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 crack. Climb the handcrack past a scary loose spo...[more]Browse More Classics in UT
I've done the approach from the south rim with the rappels. From the overlook, 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... sucked. It would have been pretty nice to be camped down at Arch/Texas junction, but we were not sure about the condition of the road in Arch Canyon.
Was looking for any info on the 4wd road in Arch Canyon (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.
"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."
The 20 mile comment is strange. We clocked 14.6 miles from 191. You bust through the giant road cut of comb ridge, then the highway descends to the bottom of the wide canyon. The road is a right just as the road rounds the next bend and starts up the hill out of the other side of the canyon.
This first road from 95 is a smooth 2 wheel drive dirt road. The left turn to Arch Canyon is 2.5 miles in, just before a creek crossing. After a wide camping area, once you do the first 4X4 maneuver, there is kiosk letting you know you found Arch Canyon (which leads to Texas Canyon).
The 4X4 drive is fairly full on. I was in a short bed 91 Toyota PU (built on the same carriage as the above Forerunner) and thought anything longer or wider would be pretty fucked. The comment about not wanting to run a new vehicle you care about is spot on.
The canyon in general is amazing and worth going in to camp.
By Andrew Gram Administrator From: Salt Lake City, UT Feb 23, 2012
Hey Chris,
I wrote the description after not having been there in a few years. Would you be willing to do a better write up of the directions and Texas Canyon in general if I reassign the area to you?
Was out there this weekend. Chris Kalous's directions were spot on. Thank you. Agreed with the anchors. Agree also with the 4X4 assesment. I was pretty gripped driving up Arch Canyon at 1am. It took 2 hours getting in and an 1:45 out during the day. Anything longer or wider would be very bad. I have a 97 Tacoma extended cab. At the base of TT, if you get to a splitter with a fixed #3 about 15' up head left, the route is just around the corner. We did not take Big Bro's, but we should have.
As far as I can tell from reading different pages and looking at google maps, going 14.6 miles on SH 95 (from US191) will take you to the turnoff where you can 4x4 up Arch Canyon, and 20 miles will take you to the turnoff for the nicer road on the south rim or arch/texas canyon (necessitating rappelling in if you want to climb).
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