Weeping Springs Canyon 3BIII, Lake Mead, Nevada

Not a whole lot can beat a night of drinking and an early start into a technical canyon with a nice packraft down the Colorado River. Headaches and dehydration plagued the team as we got up and headed over to the Black Canyon range after a quick breakfast. Once at the trailhead — James, Tena, Heather, Clint, and Paige — we prepared for a day down one of the best canyons in the Black Canyon Range: Weeping Springs Canyon.

The Black Canyon Range is about 45 minutes outside of Las Vegas and has excellent igneous canyoneering with hot springs to visit along the way. Weeping Springs is right at the top of the list for Black Canyon routes. The best part: a 50ft free air drop right into the Colorado River from a small cove with a waterfall flowing over the wall. We set out dodging broken glass and rusty car parts on the steep ridge hike down to the wash.

We inflated rafts at the top, donned paddles, put PFDs on, and hung backpacks below us. The water was deep — no beach — so everyone had to rap directly into their raft. Heather went first and safely landed sitting in her boat with her backpack. Everyone else followed suit without incident. Water temps in the low 50s would have been a serious problem for anyone who swam.

Clint found out the hard way his raft was slowly deflating and had to make shore quickly — which he did in good time. After about half a mile we all made it to the shores of Bighorn Canyon and headed up the non-technical route to complete the loop. Back to the cars in about 7.5 hours. Weeping Springs → Bighorn loop is an excellent canyon day near Las Vegas. That wraps up the Black Canyon Range for me!