[rubywrangler]

I finally left southern AZ in early April to begin my meandering journey back to Seattle. First stop on the scenic route was Marble Canyon for a few hikes and a paddle. Rider Canyon, GCNP 4.14.24 Shelby and I met on Hwy 89A and left her car at the turnoff to the BLM road to the trailhead. This road was definitely the crux of the day. The 14 mile drive from the highway to the trailhead took nearly an hour and was very nerve-wracking, but the CR-V made it with only a couple minor scrapes and bumps, and an undercarriage full of grass that I sheared off from the center strip in the road. The trail drops into a chute with a little fun scrambling for a hundred feet or so, then descends a loose slope for another ~1000 feet. Once in the streambed, there was a short bit of gravelly wash-walking before we hit slickrock in the Supai. We encountered a few fun bypasses and many pretty pools. One knee-deep wade was required. Toward the river, the canyon got narrow and even more stunning. We took a long break at the beach at house rock rapid before retracing our steps out. This is a really lovely and very fun hike - it packs a lot into <6 miles! And it was so nice to only have to climb 1000 feet out instead of 5000!

tight squeeze

rider canyon slickrock

continuing downstream

pretty pools

narrowing (bypass on left here)

in the narrows

the wader

just past the last bypass

leaving the river

wading back upstream

South Canyon, GCNP 4.16-4.17.24 After a day of rest/work on BLM land near Soap Creek, Shelby and I headed back out for an overnight to South canyon. This one requires another long (21 mi) drive on a dirt road, but this road was MUCH better until it got rocky for the last mile. The trail drops off the rim on a narrow ramp, then leads to a short scramble, then switchbacks down a loose slope to the streambed. We took a short detour upstream to a pretty amphitheater below a large pouroff before heading downstream. Whereas Rider was consistently beautiful once past the initial wash section, I would describe South canyon as a long walk down a wash, punctuated by beautiful and interesting moments. There was some slickrock, and some interesting bypasses, and some water, but not as much. There were, however, TONS of lizards. About a mile from the river, the redwall appears and the canyon narrows dramatically. There are a series of 7 chockstones to negotiate and apparently they increase in difficulty as you go downstream. We checked out the first one but it was too tall and too slick for us, so instead we took a very high, very hot, and very easy bypass trail on the north side. I was really sad to miss the narrows. Someday! The bypass trail leads to a bench above the river and we followed a use trail to some ruins before descending to the beach. After setting up camp and resting in the shade for a little while, we hiked downriver to check out Stanton's cave and Vesey's paradise, a huge spring pouring out of the redwall guarded by dense poison ivy. We also checked out the narrows from the bottom and confirmed they were a no-go from that direction too. Surprisingly there were no river trips camping at South Canyon this night so we had to content ourselves with only the food and drinks we had brought We left early to avoid the heat and so I could check on my dad, who was having surgery that morning, and we again appreciated the short climb out of the canyon!

south canyon from the rim

scramble descent

tracks

in the amphitheater

first of a million

above another pouroff

splooting

spying

bypass on right here

beginning of the redwall narrows

high bypass view

almost to the river

stanton's cave

vesey's paradise

upstream view from vesey's

downstream view

bottom of the narrows, looking up

leaving the colorado

back across a bypass

exit ramp

Glen Canyon dam to Lees Ferry, Glen Canyon NRA 4.20 - 4.21.24 It was too hot to hike and Julia has been wanting to do this for awhile, so she arranged a last-minute backhaul. We and her canoe were motorboated upriver and dropped off a little ways down from Glen Canyon dam around noon on Saturday and floated/paddled 15 miles back to Lees Ferry over the next day. Although my hand is healed now, it was/is still kind of stiff and pretty weak, so I wasn't much help paddling but I enjoyed the ride, and the food, and the cold beer Along the way we stopped to check out petroglyphs, some springs, and a couple side canyons. We camped at 9 mile, which is a pretty spot but directly below horseshoe bend, so we had an audience until sunset and again starting at sunrise. That was odd.

North fork soap creek, GCNP 4.24.24 This one intrigued me from the highway so I checked it out one afternoon on my way to Cliff Dwellers restaurant for dinner (highly recommend). I probably only went 1 mile +/- before I came to a couple-hundred foot pouroff that required canyoneering gear to descend, but it was a very scenic mile!

[neek]

great scenery. cool lizards. looks like we missed you at the grand canyon by about a week.

[canadug]

Fabulous TR!!

[olderthanIusedtobe]

[rubywrangler]

[Roly Poly]

Gorgeous scenery. Thanks for posting!

[olderthanIusedtobe]

[olderthanIusedtobe]

I think there is one more kind of splooting--the mobile sploot. Dogs do it and then drag themselves forward with their front paws.

[Nancyann]

Wonderful pictures and trip report, thanks for taking the time to share it all!

[Eric Hansen]

+1! Marble Canyon is good medicine.