STORY:

Six of us set out to run Illusion Canyon in Sedona, AZ . One of members of our party broke his ankle. We set off our PLB but still had to spend the night due to heavy weather and flash flooding. Were picked up in the morning by Sedona Search and Rescue and the US Airforce.

OVERVIEW:

A spectacular and challenging technical canyon with deep, dark, sculpted narrows, frigid pools, numerous rappels, natural anchor challenges and a potentially deep and difficult to escape keeper pothole. The canyon was discovered by Joe and Sara DeSalme in 2005 and we explored it on several occasions by fixing ropes and jugging back on the return. It was soon obvious that the canyon was easily the best in all of Arizona (and I don’t say that lightly). The first complete descent was made by Joe and Sara DeSalme, Tom Wetherell, Stephanie Martin and Todd Martin on September 5, 2005.