Left Fork of Leprechaun Canyon, North Wash

Ms Scotter kept insisting that her Irish heritage would eventually produce a visit from the elusive namesake of Leprechaun Canyon. Sunday we headed up to find the actual Left Fork of Leprechaun Canyon, and in the woods below the canyon mouth... what do we see?

A magical occurance in the desert! (Leprechaun Canyon)

We hiked up the canyon back to our lunch spot, then up the buttress to the rim. Working our way up, this time we dropped into the head of the Left Fork. Here you can see the Left Fork work it’s way down to the Main Fork.

Descending slickrock to the first rappel in Left Fork.

(Leprechaun Canyon)

Steve Lewis rapping into the Left Fork slot.

This rappel is somewhat of a problem. The anchor is a deadman buried about 10' back from the edge. The edge is quite sharp, and the rock extremely soft. We had a great deal of problems pulling the rope, and the rock edge developed rather deep grooves from the rope pull.

Three strategies are suggested: 1. Extend the anchor 10' to the edge. Unfortunately, these would leave an unsightly piece of webbing in the canyon. 2. Macrame the webbing on the anchor. This could work well, especially if the last person down carefully places the ropes. 3. Downclimb. The last person could downclimb the chimney, with a spot from below. The descent is probably only 5.8, with the hardest spot near the bottom.

Alicia and Tom briefly enjoying the sun

Near Leprechaun Junction…

We descended the canyon. It was good. A couple short rappels off natural anchors and bollards. In one section, we avoided a messy drop by climbing left out of the canyon and climbing back into the canyon 100' downcanyon. Left Fork of Leprechaun Canyon a beautiful route, but the light was not amenable to good photographs.