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May 23, 2023 — Wonderland Canyon is sort of a sampler pack for the sport, lots packed in despite being a relatively short canyon. There's stemming and downclimbing, a couple of big rappels, potential anchor-building problems, and beautiful views. After getting a required canyoneering permit from the visitor center, we parked off UT-24 at the Grand Wash Trailhead within Capitol Reef National Park and followed it, along the way passing the exit of Wonderland Canyon. We located a wide drainage on the right, leaving the road to take this for a short time until a steep Class 2 gully ahead brought us about 200 feet up and away from the roadside and into the backcountry.
Now on the top of the initial layer of sandstone, we dropped a few feet toward a social trail that led into a minor wash. Above we could see the rim of the plateau we needed to reach, where the head of Wonderland Canyon begins. To gain the plateau's rim, we needed to navigate up to a wide ledge and ultimately top out at a point on the far left (east of us). To gain the ledge, we headed up a steep, Class 2 slope. After pulling a Class 3 move up this slope we sort of realized we were off-route, finding ourselves on a lower ledge than the standard route recommended. The correct route would have led to a lower-angled slope to our right, but we kept going anyway since there was a cairn and an animal trail, and this option actually seemed to be working well. Taking the ledge left (north), we found ourselves on the north side of the point we needed to reach, but still 200 feet below the rim. The steep sandstone slope ahead of us seemed daunting, but with only a low Class 4 move we were able to overcome the most difficult obstacle lower down, then a couple of Class 3 moves over small cliffies as we progressed.
Once we reached the top of the plateau, we followed its rim south, the views absolutely outstanding in the morning light. As we progressed, the peaks along the Waterpocket Fold monocline came into view to the west as well. After a quiet and enjoyable stroll, we reached the point along the rim where we needed to drop down to access the head of Wonderland Canyon, but it's not exactly a pleasant descent. Matt and Chris chose to downclimb on loose garbage scree (Class 4/5), but I decided to keep hiking and switchback below the rim's annoying little cliff. From here it was a steep Class 2 scree slope down to a well-formed animal trail. Short-lived, this trail brought us around a small dryfall and to the start of Wonderland Canyon.
We were first met with an avoidable drop, which we bypassed on the left to enter the narrows. The first section of Wonderland Canyon was nontechnical, but there were lots of fun stemming, chimneying, and downclimbing moves. We had wetsuits on, but the water only reached our waists. After the fun beginning, we reached the straightforward low-angle first rappel, and then the canyon opened up briefly.
There's an optional rappel that can be avoided on the right, leading into the next section of narrows. This narrow portion is short-lived, spitting us out at the top of the biggest rappel for the canyon. Chris had done this canyon in the past and used a large tuft of grass as an anchor. I was hesitant to even do Wonderland Canyon today after learning about this heinous anchor, especially since it was for the longest rappel, but seeing the grass tuft now I could see that it would have been a viable option. Fortunately, there was a deadman anchor pre-built for us that we used to get down. The two-stage 200-foot rappel is gorgeous, both the views to the surrounding landscape and the slotty canyon seen below.
Just past Rappel 2 we encountered a tricky downclimb that we partner-assisted. We then reached Rappel 3, a lengthy drop of 150 feet. We continued into some gorgeous narrows, fun downclimbing and stemming along the way. The canyon opens and closes into pretty narrows a couple of times before the final slot section. Here there was some more fun scrambling, followed by an interesting downclimb into a semi-keeper pothole, dry on our visit. The final rappel drops into a small chamber and then through a crack, about 100 feet total, scenic from both above and below. From the bottom of the final rappel we took our gear off and headed back to the highway just as rain started plummeting us.
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