Canyoneering Route Description

Woodsy Canyon - 3A I
Woodruff Canyon area, Utah.

Quick Facts

05-11-12, 3 people, 1 Day (Travel time in route 5.3 hours) - Time includes Woodsy and Wood Bee Canyons. Pictures Icon

Time Required - 2 to 3 hours
Distance - 4.6 miles Total, 0.2 miles Technical
Rappels - 1 Rappels, Longest Rappel 25 feet.
Elevation Range - 4320 - 4650 Feet
Shuttle Required -No Vehicle - Passenger Permit Required - No

Gear Used for Canyon

Rappelling and anchor gear, Ropes and or pull cords for rappels up to 25 feet and 20 feet of 1 inch webbing for sling placement.

General Comments

Woodsy Canyon is a side drainage of Woodruff Canyon a little over a mile east of highway 276.  Woodsy is a short canyon about a half mile west of Woody Canyon.  Woodsy is short enough that you may be left wanting more.

Combining Wood Bee Canyon with Woodsy is an easy addition to add a little time to the day.  Wood Bee can add some time and scenic fun to the day, but don't expect a full on canyon experience from it since the tech section of Wood Bee is only a couple hundred feet long. 

Woodsy can be completely downclimbed.  However I have left one drop listed as a rap since some people may not feel comfortable with the downclimb.  Even if you do intend to down climb the entire route I suggest having the rope along in case someone wants it for a down climb.  There is one pothole that could give some people a little trouble getting out of if it were full of water and slick making the rope a good idea as well.

Driving Directions

To get to the Trailhead

From the Junction of highway 95 and highway 276 (about 26 miles south of Hanksville Utah) drive south on highway 276 for 11.9 miles to a turn out on the left (east) side of the road (pkWoody).  This turn out is just before crossing over the Woodruff drainage near mile marker 12.

To leave the Exit Vehicle / Escape Pod

No exit vehicle is needed.  This is done as a loop route.

Maps

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

Map Link Icon
Click the links for maps of the route. Map of the entire route.
Map of the technical section.

Details

The Approach:
From the parking spot (pkWoodruff), drop into and follow east down the Woodruff drainage.  About 0.7 miles from the road is a large fork (jWoodruff-01) joining in from the right (southwest).  From the fork, continue west down Woodruff. 

About 0.3 miles farther will be a noticeable slot on the left (north) canyon wall (wWoodyRP-10).

About 0.35 miles up will be a small canyon on the right (south).  This is the bottom of Wood Bee Canyon(yWoodBeeBt).

About 0.2 miles farther will be another slot on the right (south) side.  This is the bottom of Woodsy Canyon (yWoodsyBt).

About 0.3 miles farther will be a use trail on the right (south) side of Woodruff (jWoodsyApr).  This is where you will leave the Woodruff drainage to go up toward Woodsy.  This is a large obvious sandy hill but if you are not watching for it you may pass it.  If you come to a VERY large drainage coming in from the right (south) you are at the bottom of Woody Canyon and have went about 0.2 miles too far.  If this happens just back up in Woodruff about 0.2 miles and look for the large sandy hill.

Follow southwest up the use trail for about 250 feet where sand gives way to slick rock ridges continuing up. 

When you see the sandstone ridges, aim for the sandstone ridge farthest to the left (east) and follow it to the top.  There will be one spot near the top with a tricky up climb of about 5 feet.  Partner assists are not needed here but will helpful. After about 400 feet the sandstone ridge levels off to a flat area (wWoodsyR-01).

From the flat area near the top of the sandstone ridge veer right (southwest) and continue up the steep slick rock for about 300 feet where you will find yourself cliffed out on one side of a ravine (wWoodsyR-02).  The direction to continue is west across the ravine but you will need to find a way to scramble down into then back up the other side of the ravine.  There are a few places to scramble down in but the easiest is to walk the rim to the right going northwest about 200 feet to an easy scramble down (wWoodsyR-03) and back up the other side.

After crossing the ravine walk up the steep slick rock slope continuing west about 750 feet to where the slick rock ends just before topping out on the dirt mesa (wWoodsyR-04).  Rather than continue up into the dirt, veer right (north) and contour around following the natural flow of the slick rock.

About 300 feet into the contouring along the slick rock cross over the head of a small drainage (wWoodsyR-05).  After crossing continue southwest as you contour along the slick rock just below the dirt top of the mesa.

