Boss Hog

The road coming from the West is usable for high clearance 4WD only.

Boss Hog is dry and there is only one piece of webbing in the entire canyon, located at the only mandatory rappel. It is in good shape.

The webbing is wrapped around a huge boulder above a chute. Please consider extending that anchor down the chute to prevent rope grooves. It will take about 25 feet of webbing and make your rope pull a lot easier.

The standard exit was very hot. The sun shines directly into the exit and radiates from the walls on both sides. It was probably 120-130 degrees with no shade. Do not do this canyon in the summer!

The dirt-road from highway 276 is very haggard from the winter. There are a lot of areas only passable with a high clearance vehicle. Our group tried to get there in a Honda Civic and we were thus forced to stop and make camp less than half-way to the trail head, which required an additional 1.7 miles for the approach hike, (3.4 round trip) and left us with enough time for just the one canyon descent.

The technical sections of the canyon were completely dry with the exception of about 2 inches of water near the end that was easily avoided.

The road out to the Hogs parking area remains rough and in poor condition. A high clearance vehicle is recommended and perhaps 4WD. There is soft sand at the beginning of the road and several deep ruts running on one side or the other.

Hog I has been scoured pretty clean this summer. The marginal entrance is now free of sand and down to bare rock making it an easy entrance. Rockfall in the middle of the canyon has created some false bottoms. The lower portion of the canyon has traditionally been walking through narrow corridors. That area has also been scoured and is now tedious foot grabbing V-slots. The canyon had no standing water, but had sections of slick mud.

The west gully exit is also scoured down to bare rock in many places making the hike out sidewalk-like. There are many short walls of dirt, rock, and debris that have the potential to be unstable. In general, I would say this exit isn't as treacherous as in the recent past, but still requires great care.