The cool breeze passes through the meanders of North Canyon as we walk down into the boulder fields.  Stacked on top of another, the house sized rocks give cave like passages that demand the traveler to down climb and twist around the Kaibab limestone boulders.  The parallel walls start to climb higher but the illusion is that we are going deeper into the rock, all of the sudden we hit the supai sandstone layer and the canyon starts to get interesting. 

The Grand Canyon canyoneering is some of the most committing and enduring canyoneering in the United States yet there are some day trip routes in the Big Ditch that allow for river access and beautiful narrow red wall limestone corridors.

North canyon and Rider canyon are two day trip canyons that can be broken up for a weekend or can include a through trip from north canyon to the river, hike the river north to a break in the wall or hike to rider canyon and hike out in two days.

We made it to the trail head the night before and camped at a section where other campers have been and went to bed in the cold 30 degree temperatures of the desert plateau

We headed off on the trail at around 7:15 AM and found the sneak route that Pat Winstanley posted on rope wiki.  This cut off over a 1/2 mile of traversing the north canyon drainage. 

We spent the next 2 hours boulder hopping and hiking down the 3.5 mile canyon until we hit the supai sandstone layer. I did not mind the hike down the drainage for north canyon.  The conditions were ideal and although there were some sections with some tedious boulder hopping and scrambling, there were sections of hard gravel and stones which allowed us to travel at a quicker pace.

Eventually we got to the supai and found the boulders started to disappear for some highway like travel and a few down climbs.   After about a half hour the walls started to get interesting and the red and orange colors started to pop from the suns reflection on the walls.

We worked our way down this passage that resembled dragon scales and came up to the first and only drop in North Canyon.

Adam rapping down as heather belays on the single drop in North Canyon.  PHOTO BY: ANDY ORR

It was only around 30-40ft in length so I set up a hand-line with a deadman at the top and wrapped a sling around the large boulder at the lower pool a hard rig into the lower portion of the canyon.

The narrow section was beautiful and the sun was at the right time of the day to reflect to the best light. we all rapped down and continued our hike to the oasis.

This was a beautiful polished sandstone canyon with pinks, purples, red, and oranges.  The  pool was waste deep and easily traversed.

We continued down the canyon and the walls were towering side by side as the canyon length expanded.  We clambered around a few boulder but continued to down climb as the ambience of the Colorado river could be heard in the foreground.

Soon after we spotted some river runners hiking up the canyon.  There were quite a few of them and I knew we were getting pretty close to the river. 

We worked our way down and made it to the colorado river !! woohoo, just in time for lunch. 

The weather was perfect down at the river but our time was short lived and we started back out of the canyon so we could make sure we got out of there by dark.

We passed by the rafters and made good time to the rope.  We Ascended the rope quickly, re rigged, and started our hike back up to the camp.

It got a bit warmer out but the temps were not bad at all.   We ended up getting out of the canyon and back to camp in 7 1/2 hours from when we started. 

What a great day and now we had the whole desert to ourselves and rider canyon on our minds for the following day.