RIDER CANYON 3AII, GRAND CANYON NATIONAL PARK
April 23, 2018
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| Hiking down to the Colorado River through the corridors of Rider Canyon. Grand Canyon National Park. |
feeling a bit dried up and hazy from the previous nights festivities, we come to a crack in the wall with a climb down steep enough to keep feet sliding on the ball bearing like gravel trail. Inching our way down, the sun begins to work through the clouds and slowly bakes the face of rider canyon, its mid April and this place must be a inferno of a tomb in the summer months!
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| Andy Orr hiking down rider canyon. Grand Canyon National Park. |
The following day we woke up a bit hung over and sore from North canyons day trip to the river and headed over to Rider Canyon. I was under the impression that this canyon would take between 5 and 8 hours so we jumped in Andy's car and headed over to the trail head.
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| heather at the trail head of rider canyon. Grand Canyon National Park. |
About a half hour from North canyon, we made it to the trail head of rider canyon and the first thing that we noticed is the great campsites near the rim of rider canyon. This place would have been fantastic to camp at, great views.
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| Andy and Heather hiking down rider canyon. Grand Canyon National Park. |
We started our hike and went through a crack in the wall that took us down a steep talus and scree slopping trail. Our descent took almost 45 minutes and we descended around 1000ft of elevation loss.
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| Rider canyon. Grand Canyon National Park. |
We hit the supai immediately and made our way across rider canyon with a swift hike down into the more interesting sections. This canyon was different from North Canyon as it had a lot less boulder hoping, it was shorter in length, and the supai was more abundant which made this like walking on a highway of sorts.
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| Life and Death in rider canyon. Grand Canyon National Park. |
We got to some down climbs and continued around a few small drops and down climbed some other drops.
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| rider canyon. Grand Canyon National Park. |
Soon after, came to a place where we had to climb an exposed wall and around a 20ft drop which took us down into the lower portion of rider canyon.
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| Andy and Heather in rider canyon. Grand Canyon National Park. |
This is where the canyon walls started to rise and the slab rock highways were meandering through massive corridor walls with the sound of the river echoing through the walls.
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| rider canyon. Grand Canyon National Park. |
We did not encounter any quick sand but I could see where it would form and how it would slow down peoples progression.
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| rider canyon. Grand Canyon National Park. |
We made it down to the final down climbs and the beautiful walls of rider canyon opened up to the great Colorado river and the rapids 1700ft down from where we started.
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| Andy in rider canyon. Grand Canyon National Park. |
The rapids here were not as intense as the rapids at north canyon but I would not want to run a pack raft through them.
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| Andy Orr in rider canyon. Grand Canyon National Park. |
Shortly after, we started our hike back out to try to beat the sun, especially for the last segment as we would be in the sun for a 1000ft hike out of ball bearing scree slope of rider canyon.
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| Andy in rider canyon. Grand Canyon National Park. |
We ended up getting out of the canyon and clocked in at 4.5 hours from when we started. That was good time and decided to head back to Vegas.
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| rider canyon. Grand Canyon National Park. |
There is a upper section to rider canyon that has a 170ft drop but we did not have enough time to include that rap with our weekend.
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| Andy Orr in rider canyon. Grand Canyon National Park. |
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