left (west).

Headless Hen and Raven (3) - Appraoch Confluence to Raven

jConfHeadRaven          Lat/Lon (WGS84):  N 37.42976   W -111.10258        Elev: 4,270 Feet Confluence of the Headless Hen and Raven drainages. To start the approach up to Headless Hen or Raven continue north and route find your way up the dirt ridge running up between the two wide sandy washes. Raven will be on the right (east) and Headless He will be on the left (west). HeadlesRaven2          Lat/Lon (WGS84):  N 37.43098   W -111.10255        Elev: NaN Feet Ridge between Raven and Headless Hen turns from dirt to slickrock about here. Continue north up the slickrock ridge. HeadlesRaven3          Lat/Lon (WGS84):  N 37.43362   W -111.10212        Elev: NaN Feet A spot where you choose to go to Raven or Headless Hen. To go to Raven, veer right (northeast) and follow up a wide ridge and rolling slickrock for about 0.6 miles roughly following the Raven drainage about 250 feet away. To go to Headless Hen, walk north following rolling slickrock about 0.6 miles with the wide ridge to your right (east) and roughly following Headless Hen on the left (west) about 350 feet away. Note: If doing the combination of Raven and Headless Hen this make a good spot to stash un-needed gear and pick it back up before the next canyon. A good flow for this route is to drop gear here, go do Raven Canyon then come back to here to pick up any gear left before going up to Headless Hen. yRavenTp          Lat/Lon (WGS84):  N 37.43859   W -111.09377        Elev: 4,530 Feet Top entry of Raven Canyon where the slot begins below a wide open wash. Down canyon from the head is a slot about 200 feet long with low and easy stemming / galumphing and 2 sandy bottomed potholes to cross that may be up to chest deep if full. If the sand is scoured out by flooding, the potholes may be a little difficult to escape. After the slot is a short wide spot to walk.

Headless Hen and Raven (4) - Approach - Confluence to Headless

jConfHeadRaven          Lat/Lon (WGS84):  N 37.42976   W -111.10258        Elev: 4,270 Feet Confluence of the Headless Hen and Raven drainages. To start the approach up to Headless Hen or Raven continue north and route find your way up the dirt ridge running up between the two wide sandy washes. Raven will be on the right (east) and Headless He will be on the left (west). HeadlesRaven2          Lat/Lon (WGS84):  N 37.43098   W -111.10255        Elev: NaN Feet Ridge between Raven and Headless Hen turns from dirt to slickrock about here. Continue north up the slickrock ridge. HeadlesRaven3          Lat/Lon (WGS84):  N 37.43362   W -111.10212        Elev: NaN Feet A spot where you choose to go to Raven or Headless Hen. To go to Raven, veer right (northeast) and follow up a wide ridge and rolling slickrock for about 0.6 miles roughly following the Raven drainage about 250 feet away. To go to Headless Hen, walk north following rolling slickrock about 0.6 miles with the wide ridge to your right (east) and roughly following Headless Hen on the left (west) about 350 feet away. Note: If doing the combination of Raven and Headless Hen this make a good spot to stash un-needed gear and pick it back up before the next canyon. A good flow for this route is to drop gear here, go do Raven Canyon then come back to here to pick up any gear left before going up to Headless Hen. Headles01          Lat/Lon (WGS84):  N 37.43963   W -111.10000        Elev: NaN Feet When you get a few hundred feet from the drop in point, look across the canyon to the rim on the other (west) side for a large rock outcropping on a hill that looks like a headless hen about 500 to 600 feet away. Follow the rim until you are directly across from the headless hen outcropping then route find your way down into to the canyon just below that rock outcropping. yHeadlessTp          Lat/Lon (WGS84):  N 37.44115   W -111.09935        Elev: 4,540 Feet When you are directly across from the Headless Hen outcropping, route find down to the canyon floor. Down canyon is a mix of slickrock and shallow potholes for about 850 that are easy to bypass. Just barely up canyon of here are a couple potholes easily walked around. Note: There are two short slots up canyon of here. The first one is about 430 feet up canyon of here, about 350 feet long with very sculpted walls and can be upclimbed and downclimbed. A second slot is about 1200 feet farther up canyon is about 600 feet long. The higher up slot we went up from the bottom and down from the top leaving about 90 feet of canyon we did not go through but viewed that mid section from the rim. The upper 150 feet has medium sized potholes and about 4 drops to 15 feet, the mid 90 feet has 2 drops to about 15 feet and the lower 450 feet is easy travel with a few small potholes to bridge or galumph over.

