ADAM HAYDOCK

these pictographs were found by a Grand Canyon burro wrangler (Gordan) and he took photos of this panel and submitted them to some authorities with a response of “that is Aboriginal art from Australia”. He ended up directing the experts to where the panels were found and explained that this is one of the more unique panels in the Grand Canyon region.

These panels are between 8 and 20,000 years old and are described to be shamans attempting to communicate with the supernatural world or with the underworld. Some of these pictographs are life size and have shades of red and green tinted into the alcove. 

It is fascinating to see how these depict art from detailed outfits to deer with antlers to other figurines of a unknown idea. This might be one of the few panels where Indians tried or even made contact with a supernatural entity and documented their encounter. 

Justin and Daniel coming down a conglomerate stone walkway with a large cavern behind them in Hades Canyon.

Hades knoll is a promontory in a remote and unforgiving section of the northern Grand Canyon region. 30 miles east from toroweap Hades knoll is also home to the longest narrow slot canyon in the Grand Canyon.


 Hades Knoll Canyon has a long 10 mile approach just to get to the beginning of the canyon from the trail head. 

hiking trail along the esplanade to Hades Knoll canyon.

The hiking from the trail head is more like a prairie of sage and juniper trees until you get down to the esplanade, where the terrain changes a bit more to a desert environment with prickly pear cactus waiting around each corner as you step.

scenery along the esplanade to Hades Knoll canyon

The hike to Hades Knoll is relatively flat but the distance to get to the trail head comes with a dry and Barron landscape devoid of water. 

crinoid fossils on the trail to Hades Knoll.

make sure you bring the right portion of water with you and a little more.  I brought 4 liters and I almost ran out of water, luckily there are some static pools in Hades Knoll to filter water from.

side canyon on the esplanade

The trail along the sun baked esplanade disappears and navigation is a critical component so you minimize the impact of the crypto soil and to save valuable hours on the approach to Hades Knoll.

Inside upper hades knoll canyon

After about 6 hours of hiking, we made it to the head of the canyon and looking forward to hiking in some shade and cooler conditions.

Inside upper hades knoll canyon

The upper part of Hades Knoll had some vegetation and minor down climbs. The canyon walls came somewhat close and eventually opened back up into some large canyon gorge passage.

Yannick traverses the pothole as the rest of the crew waits in Hades Canyon.

We had a few more down climbs and finally got to some water. After spending some time pumping water, we continued our way down into the red wall limestone.

Daniel descends the second mandatory rap in Hades Canyon

This is where the canyon started to get interesting.  We encountered two mandatory raps up to 40ft in length and some downclimbs.

Yannick in Hades Canyon.

The canyon walls were varnished with corrosion residue and appeared to have a few blind karst windows within some of the faults.

Daniel Passes by conglomerate stone that is embedded into the limestone in Hades Canyon.

At the bottom of the first drop, there was some interesting conglomerate stone matrixing within the redwall. 

Justin walks into the opening canyon in Hades Canyon.

We had a decent amount of time in the canyon until the sunset so we were able to enjoy the long stretch of narrow canyon with the sun casting a beautiful maroon to fiery reds and oranges as we cut around the bends.

Scott prepares to rap into the Redwall limestone.

The hue of the sunset started to set in and accentuated the bright reds and oranges within the canyon until the sun started to set.

Yannick holding up a dead big horn carcass in Hades Canyon.

We encountered a lot of down climbs and a few where we had to provide a partner assist.

Daniel in Hades canyon

There was also some interesting karst features within the canyon with some holes in the walls and a beautiful grotto cavern with dripping water and a massive flow stone in the entrance.  

Daniel in Hades Canyon.

The cavern did not appear to continue so it is more of a deep alcove like feature but it was one of the highlights.

not really sure what Yannick is trying to do.

We continued on and the sun started to set.  The colors started to turn into a purple blue color and eventually faded into the darkness where headlamps became a necessity.

Scott hiking down the varnished walls of the red wall limestone in hades Knoll.

We had some more down climbs to negotiate and once we got close to the confluence, we had a 50 ft dry fall that we have to walk around from the top.

Daniel rapping down the second rappel in Hades Knoll

The frogs sounded like mountain goats as they echoed their calls through the tall corridors of Hades Knoll canyon and into the Tuckup canyon.

Justin in the Redwall in Hades Knoll canyon

after leaving the trail head at 7:15 we made it to the confluence in about 11 hours.

Yannick in Hades knoll canyon

We claimed our spots on the slab rock and set up camp for the night with kitchen quarters and a sleeping area for both the sawmill snorers and non snorers.

Hades Knoll Canyon

We cooked dinner and enjoyed the perfect conditions that the moon and the weather provided, so much so that some of us took off our shoes.

Justin and Daniel hiking past a cavern in the red wall in Hades Knoll canyon.

