Queen Creek - Lower Devil's Canyon road conditions?

Can anyone provide recent road conditions for the last ~3 miles of the drive to LDC (after passing through the gate)?

We have a low clearance car, but are pretty set on climbing in LDC on 4/23 and will hike all or as much of the last 3-mile section of road as we need to. Are there any intermediate parking spots on the last ~3 miles of road that a low clearance car can reach to decrease hiking distance?

Thanks for your help!

AJ

The road is in very good shape (graded recently by the mining company) to just past the windmill. A passenger car without high clearance should do fine up to that point. High clearance 4wd is needed to get to the end of the road.

There are several areas that you could park along the road if you feel your you don't want to take the car any further.

Have fun! If you're looking for some great trad climbing on towers check out Lower Devil's East. Feel free to PM me if you'd like more info.

Marcy

just to add to that - the distance from the low-clearance 2wd parking to LDC is less than half a mile.

Sounds great! Thanks for the information, and thanks for putting up so many routes, Marcy and Geir. They look great!

Given the shorter-than-anticipated hike, we will almost certainly check out Lower Devil's East - The Schmotem Pole and Accelerated Climbology are high on the list!

Thanks again,

AJ

Siiiick!

Thanks as well Marcy & Geir.

You're welcome! Enjoy and let us know how it went!

I was just out at LD and LDE Sunday & Monday... roads like you said Marcy & Geir are in great shape... plus I really appreciated all the work you guys put in on the trails!

Catherine and I did the 1st pitch on Shmotem pole and even though it was a bit chossy... it was still a great climb... we opted not to finish the 2nd & 3rd pitches this time because we had only brought one rope... so we donated an equalizing cordelette with some rap rings at the 1st belay station in the cave.

Also we did Centipede Corner, which was awesome!

A short TR of an excellent day...

With only one wrong turn (following spray painted arrows toward a drill site), our "Tin Can" rental made it to the windmill with no problems - only required one running start on the way out:

We hiked down Hackberry Creek and climbed some classic routes - Smoking the Toad, Easy Street, and Dacite Conspiracy - to warm up. However, it took a while to get comfortable with the 20-degree temperature swings between Sun/Blue Skies and Clouds/Very Windy:

For a full tour of the LEC, we decided to hike down Hackberry Creek and over to the Totem Pole. After leaving one of our ropes near the terminus of Hackberry Creek, Big Red went back to pick it up. On the return, he bushwhacked a new route to the Totem Pole. Northern folks need to try bushwhacking in the desert before figuring out that cactus, agave, and other hazards don't make for good bushwhacks:

Meanwhile, J and I start up the Totem pole. J injured his arm a couple weeks prior to the trip and was almost self sufficient:

But he needed no help getting to the top of the Totem Pole with only one arm:

Unfortunately we did not have time to hike over to Lower Devil's East, we'll have to save those excellent-looking routes for next time:

Instead we finished the day with the longest single pitch of sport climbing I have ever seen - 160' feet of pure goodness on "Damsels in Distress":

Lower Devil's Canyon is an amzing place to climb, and the setting is incredible:

Thanks to Marcy, Geir, and the other local climbers for developing thies amazing climbing area.

AJ

Nice TR Johnson!

Pretty impressed by the one arm climbing... was he using an ascender or a cinch or something else?

Yeah bushwhacking through cacti and agave is not advisable LOL!

Great photos, AJ.

Thanks for the trip report. I was somewhat of a johnny come lately to Lower Devils and only really have accessed it much in the past five years. The area has a special character and glad you were able to enjoy it.

You might not be entirely aware but not that long ago it took a truly brutish 4-wheeler to get back there with significant rock steps to literally crawl a hopped-up back country vehicle over. The mine road isn't that bad now. I was touring the area with Brady Robinson a couple of years ago when we followed the Resolution Copper bulldozer down - a different kind of "first ascent", well maybe "first descent". And Marcy and Geir have worked hard to keep the road in reasonable shape (sweat equity with picks and shovels). Thanks, guys! They (and others I'm told) are doing some neat route development on the major cliffs across the canyon.

As you've seen, the resource is awesome so be sure to tell your friends about the great climbing at Queen Creek. It should be on everyone's schedule when they make their out of state "cold weather" climbing plans.

Erik

JD Kendall wrote:Pretty impressed by the one arm climbing... was he using an ascender or a cinch or something else?

If I remember correctly, the setup that worked best was a gri-gri on his harness and an ascender farther up the rope - then he pulled the loose end of rope from the gri-gri up through a biner on the ascender to make a 3:1 pulley system. He stood up on the rock and pulled rope through the pulley system and gri-gri, re-set the ascender farther up the rope, and repeated (and repeated, and repeated...).

JD - Your photo on Totem Pole is awesome. The sight of that mono a few feet above your head really brings me back to the moment.

Erik - Good story. The area certainly does have a special character. I have told friends to plan for a future trip, and hope this area will continue to flourish for a long time to come.

AJ