Headless Hen and Raven (5) - Raven Canyon

yRavenTp          Lat/Lon (WGS84):  N 37.43859   W -111.09377        Elev: 4,530 Feet Top entry of Raven Canyon where the slot begins below a wide open wash. Down canyon from the head is a slot about 200 feet long with low and easy stemming / galumphing and 2 sandy bottomed potholes to cross that may be up to chest deep if full. If the sand is scoured out by flooding, the potholes may be a little difficult to escape. After the slot is a short wide spot to walk. Raven20          Lat/Lon (WGS84):  N 37.43826   W -111.09470        Elev: NaN Feet Start of a slot about 350 feet long with mostly low and easy stemming / galumphing over small silos where you may find your self up to 15 feet off the deck. All the silo crossings are relatively easy and are shaped such that shorter people can easily drop down in them and stem up the other side. Raven21-EE          Lat/Lon (WGS84):  N 37.43755   W -111.09603        Elev: NaN Feet Slot is very shallow here where you can walk out to the rim on either side followed by is a slot about 200 feet long with easy / stemming / galumphing where you will be up to about 10 feet off the deck. Raven22-EE          Lat/Lon (WGS84):  N 37.43691   W -111.09640        Elev: NaN Feet Up canyon side of a shallow section of canyon where you can easily rim walk along the RDC (west) side to bypass a 325 foot long uninteresting section. Raven23          Lat/Lon (WGS84):  N 37.43624   W -111.09722        Elev: NaN Feet Start of a deeper section where you need to galumph / stem down canyon and where the more physical portion of the canyon is. Shortly down canyon is a moderately easy and secure feeling upclimb you will stem / galumph up at an angle to then travel about 15 feet off the deck. Travel here works well with galumphing or back to feet stemming. After the upclimb is a section of canyon a little over 300 feet long where you will be stemming / galumphing up to 25 feet off the deck with moderate difficulty. In this section are a few small silo / gapers to stem over, which all have good features and are not very wide. Raven24          Lat/Lon (WGS84):  N 37.43584   W -111.09827        Elev: NaN Feet Large choke stone to go up over then galumph at an angle down to the canyon floor where you can walk in a deep narrow feeling slot. The slot will become skinny again forcing you up off the deck a few feet where you will stem / galumph to a silo about 300 feet down canyon of the big choke stone. There will be 5 silos in this section. The first 3 silos are not too wide, have good features and easy to cross about 20 feet off the deck. These 3 silos, while not physically difficult to cross, do pose a mental challenge as they look and feel like black holes waiting to swallow you up if you fall in. The 4th silo has a downclimb / slither of about 15 feet where you may need to jump down the last 3 feet to a sand floor. The climb / stem up out of the down canyon side is easy and only a few feet up to where you will continue stemming / galumphing down canyon between skinny walls. The 5th silo involves a wider sketchy feeling bridge to cross but with lower consequences over a shallow hole where a hand line can be set to assist people out if they go down in. Just after the 5th silo is pothole to cross by going around an awkward nose on the LDC side. Send your better climber around first who can then reach out assist others by pulling them around the nose. A potshot or pack toss may a be a good idea here in case you can not get across it and sand scours out making the pothole deeper. Note: This pothole to cross with the awkward nose to go around on the LDC side while crossing can be crossed by tall people fairly easily. I am 6 foot even and can barely reach to make this work. To cross and go around the nose step over to the pothole and reach up and around the corner. If you reach far enough you will find a solid edge to grab with a your hands and pull your self up around the nose and to the other side. The hand grab spot is out of sight and feels scary to reach for since you do not want to fall in. So support from behind can make this easier. Raven25          Lat/Lon (WGS84):  N 37.43367   W -111.10066        Elev: NaN Feet Rock pile debris where the canyon opens up after the deep silo section. Galumph down canyon and cross a few low and easy gapers before the canyon begins to widen allowing easy walking in an open area. Raven26-EE          Lat/Lon (WGS84):  N 37.43328   W -111.10161        Elev: 4,350 Feet Wide open spot in the canyon where you can escape RDC up gently sloped slickrock. Down canyon from here for about 400 feet is semi shallow v-shaped canyon where a long series of little potholes get deeper creating more twisted walls. Raven27          Lat/Lon (WGS84):  N 37.43219   W -111.10176        Elev: NaN Feet Canyon gets a little deeper but is still semi shallow where the potholes get deeper creating silo like features to galumph over only a few feet off the deck. Just before the end of this section is a pothole requiring a downclimb of 6 to 8 feet where a partner assist may be helpful both into and out of the pothole. With moderate effort the pothole can be partially downclimbed into then jumped over to avoid the water and climbing out. Also of note are a few arches in various places along the canyon floor. yRavenBt          Lat/Lon (WGS84):  N 37.43139   W -111.10214        Elev: NaN Feet Bottom of the technical portion of Raven canyon where it opens up to wide sandy wash. jConfHeadRaven          Lat/Lon (WGS84):  N 37.42976   W -111.10258        Elev: 4,270 Feet Confluence of the Headless Hen and Raven drainages. To start the approach up to Headless Hen or Raven continue north and route find your way up the dirt ridge running up between the two wide sandy washes. Raven will be on the right (east) and Headless He will be on the left (west).

