Boy Scout Canyon Bouldering

East of Boulder City, inside the Black Canyon Wilderness Area, inside Lake Mead National Recreation Area, Boy Scout Canyon is an obscure desert canyon that holds lots of climbing and, if you're willing to hike to the end, swimming. This wash drains to the Colorado River past the Boy Scout Hot Springs. The rock is a variety of dacite, andesite, breccia, granite, and rhyolite overlaid by occasional basalt. Most of the climbing that has been done here is bouldering. There are a few routes and top ropes in the canyon but developing routes is limited by the no fixed anchor policy of LMNRA. The rock lends itself to mixed and sport climbing and the canyon has potential for a couple hundred such climbs. If you'd like to voice your opinion on the no fixed anchor policy, contact LMNRA and for additional impact, your congressional representatives. (After all, they work for you!)

The first big rock in the wash is the Patriot Boulder (1.9 miles from the Boy Scout Canyon Rd turnoff). This is the start of Upper Pig Rock and the climbing opportunities continue on and off from here to the river with increasing frequency. Pig Rock is a half mile further down on the left and three miles in the road ends with a cable fence at the confluence of the three main forks of Boy Scout Canyon. There's plenty of room to turn around here and for parking but the wash gets churned up and soft from this so it's easy to get a 2WD stuck. The rest of the road is usually in pretty good shape. Although there are some rocks that are exposed or disappear as the gravel level fluctuates, I've never had a problem getting the ol' Cutlass Sierra in and out.

There are critters of all kinds that live in and use this canyon. Bighorn sheep, raptors, desert tortoise, tarantulas, and so many more. Sidewinders particularly like this wash but they're easily avoided, as are the rest, by not touching them.

The Colorado river is approximately another three miles past the cable fence. Passage down the wash is obstructed at a fault line with a 330' dry waterfall just over halfway. Above this the sides close in forming a small narrows, tons of route potential here. The wash turns left just before the narrows start and the waterfall can be circumvented by leaving the wash to the right on a faint trail that goes up the low hill where it becomes more obvious on top. The easy part of the hike ends with this trail at a nice lip on the top of a ridge-line cliff looking over the Colorado river. To continue requires fourth-classing the next 80' with moves up to 5.1. Hop over the lip and down climb easy holds 20' to a ledge. Looking down, take the cleaner gully through the notch to the right. At the base of the gully, follow the cliff around left to gain the steep talus ramp that leads back to the base of the big waterfall and the wash. After admiring the large, mostly rotten cliff, continue down the wash to reach the hot springs and the river. This stretch has a couple of short passable cliffs and is often choked by boulders and tamarisk.