Apr 09, 2021 — Paradiso Canyon was a really nice canyon with a short approach. It's a much more interesting canyon than its neighbor, Purgatory Canyon. To reach the trailhead, we turned off UT-276 here (37.69713, -110.67133) and followed this dirt road to the rim. The road starts in great shape, but a few miles in high-clearance becomes required. There are a couple of rocky sections, but overall it's just some dips and bumps that will stop sedans. We parked at a popular ATV overlook and headed east along the rim, where we began to see down into Lake Powell. A Class 3 descent from the rim led us into the main drainage of Paradiso Canyon.
The first obstacle was a tricky down climb that we chose to handline. More obstacles, including some fun chimneys and lots of stemming, comprised the majority of the canyon. Aside from some nice lighting on colorful and textured walls, I thought the highlight was a pothole that should be avoided while on rappel, requiring some light gymnastics. There were a few pothole escapes that were dry during our visit, but aren't deep enough to require pothole escape techniques. The final chamber before the last rappel is riddled with minor potholes and a sheer cliff, and was gorgeous. The last rappel was uneventful, landing us in a drainage that wrapped around the cliffs to the standard Class 5 escape route option, a single steep slab move. Once above the Class 5 escape move, we continued on Class 2 slickrock as we worked toward a weakness in the cliff band above, where a social trail led along the rim back to the trailhead.
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