Headless Hen and Raven (6) - Headless Hen Canyon

yHeadlessTp          Lat/Lon (WGS84):  N 37.44115   W -111.09935        Elev: 4,540 Feet When you are directly across from the Headless Hen outcropping, route find down to the canyon floor. Down canyon is a mix of slickrock and shallow potholes for about 850 that are easy to bypass. Just barely up canyon of here are a couple potholes easily walked around. Note: There are two short slots up canyon of here. The first one is about 430 feet up canyon of here, about 350 feet long with very sculpted walls and can be upclimbed and downclimbed. A second slot is about 1200 feet farther up canyon is about 600 feet long. The higher up slot we went up from the bottom and down from the top leaving about 90 feet of canyon we did not go through but viewed that mid section from the rim. The upper 150 feet has medium sized potholes and about 4 drops to 15 feet, the mid 90 feet has 2 drops to about 15 feet and the lower 450 feet is easy travel with a few small potholes to bridge or galumph over. Headles02          Lat/Lon (WGS84):  N 37.43940   W -111.10102        Elev: NaN Feet Start of a committing stretch of canyon with a view of a long string of potholes and a view chimney rock off in the distance. The next 375 feet starts with a few potholes to scramble around, then a pothole about 12 feet deep where potshots and partner assists may be used for entry and exit, then 2 potholes about 6 feet deep each to partner assist through, then an easy downclimb of about 8 feet followed by a walking and galumphing. Headles03          Lat/Lon (WGS84):  N 37.43842   W -111.10125        Elev: NaN Feet Galumphing turns to stemming. The next 130 feet is stemming about 10 to 15 feet off the deck going over one easy to cross silo then drop down into and up out of another silo. Headles04          Lat/Lon (WGS84):  N 37.43809   W -111.10114        Elev: NaN Feet Stemming ends where you are back on the ground again. The next 250 feet is easy galumphing over small potholes where it may be a stretch for some to get over. dHeadlesR1          Lat/Lon (WGS84):  N 37.43748   W -111.10138        Elev: NaN Feet Rap 1 - Headless Hen. Anchored using a sandtrap or hanging potshots and drops into a 15 foot deep pothole requiring a potshot toss to a good v-groove on the exit end. dHeadlesR2          Lat/Lon (WGS84):  N 37.43733   W -111.10142        Elev: NaN Feet Rap 2 - Headless Hen. Anchored RDC from a knot chalk about head high or sandtrap and drops about 10 feet into a pothole with a slightly sloped exit requiring partner assist. dHeadlesR3          Lat/Lon (WGS84):  N 37.43721   W -111.10148        Elev: NaN Feet Rap 3 - Headless Hen. Anchored using a potshot in a v-groove and drops about 12 feet to a pothole requiring a potshot toss to another v-groove on the exit side and partner assist for exit. On the other side of the exit is another pothole about 8 feet deep requiring partner assist into and out of. Note: When anchoring a rappel with the potshot, set the retrieval rope over the top of the potshot to the back tie in point so that when pulled the potshot is rolled up out of the v-groove. Headles05Crux          Lat/Lon (WGS84):  N 37.43705   W -111.10154        Elev: NaN Feet Deep pothole about 10 feet across that commonly changes character due to sand filling in and scouring out with flood activity. This pothole is sometimes shallow enough to allow a partner assist through and go kind of un-noticed when sand has filled in. As sand scours out this pothole can be come 15 feet deep and deeper requiring a potshot toss to get out of. The danger / challenge of this pothole is when sand is scoured out revealing a deep pothole but sand has filled in the features just down canyon creating sloped sand down into the pothole making a potshot exit extremely difficult. In those conditions the potshot tossed for exit is easily dragged back into the pothole when any substantial weight is placed on it. An aggressive multi-person partner assist of your lightest team mate can help them carefully get out of the pothole placing very little weight on the potshot line. Headless06-EE          Lat/Lon (WGS84):  N 37.43680   W -111.10158        Elev: NaN Feet A short side drainage filled with samll pothole that drops in from the LDC (northeast) side. Continue walking down canyon bypassing potholes. Headles07          Lat/Lon (WGS84):  N 37.43647   W -111.10192        Elev: NaN Feet 20 foot drop easily bypassed on the RDC side then back down to the wash below. Headles08          Lat/Lon (WGS84):  N 37.43543   W -111.10265        Elev: NaN Feet Series of about a dozen small potholes over about a 40 foot section that are easily walked around. Headles09-EE          Lat/Lon (WGS84):  N 37.43405   W -111.10272        Elev: NaN Feet The LDC (east) side has an easy slope allowing a scramble into or out of the canyon. On the exit, you can escape here on the LDC side then follow the approach route in reverse back to the cars. Optionally you could play through the lower portions of Headless Hen which offers a few short sections of potholes but all are easily bypassed and not committing enough to be inviting. HeadlesRaven3          Lat/Lon (WGS84):  N 37.43362   W -111.10212        Elev: NaN Feet A spot where you choose to go to Raven or Headless Hen. To go to Raven, veer right (northeast) and follow up a wide ridge and rolling slickrock for about 0.6 miles roughly following the Raven drainage about 250 feet away. To go to Headless Hen, walk north following rolling slickrock about 0.6 miles with the wide ridge to your right (east) and roughly following Headless Hen on the left (west) about 350 feet away. Note: If doing the combination of Raven and Headless Hen this make a good spot to stash un-needed gear and pick it back up before the next canyon. A good flow for this route is to drop gear here, go do Raven Canyon then come back to here to pick up any gear left before going up to Headless Hen. jConfHeadRaven          Lat/Lon (WGS84):  N 37.42976   W -111.10258        Elev: 4,270 Feet Confluence of the Headless Hen and Raven drainages. To start the approach up to Headless Hen or Raven continue north and route find your way up the dirt ridge running up between the two wide sandy washes. Raven will be on the right (east) and Headless He will be on the left (west).