About 450 feet farther will be another small drainage leading west down into the much larger wide open drainage of Woodsy below (wWoodsyR-06).  Drop into this small drainage and follow it about 0.2 miles down into Woodsy.  There will be a few small potholes on the way down to play in or scramble around.

After getting into the main drainage for Woodsy, turn right and walk north down the drainage a short distance to where a slot forms (yWoodsyTp).  This is where Woodsy slots up and the technical portion starts. 

The Canyoneering / Technical Section:
From top of the Woodsy slot (yWoodsyTp) is some easy galumphing and stemming with a couple silo like features to check out.

A little over 200 feet down canyon from the head is a side drainage dropping in from RDC (wWoodsyR-07).

Down canyon from this side drainage is a down climb of about 10 feet in a narrow slot.  Then the canyon continues very narrow where you can squeeze down low or stay up and stem along between the canyon wall.  Just before rap 1 the canyon widens out a bit where you can walk on a sandy floor before reaching some rock fall debris where rap 1 is.

Rap 1 (dWoodsy-R1) is about 400 feet down canyon from the side drainage, is anchored from a rock at the top of the drop and drops about 25 feet.  Rap 1 can be down climbed pretty easily but still referred to as a rap in case rock debris shifts making a rappel necessary.  Downclimbing rap 1 starts by downclimbing some rock debris then working into a smooth walled stem style downclimb to finish.

After rap 1 is a short stem style down climb of about 8 feet where a hand line can be set from choke stones if desired. 

Then a short section of galumphing between walls gets you to a wider area where you can walk a few feet to another down climb of about 15 feet.  The 15 foot downclimb is a easy stem style climb.  A hand line can be set from a pinch point between boulders if needed.

After the 15 foot down climb the canyon walls pinch down to about shoulder width and lean to the left.

A short distance through the left leaning narrow area the walls will briefly open up to a pot hole on the LDC side.  This pot hole would be a swimmer if full of water and may give some people some issues getting out of if it was slick.  If it is dry and your feet have grip most people should be able to stem over and completely avoid the pothole.

After the pothole are more narrows with a couple short easy down climbs as you get near the end of the canyon.  In the final portions of the canyon are a couple spots where water could fill to waist deep or more if there had been recent rains.  From the looks of the canyon these areas would drain out quickly if that were to happen.

Just before getting to the end of the canyon there has been some graffiti scratched into the walls.  Please do not add to this.

The Exit:
After exiting Woodsy (yWoodsyBt) and dropping into the main drainage of Woodruff, turn left and start walking west up canyon in Woodruff.

About 0.2 miles will be a slot coming in from the left (south) which will be the bottom of Wood Bee Canyon (yWoodBeeBt).

About 0.35 miles up Woodruff will be a small slot on the right (north) side of the canyon (wWoodyRP-10).

About 0.3 miles farther will be a large fork of Woodruff (jWoodruff-01).  At this large fork veer right and travel northwest up the right fork.

About 0.7 miles farther will be the road and spot you parked the car (pkWoodruff).

GPS Waypoint Information

Downloadable GPX files available at BG-Gear Store (easier than manual entry and a great way to support Bluugnome).
Waypoint naming convention and map symbol information can be found on the Glossary page.  Elevations are approximate.
BEFORE manually entering coordinates set your system to WGS84 datum and Lat/Lon hddd.ddddd° coordinate format. 
Inconsistent datum's and coordinate formats will result in location errors.

