A panoramic shot from the summit of Texas Tower lo...
Description
Texas Canyon and adjoining Arch Canyon is a beautiful and very remote part of Colorado Plateau. Climbing here is of the high adventure variety - it makes Island in the Sky look crowded.
The two best known features are Texas Tower - an enormous tower in the the running for biggest tower in the desert and home of a long offwidth horror show, and Dreamspeaker - much less involved than Texas Tower, but still a stout outing.
There are a handful of other documented routes in the area, and many other potentially unclimbed towers and canyon walls. In addition to the climbing, there are a large number of Anasazi cliff dwellings and pictographs on the cliffs in the area.
Getting There
Head west on SH 95 from US 191 just south of Blanding. Pass through Comb Ridge, and after around 20 miles head right on an unmarked dirt road. This road is about a mile east of the marked road to Mule Wash, so backtracking after missing the turnoff is likely.
The approaches to everything in Texas Canyon are different and involved, so they will be described separately for each rock.
The Classics
Mountain Project's determination of some of the classic, most popular, highest rated routes for Texas Canyon:
Climbs the obvious crack system on the south face of the tower.Pitch 1- Climb hands in a corner on the left side of a pillar. Above the pillar climb 5.9 loose to a belay with bolts.Pitch 2- Climb a 5.9 squeeze slot to a handcrack above then belay at bolts.Pitch 3- An awkward 10- move leads to a good squeeze chimney. Belay on large ledge with bolt.Pitch 4- Climb over blocks in chimney then make a stem move and hand traverse right to a good hand ...[more]Browse More Classics in UT
By George Perkins Administrator From: Los Alamos, NM Mar 19, 2009
I've done the approach from the south rim with the rappels. It took 45 minutes or an hour or something to get down to the end of the 4wd road where Arch and Texas Canyon split. Dropping in wasn't bad, but hiking up at the end of the day- my only thought was 'would be nice to be camped down at the roads end'.
Was looking for any info on the 4wd road (how long will it take to drive the 10 miles? will it go with a typical truck/SUV? is mtn. biking it a good/reasonable option?)
I would plan on a couple hours in 4x4 mode to drive to the junction of Texas and Arch canyons. You might be able to shave 30 minutes off of that depending on the condition of the road and your driving technique. You can also add 45-90 minutes if you drive conservatively and/or the road is in bad shape.
I would not drive a new vehicle in there. The road is narrow in many places and will scratch your paint. The scratches are pretty much unavoidable.
I have driven in twice. The first time driving in took about 3.5 hours in full light. I was moving rocks out of the way and taking it easy.
(side note: who thinks that moving rocks off a 4x4 road is like chipping a climb? The guy i drove in with would not help me move any rocks and gave me so much shit.)
The last time driving out it took me 1.5 hours in the dark.
I would not recommend mountain biking since the road is sandy in many places.
Contrary to others' opinions, the drive didn't seem all that bad in my experience (5/09). ~3 hours in late afternoon light in my 1990 4Runner. Always good to have a shovel.
That being said, I like the bike-in style. Sounds like good fun.
CAUTION: Drive may be slower with application of multiple malt-liquor tall boys and detours for archeological ogling.
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