Headless Hen and Raven (7) - Misc points for upper Headless Hen

yHeadlessOpt2Tp          Lat/Lon (WGS84):  N 37.44721   W -111.09798        Elev: NaN Feet Top of a 600 foot long optional upper slot of Headless Hen. Shortly into the slot is a drop of about 6 feet to a pothole about 5 feet deep with sand that could scour deeper. As viewed from the rim over the next 60 feet are 3 more drops of about 12, 8 then 12 feet and can not see if they drop to potholes or not. The next 80 feet is a series of scoops / silo features that would be easy to bridge and galumph through before reaching a small tree in canyon. Sandtrap and watertrap anchors would be a good idea here but there is a good chance packdrag anchors wuld do well instead. Potshots should be on hand in the event a toss is needed. HeadlessOpt2-10          Lat/Lon (WGS84):  N 37.44687   W -111.09827        Elev: NaN Feet Tree down in the canyon with a drop of short drop to a pothole that "might" be able to be bypassed (viewed from the rim). The next 80 feet of canyon has two drops about 15 feet each. The first drop we could not see what it dropped to. The second drop we were able to travel up canyon to the bottom of and it drops to a pothole that was about 3 feet deep but was sand filled and could scour deeper. HeadlessOpt2-11          Lat/Lon (WGS84):  N 37.44668   W -111.09845        Elev: NaN Feet Just after the 15 foot drop to a pothole are 2 or 3 smaller potholes easily stem / galumphed over. We were able to travel up the canyon to here. yHeadlessOpt2Bt          Lat/Lon (WGS84):  N 37.44584   W -111.09751        Elev: NaN Feet Bottom of a 600 foot long optional upper slot for Headless Hen. Easy travel and light galumphing for about 450 feet up canyon of here. yHeadlesOpt1Tp          Lat/Lon (WGS84):  N 37.44259   W -111.09746        Elev: NaN Feet Top of an optionl slot about 350 feet long that with effort can be upclimbed and downclimbed. yHeadlesOpt1Bt          Lat/Lon (WGS84):  N 37.44202   W -111.09833        Elev: NaN Feet Down canyon end of an optinal slot about 350 feet long that you can upclimb and downclimb if you want to hike up here and add a little activity to yur day. It is narrow and sculpted in the lower half so it is a little physical. HeadlessHenRk          Lat/Lon (WGS84):  N 37.44191   W -111.10119        Elev: 0 Feet Rock that looks like a headless hen when viewd from near the head of Headless Hen canyon.

Headless Hen and Raven (8) - Misc points for lower Headless Hen

Headles10          Lat/Lon (WGS84):  N 37.43341   W -111.10319        Elev: NaN Feet Up canyon end of a 275 foot long slot that contains one partner assit downclimb. Optionally you can easily bypass walking around on the LDC (east) side. Headles11          Lat/Lon (WGS84):  N 37.43298   W -111.10388        Elev: NaN Feet Down canyon end of a 275 foot long slot where the canyon opens to wide easy walking. Headles12          Lat/Lon (WGS84):  N 37.43218   W -111.10398        Elev: NaN Feet Drop of about 15 feet to a pothole to partner assist out of or easily bypass up and around on the RDC side also bypassing a few other small potholes. Headless13          Lat/Lon (WGS84):  N 37.43169   W -111.10324        Elev: NaN Feet Top of a short series of potholes that may have some challenges but is easily bypassed on the RDC side. Escaping here on the RDC side is an alternate exit.