Justin and I were sitting next to each other and he all of sudden looked up and than jumped up.  I saw a scorpion run away into a crack and than we heard Justin say that he got stung by the scorpion a few times.

Scott walking down the long narrow corridors of Hades Knoll.

he was in a lot of pain at one point got on the ground and started dry heaving a bit.

Scott in Hades knoll canyon

Some people can have a different reaction to scorpions than others but the pain usually lasts 12 hours with the first hour being very painful.


Justin was in bad shape, I started to look around for more scorpions and scanned the area to make sure we don't have any repeat attacks.

Rocks keyed into the walls in Hades Knoll.

Into the night I could hear Justin in pain and he mentioned that his vision was a bit blurry.

Yannick taking a break in Hades Knoll.

  I told him that we will leave the canyon and head out so if he has any secondary issues that arise we will be able to get to the hospital.

A large cavern with a flow stone formation inside of it with corrosion residue on the walls in Hades Knoll canyon.

This is not the place where we want to have a medical incident happen and even though we had a spot with text messaging service, i want to minimize the risk so we headed out the next day.

a large cavern with a flow stone formation inside of it with corrosion residue on the walls in Hades Knoll canyon.

Hades Knoll is quite the canyon as it has a long stretch of narrow corridors with some interesting geology and beautiful scenery but it comes with a price with hiking to a remote section within the tuckup trail region.

Daniel down climbing in Hades knoll.

Be prepared to bring extra water for the hike and even though we went in some pretty good conditions in April, the hike was quite hot on the esplanade with little shade.

Justin passing a cavern in Hades Knoll

Hiking out of the canyon in the tuck up provided similar views and some great geology but Hades Knoll did have some unique features and is the worth canyon to visit.

Daniel in Hades Knoll canyon

I recommend getting a early start from the trail head and sleeping at the trail head the night before so you can take advantage of the cooler temps and not have to drive on the road.

The end of Hades knoll canyon.

We finished this canyon in a long day and had every intention to go to the river the following day and than hike up to the esplanade and down rocky point but we ended the trip to ensure the safety of the crew.

Yannick, Daniel, and Scott sitting under the man made street light at camp.

Don't walk around the slab rock at night without any shoes or you might end up like Justin !

Justin feeling the full effects of the bark scorpion.

More photos of Hades Knoll here:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/exploration-worldwide/albums/72157666402165407

Here is a link to the hike out and a near encounter with the second most painful wasp.
https://adamhaydock.blogspot.com/2018/04/tuckup-canyon-grand-canyon-national-park.html

Sunrise over the Tuck up and Hades knoll canyons. Grand Canyon National Park.

The Tuckup canyon is a non technical canyon deep within the north to north west region (AB9) of the Grand Canyon National Park. 

This canyon is one of the most scenic non technical canyons within the park and has access to the river which can be done as a over night trip, or could be included with a canyoneering trip by providing an exit to the esplanade.

The day before, my group hiked the Tuckup trail around the esplanade to Hades Canyon for a long day and 13 miles from the top of the trail at east tuckup to the confluence of Hades Knoll Canyon and Tuckup canyon.

The night before we were relaxing at our campsite and Justin got stung by a bark scorpion.  He wasn't doing so well so the decision was made to hike out and back to the car the following day.

The walls were reflecting a fiery color of reds and oranges when we started our hike out of the canyon.  We were also pleased to see the conglomerate arch just above camp.

River runners seem to get a bit more of a leisure by hiking from the river up through the best parts of the canyons and returning when they are ready. The top down hikes provide more of a remote back country challenge which has its own benefits.  

The walls towered over us, providing no escape from the canyon except for a downward or upward meander.

Small springs were seeping water from the walls and there was some reliable sources of water along the way.  This is a life saver and I can only imagine how hot this place must get in the summer months.

We continued to hike out and boulder hop and scramble are some massive boulders until we came to a series of narrow redwall limestone sections.

The walls were quite polished and looked similar to Hades Knoll canyon but with out all of the boulder obstacles the Hades Knoll provided.

There were some high corridors of polished limestone and some substantial varnishing from the sandstone above the limestone.

The narrow canyons continued to provide some interesting color as the sun started to reflect color from different directions as the days went on.

We also passed Dome pocket and Rocky point canyons. These are two side canyons that are worth running from the top down.

There is also a escape route just beyond rocky point that provides access to the esplanade and access to run both western tributary canyons. 

We continued to hike out and eventually the walls started to lower as we rose in elevation

There was one last feature that we went looking for and that was the Shaman Panel.

This was a really interesting panel with colored pictographs on the wall of tall standing people with outfits on, other designs, and silhouettes of animals.

unfortunately, some idiots also put their names in the panels.

The hike out took just over an hour and we had a cool breeze with sunny conditions.

Hiking out of the Tuckup canyon

I think this was the most ideal of situations as we did not have to go through as much water as we did when we hikes over to the top of Hades Canyon.