Canyoneering | Leprechaun Canyon, East Fork
Hype:
The East Fork of Leprechaun Canyon is a fun, medium-intensity canyon. There are some fun rappels and down climbs and several narrow sections. The canyon is quite photogenic in the right lighting, and lots of people hike up from the bottom as far as they are able.
Canyon Rating: 3A/B 
Time: 3-6 hours
Length: 2.2 miles one way, shuttle-to-car
Longest Rappel: 50 ft
Gear: 100 foot rope. Standard rappelling gear.
Fees: None
Recommended Ages:
 | 0-3 |
 | 4-11 |
 | 12-19 |
 | 20-49 |
 | 50-69 |
 | 70+ |
Recommended Months to Visit:
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Navigate to 38.018313, -110.536821.
You can do this canyon without a shuttle, but with a shuttle, you can shave off a little bit of hiking.
Park along the side of the dirt road. Hike straight to the canyon head.
Drop #1 - 50 ft rappel off a cairn anchor into the canyon.
Drop #2 - 20 ft rappel off a cairn anchor. Or easy down climb.
Drop #3 - 20 ft rappel or handline off a deadman anchor. Technically, Drops #2 and #3 are close enough that they can be combined into a 2-stage rappel, but please avoid this scenario to prevent even worse rope grooves.
Drop #4 - 20 ft rappel or handline off a cairn anchor or exposed down climb.
Drop #5 - 15 ft rappel off a deadman anchor.
After the canyon opens up into a wash, continue down the wash to your vehicle.
Closest City or Region: Hanksville, Utah
Coordinates: 38.036933, -110.518722
By Jeremy Dye
Jeremy Dye, Tara Dye, Savannah Dye, Madilyn Dye, Cooper Dye, Becca Miller, Brookelyn Powell, Summer Lyman,
Start: 9:45
Finish: 2:00
Saturday, May 25 - We slept in until 8:00 and had breakfast of muffins and yogurt. We packed our lunches, water, and gear. Then we dropped off the van at the bottom of Leprechaun Canyon and took the truck up to the top. We did the East Fork of Leprechaun Canyon. It was the first time that any of the girls' friends had rappelled. The first rappel was a bit scary for them, but they all did great. We started the canyon at 9:45 and finished at 2:00. Cooper, Tara, and I explored up Middle Fork to the confluence of West Fork and Middle Fork just for fun.
By Jeremy Dye
Jeremy Dye, Tara Dye, Matt Laurendeau, Amanda Laurendeau, Kelly Carter, Linda Goddard,
Upper Trailhead: 9:20
Lower Trailhead: 2:00
I invited everyone at JDE to go canyoneering with us, and we had 3 people accept the invitation plus one spouse. We camped at Sandthrax campground, then in the morning we dropped off a vehicle at the bottom parking area then shuttled up to the top. I took my drone through and got a couple videos of people rappelling. The canyon was a good fit for our group. Almost everyone ended up with a few scrapes and bruises but nothing major. There was one pothole full of water that we had to stem over, but it was dry other than that. Everyone had a great time and really enjoyed the challenge.
By Jeremy Dye
Jeremy Dye, Savannah Dye, Madilyn Dye, Ryan Baker, Eliza Baker, Baker Kids,
Upper Trailhead: 9:35 a.m.
Top of East Fork: 9:50 a.m.
Confluence with Middle Fork: 12:10 p.m.
Lower Trailhead: 1:25 p.m.
We didn't want to have too big of a group, so we split our group into two. Tara and Ondy lead a group through West Leprechaun while Ryan and I led the other group through East Leprechaun. Since we had a bunch of kids, we skipped the uphill approach and instead opted for a shuttle to the upper trailhead. The approach hike was a nice, 15-minute hike downhill. We didn't even have to carry any of the kids!
When we got to the entrance rappel at the head of Leprechaun, there was a group of 2 people getting ready to go down and a group of 6 ahead of them. While we were waiting for the group of 2, another group showed up just behind us. They had a huge group. I don't remember how many people exactly, but I think it was around 6 adults and they had around 12 children between the ages of 2 and 12 with them. Our group rappelled down the first drop while the large group bypassed the first rappel and entered the canyon right below us. We all had to wait for the group of 2. I was concerned that the huge group was now ahead of us with no chance for us to get around them. I was worried that they would take forever at each of the drops and that we would be stuck going a snail's pace behind them. Come to find out later, they had the same worries about us.
At the second drop, everyone was clustered up at the top of the drop. I climbed over all the kids and went to scope out the drop to see if there was any way we could avoid having to put their 18 people plus our 9 people on rappel. I figured that since we were going to be following them through the canyon, I might as well offer assistance at the drops. I met Ryan Nillson, who was their group leader. He was super capable and had the same sort of attitude as I did. We brainstormed together. I climbed most of the way down while he stopped only part way down. The kids climbed down to him, then he lowered the kids to me, and I lowered the kids to the ground. We shuttled pretty much all the kids down quite quickly and proceeded to the next drop. We let the other adults at the back of the group fend for themselves.
We caught up to and passed the group of 2, then we caught up to the group of 6 at the next drop. They rappelled it, but Ryan and I attacked this drop just like the previous one. We each stemmed part way down and shuttled the kids down. At the confluence, we ran into a couple of groups that were hiking in from the bottom. We hiked down to the lower trailhead. We were surprised to still see the shuttle car at the bottom because we expected Tara's and Ondy's group to be faster than us. Overall, we were pretty pleased that we succussfully took 27 people through Leprechaun Canyon including 18 children and finished in under 4 hours.
We walked down the road to camp. After waiting a little while at camp, Ryan Baker and I got bored and hiked back up Leprechaun to check on the other group. We met them coming down at the lower narrows just below the confluence. They had been taking their time and going four-year-old speed, thinking that we would be in the east fork until late afternoon. It was a great trip! Savannah and Madi really enjoyed canyoneering with other kids their ages.
By Tara Dye
Tara Dye, Ondylyn Wagner, Michelle Christensen, Someone Else,
By Jeremy Dye
Jeremy Dye, Anthony Dye, Alex Woolsey,
1.75 hours from top-shuttle to bottom-shuttle.
5:00 - leave truck
5:15 - top of canyon, first rappel
6:10 - bottom of slot canyon, start hiking down wash
6:40 - arrive at lower shuttle vehicle
After doing Shenanigans Canyon with 10 people, the three of us continued down the East Fork of Lephrechaun Canyon. We had heard that there was a pond at the junction of Main Fork and West Fork, so we chose Right Fork to stay dry. We moved pretty quickly down the canyon, down climbing or handlining most of the drops. It was later in the evening, so the lighting wasn't great, but we had a fun time.
Camp Sites: Butler Canyon Primitive Camping
Canyoneering: Maidenwater Canyon, Middle Fork
Fun Places: 
Hiking: 
Rappels
Downclimbs
Fixed Anchors
Wetsuit Generally Not Required
No Drinking Water
Wayfinding
Road Access is Paved
Access Road is 2WD Accessible