Cheesebox

Soldier's Crossing is in great shape considering it is a 4WD road.

The water levels seemed low to me. The water was resonably fresh. There were a couple swims and several deep wades, but there were also long passages of dry gravel that are usually water ways. Many of the downclimbs are completely dry.

We removed excess webbing on a couple raps.

The gnats were a nuisance at camp when the air was still. A 50/50 mix of Skin-so-soft/water seemed to help immensely.

Two possible swims, and a few wading areas. I wore a full 4/3 wet-suit and it seemed like overkill unless you plan on spending time in the nasty water. From the beta I have read, it was a lot more dry than usual.

East and main Fork Cheesebox were both descended and found to be muddy. Some of the debris in the water is a bit nasty but there is cleaner (though still muddy) water towards the end you can swim through to wash it off. Overall a good time.

Cheesebox Rd is in good shape, the crossing at White Canyon has about 6 ft sand on the rd the west side and 25 ft of sand on the rd the east side. The east side will be more difficult trying to get up the sand.

The Duckett Road under the highway has been bolstered by rocks, making it passable. The road around Soldier's Grave is, as always, in rough shape, but after a mile or so things smooth out a bit.

The canyon is in good shape. Plenty of water and multiple swims. We didn't wear wet suits, meaning we swam fast through the pools, but warmed up quickly.

My son and I descended Cheesebox canyon on Memorial day 2011 and really enjoyed this canyon. It had many fun downclimbs spread between fun open sections with house sized boulders to navigate around. The narrows were usually wet and I'd recommend full wet suits in all but the warmest of temperatures - my son got cold in his full suit. We had a half dozen or so full swims, though none very long, and a lot of wading with many up to the chest. Some of the water was avoidable with reasonable exposure for the go-arounds. The rappels were all natural anchors and were in place and in good shape with all the webbing looking fairly new. A single 100 foot rope is adequate for all the rappels unless you want to do the drop in rappel at the very beginning. And the nicest thing about this canyon is the approach and exits are quite short when using a shuttle at the end. Climb Utah beta for coordinates was right on. 6 hours total with a brief lunch stop in the canyon. This is a must do canyon if you're in the Cedar Mesa area.