Click to show / expand the list of waypoints below........
Woodsy (1) - Approach
  1. pkWoodruff          Lat/Lon (WGS84):  N 37.86593   W -110.57825        Elev: 4,540 Feet
    Park for some of the Woodruff routes. This is a turn out on the east side of the road about 0.2 miles north of mile marker 12.
  2. jWoodruff-01          Lat/Lon (WGS84):  N 37.86347   W -110.56751        Elev: 4,390 Feet
    A fork in Woodruff Canyon. If exiting west to the road stay in the left (northwest) fork and follow it to the road. If following the approach for Wood Bee or Woodsy Canyons, start up the slick rock slope to the southeast).
  3. wWoodyRP-10          Lat/Lon (WGS84):  N 37.86310   W -110.56323        Elev: NaN Feet
    Small slot on the north wall.
  4. yWoodBeeBt          Lat/Lon (WGS84):  N 37.86333   W -110.55848        Elev: 4,340 Feet
    Bottom of Wood Bee Canyon. This is shortly after where the canyon widens out and the walls drop leaving you in the main drainage of Woodruff.
  5. yWoodsyBt          Lat/Lon (WGS84):  N 37.86428   W -110.55622        Elev: 4,320 Feet
    Bottom exit of Woodsy Canyon where it drops down into Woodruff Canyon.
  6. jWoodsyApr          Lat/Lon (WGS84):  N 37.86557   W -110.55100        Elev: NaN Feet
    Start of a use trail up a sandy bank on the south side of the Woodruff drainage. This use trail is the way to start up to Woodsy Canyon.
  7. wWoodsyR-01          Lat/Lon (WGS84):  N 37.86455   W -110.54922        Elev: 4,450 Feet
    Flat area after getting up to the top of a sandstone ridge.
  8. wWoodsyR-02          Lat/Lon (WGS84):  N 37.86377   W -110.54947        Elev: 4,490 Feet
    Cliff out on one side of a ravine. To continue to Woodsy follow the ridge northwest to an easy spot to scramble down into the back up the other side of the ravine.
  9. wWoodsyR-03          Lat/Lon (WGS84):  N 37.86409   W -110.55020        Elev: 4,495 Feet
    Easy spot to scramble down into then back out the otehr side of the ravine.
  10. wWoodsyR-04          Lat/Lon (WGS84):  N 37.86265   W -110.55182        Elev: 4,650 Feet
    Slick roack slope starts to top out as you get near the dirt mesa top. Just before reaching the dirt mesa, top veer right (north) and contour around on the slick rock.
  11. wWoodsyR-05          Lat/Lon (WGS84):  N 37.86216   W -110.55252        Elev: 4,650 Feet
    Small drainage to cross over the head of while still contouring on slick rock just below the dirt mesa top.
  12. wWoodsyR-06          Lat/Lon (WGS84):  N 37.86114   W -110.55311        Elev: 4,620 Feet
    Second drainage along the slick rock contour. Follow west down this minor drainage and into the much larger main drainage below.
  13. yWoodsyTp          Lat/Lon (WGS84):  N 37.86142   W -110.55649        Elev: 4,460 Feet
    Top of Woodsy Canyon. This is where it starts to slot up and form the technical portion of the draiange.
Woodsy (2) - The Canyon and Exit
  1. yWoodsyTp          Lat/Lon (WGS84):  N 37.86142   W -110.55649        Elev: 4,460 Feet
    Top of Woodsy Canyon. This is where it starts to slot up and form the technical portion of the draiange.
  2. wWoodsyR-07          Lat/Lon (WGS84):  N 37.86197   W -110.55639        Elev: 4,440 Feet
    Side drainage comming in from RDC.
  3. dWoodsy-R1          Lat/Lon (WGS84):  N 37.86298   W -110.55664        Elev: 4,420 Feet
    Rap 1 - Woodsy Canyon. Anchored from rocks at the top of the drop and drops about 25 feet. Rap 1 can be down climbed pretty easily but still referred to as a rap in case rock debris shifts making a rappel necessary.
  4. yWoodsyBt          Lat/Lon (WGS84):  N 37.86428   W -110.55622        Elev: 4,320 Feet
    Bottom exit of Woodsy Canyon where it drops down into Woodruff Canyon.
  5. yWoodBeeBt          Lat/Lon (WGS84):  N 37.86333   W -110.55848        Elev: 4,340 Feet
    Bottom of Wood Bee Canyon. This is shortly after where the canyon widens out and the walls drop leaving you in the main drainage of Woodruff.
  6. wWoodyRP-10          Lat/Lon (WGS84):  N 37.86310   W -110.56323        Elev: NaN Feet
    Small slot on the north wall.
  7. jWoodruff-01          Lat/Lon (WGS84):  N 37.86347   W -110.56751        Elev: 4,390 Feet
    A fork in Woodruff Canyon. If exiting west to the road stay in the left (northwest) fork and follow it to the road. If following the approach for Wood Bee or Woodsy Canyons, start up the slick rock slope to the southeast).
  8. pkWoodruff          Lat/Lon (WGS84):  N 37.86593   W -110.57825        Elev: 4,540 Feet
    Park for some of the Woodruff routes. This is a turn out on the east side of the road about 0.2 miles north of mile marker 12.

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