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| Final rap in Tierdrop Canyon, Arches National Park, Utah |
We headed over to Arches National Park to check out some 3AII canyons and to dodge the tour bus loads of people that occupy the trails and congest the slab rock overlooks. Last time I was here was around 6 years ago and I went to check out some of the tourist trails including the arch loop trail towards the end of the road and the trail that leads to delicate arch. We could see Delicate Arch from a distance
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| Delicate Arch from the distance, Arches National Park, Utah |
There are a lot of arches and it is a beautiful national park but there were tons of people everywhere which also added to the desire to get to the canyon where it would be quite a different environment.
It was really nice but there was an ant hill trail of people in single file huffing their way to the top of the butte to get a glimpse of the Utah license plate arch, Delicate Arch. That being said, its worth the hike to check out. We park at the trail head of park avenue and hike up a steep talus slope a couple hundred feet to the top of the buttress where three canyons are located, U-turn, Tierdrop, and not Tierdrop canyon.
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| Deadman Anchor Rap 2 Tierdrop Canyon, Arches National Park, Utah |
Of course I would choose the most challenging but it is a beginner friendly canyon and it was more impressive than I thought it would be. We get to the top of the drop and we could see the wash and a beautiful view of the canyon and gorge walls.
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| Tierdrop Canyon-Arches National Park |
We get to the canyon top and find a series of piled rock Deadman anchors. The first drop was around 40 ft and could have been a slide down if needed but it was a good rap to get everything dialed in. The next rap was from another Deadman and was about 80ft down. I rigged a Fiddlestick since the anchor was far back and would require a hard abrasive pull on the rope
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| Securing a Fiddlestick on Rap 3 in Tierdrop Canyon, Arches National Park, Utah |
The views became more spectacular as we worked our way down the tiers to the last and final rap.
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| Laura heading down Rap 3 Tierdrop canyon Arches National Park, Utah |
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| top of the last rap which was around 100ft to the base of the dry wash valley. |
The top of the last rap was a beautiful view of park avenue via the side canyon that feeds into the tourist trail. What a spectacular view from this level!!!
We finally get to the canyon bottom and we traverse a shelf around the canyon that eventually drops us off on the valley floor.
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| Looking back at Tierdrop canyon, Arches National Park |
We hike out of the gorge and connect over to the main trail where park avenue connects back to the road.
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| Bottom of TierDrop Canyon, Arches National park |
Eventually we make it back in around 3 and 1/2 hours to the trailhead and just in time to head out to the island in the sky for the campsite.
