Descending Box Canyon, Squamish
All great Canada Days should start in a canoe in our opinion and on July 1st, Canada Day 2014, ours was no exception. Myself and Spring, along with 6 others loaded into 3 canoes on the east shore of the Squamish river and made a crossing to the west side and the trail head for Echo Lake. We followed this trail for a while before branching off and following Box Canyon Creek upstream for a while. The geology in this area is amazing with high walls of basalt columns on your left and walls of granite on your right. When this creek became a waterfall in front of us we left it and climbed up beside these waterfalls in the forest until we reached an area were we could enter the creek again and being our descent, rappelling these waterfalls and exploring the canyon along the way. Canyoneering (aka Canyoning or Gorge Walking) is still very much a fringe activity. We’re pretty new to it ourselves but can see it becoming something we’ll participate more and more in in the future. There is an indescribable feeling being at the bottom of a deep canyon, waterfalls booming around you, looking up at exquisitely carved walls of smooth curving rock which tell the history of how the flow of this water has been the architect to creating this place. You know this is somewhere that humans don’t go for good reason, but curiosity, and necessity, pushes you onward, deeper through the canyon, until you can experience all of it and find your way out on the other side. We’ll let our pictures do the rest of the talking. If you want more information about this canyon please visit this website. If you have the inclination or opportunity to experience Canyoneering yourself we’d highly recommend...
