Bluewater Canyon Reloaded

Hiked: 11/10/2017
Distance: 11.8 miles round trip on trail and cross country
Summit Elevation: 1561' (highest point in canyon)
Elevation Gain: 2010'
Elevation Gain (in Empire State Buildings): 1.61
Round trip time: 6 hours 30 minutes
Recommended water: 84 oz.
Parking/Fees: Adventure Pass
Difficulty: Moderate

Last year, I started exploring the wild part of Bluewater Canyon but turned back shortly after finding a dismembered deer. Bluewater is about as remote as you can get in the San Mateo Wilderness. It wasn't the deer alone that spooked me but a combination of the deer, the terrain, the feel of the canyon, and being solo. Steve agreed to take on the return trip with me. I was confident that if it came to it, two apes were greater than one lion. Apes together strong! (or maybe not)

The satellite view of the canyon didn't show any technical parts. It would have the normal obstacles of a Santa Ana canyon: boulders, trees, brush, poison oak and run off debris. The morning started out cool, a plus for keeping the snakes away. We started at the Fisherman's Camp trailhead on Tenaja Road and quickly completed the three mile hike through Fisherman's Camp to the mouth of Bluewater Canyon. We didn't see any campers. We both realized we had carried in too much water and decided to cache some at the entrance to reduce weight. We followed the trail into the canyon and left it at the first switchback heading up to Oak Flats. The start of the canyon was dry. Many of the rocks were covered in some kind of strange white organic material. It looked like paper mache. If it was some kind of toxic run off, I might grow a third arm. We returned to the spot of the deer massacre and found most of the bones and body parts from last year except the head. I'm not sure why an animal would drag the head away so I am guessing it was taken by someone as a trophy.

Mouth of the canyon

Strange paper mache-like run off

Open section

Tree obstacle

Deer parts

Immediately upstream, the canyon was fairly open and the obstacles easy. Then we came to a shady section with a high canopy of trees. I was surprised to find water. Small pools formed and rivulets ran across some of the rocks. The pools were home to frogs and small turtles. Grass, brush, and poison oak were thicker here, and a moderate bushwhack was required for about half a mile. Poison oak was a constant threat through most of the canyon. Fresh vines grew across the ground in places and would sometimes get tangled around our ankles. I'm glad we pushed through it because the canyon opened up again into a beautiful stretch of rock hopping with black, striped, and with reddish hues. We still hit a tricky obstacle now and then. One landmark was a pair of maple trees growing next to each other but curved in opposite directions. Steve called it the golden arches. The canyon had been wide up to this point, providing bypass options outside the stream. A short distance above the arches, it started to narrow. Eventually, it narrowed to about 20' across and was thoroughly clogged. I bushwhacked through nasty chaparral along the wall a few hundred feet to look for an opening, but all I saw was more of the same. That was our turnaround point with about a mile and a half of the upper canyon unexplored.

First water

Large ferns

Opening up again

Single piece of tubing

The arches

Moderate bushwhacking

Getting tougher

Turnaround point

Returning

See Also:
Fisherman's Camp, Bluewater Canyon, San Mateo Canyon