Pritchett Canyon

These are just general write ups.  For how the trail is being ran on the day you sign up be sure &check the forums in the trail section on the day you sign up for.

This trail has become so difficult that it inspired a new rating a few years ago. Two locking differentials are required, and a winch is urgently requested. Our experience is that fewer than ten percent of the vehicles can make it unaided. Mortality of vehicle parts is very high. There are no easy bypasses.

If you can take your eyes off the obstacles long enough, you’ll find a splendidly beautiful, narrow canyon. The trail climbs the lower part of the canyon and exits via a side canyon over a divide into the Hunter Canyon system. Your leader then will choose among several optional routes (depending on how long it took to get there and how many wounded vehicles there are).

Scenery: While in the canyon, the views are of the steep canyon walls, large side-canyon pour-offs, and a pool-speckled creek bottom. Pritchett Arch, Window Arch, and some smaller spans are visible from the trail. The canyon is within the rock fin country of Behind the Rocks, and is the boundary of the Behind the Rocks WSA.

Road Surface: The trail follows the bouldery creek bottom at first but then climbs onto ledge routes on a mixture of rock layers and dirt. The major obstacles are several forms of bedrock now exposed after erosion of the early roadway.

Obstacles: The first real test is a couple of miles up the canyon at the nastily angled ledges of the Rocker Knocker. A little farther, a rock fall area has become a major hazard. Just above that is The Rock Pile, a several-foot ledge that requires a pile of rocks just to get wheels on the slope, while a so-called bypass is almost as difficult and hazardous. Next is Yellow Hill, where the road reaches for the canyon top on a very uneven ledge of multicolored rock.

Trail Rating: Black

Trail Description Courtesy of RR4W

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