Top 10 Canyon Hikes in the U.S. Parks #PART1

The great canyons of the national parks are for most, drive-to jaw-droppers that lie below scenic drives and rim trails that lead to stunning overlooks. For some, though, canyons beg to be explored. Canyon hikes can be quite an undertaking—almost always a steep, dry descent and a climb back—but the sensory experience is worth it.

1. Grand Canyon National Park, Arizona

   
   
   Hermit Trail
   An out-and-back hike on the South Rim’s Hermit Trail delivers the visceral impact of Arizona’s Grand Canyon rim-to-rim epic without having to share it with hordes of fellow pilgrims. This lesser used trail provides awesome canyon views as it switchbacks down towering red-wall faces. Start at Hermits Rest off West Rim Drive and descend gradually through stands of piñon and juniper into a red-rock abyss as far as the heart desires. Backpackers can plunge 3,800 feet amid shale slopes and sandstone cliffs to lovely, cool Hermit Creek and a trail camp. Along the way stands evidence of this route’s origins— a long-abandoned train track that served a tourist camp built by the Santa Fe Railroad. Set up camp and take a day hike down to Hermit Rapids on the Colorado River or on nearby portions of the Tonto Trail, which has superb river and canyon views. To simply make a day of it, follow the Hermit Trail to the Boucher Trail to Dripping Springs, hiking beneath sheer 1,200-foot cliffs to a lovely spring nestled within an alcove of Coconino sandstone. The seven-mile round-trip drops “only” 1,700 feet and represents a grand cross section of canyon formations.

2. Bryce Canyon National Park, Utah

   
   Queen’s Garden/Peekaboo Trails and the Fairyland Loop
   Only a thin red line divides fantasy from geology in Utah’s Bryce Canyon. A hike amid the park’s rococo hoodoos—sandstone spires arrayed in amazing mazes, fantastically animated forms shimmering in colors that Revlon can only covet—lends itself to true flights of fancy. The hoodoos rule. The Queens Garden/Peekaboo figure-eight loop (6.5 miles) is Bryce’s signature hoodoo hike. Working clockwise from Sunrise Point, descend into Bryce Amphitheater on the Queens Garden Trail into hoodooland. Then pick up the Peekaboo Trail to crisscross a ridge rife with hoodoos, and climb out via Wall Street’s towering sandstone spires. That’s all warm-up for the eight-mile Fairyland Loop, which loses and gains 2,309 cumulative feet as it navigates first a hoodoo graveyard of stumpy towers, then a forest of tall hoodoos that rise to the canyon rim. The park’s popular full-moon hikes—no flashlights permitted—drop into this same hoodoo fairyland.

3. Death Valley National Park, California

   
   Fall Canyon
   California’s Death Valley is really a park of canyons—slots and chasms and fluted corridors piercing the mountains that frame the valley. The one not to be missed is Fall Canyon, which can be reached from the Titus Canyon (a jeep road) trailhead: Proceed three miles up a wash surrounded by twisted striations of metamorphosed marble and dolomite to a dry waterfall, then another three miles through a narrow slot. Mosaic Canyon, near Stovepipe Wells, leads past walls of polished marble and ends at a dry waterfall two miles up. Golden Canyon is probably the most popular—an interpretive trail leads through the mile-long canyon, whose walls show tilted and twisted layers of rock that show the valley’s faulting action, as well as mudstone deposits and ripple patterns that indicate an ancient lakeshore. At the head of the canyon is Red Cathedral’s steep, rust-colored fluted cliffs.

4. Glen Canyon National Recreation Area, Arizona

   
   Cathedral Wash
   True canyoneering is a technical craft that entails climbing, rappelling, and often swimming through slot canyons that can narrow down to a body squeeze, then drop off 40 or 50 feet into another slot. Cathedral Wash gives a sense of that adventure without the technical demands, though this three-mile round-trip hike does require a bit of scrambling. The trailhead is on the Lees Ferry access road in Arizona, which curves around a prominent formation called Cathedral Rock. The hike leads through narrow passageways lined by cliffs of limestone and sandstone, smoothed and eroded into all manner of formations—arches, alcoves, overhangs, muddy pools, and dry waterfalls that are anything but dry when a flash flood courses through. This is obviously not a hike to make during or after a rain in the vicinity. In the heart of the canyon, hikers must make their way along ledges and ease themselves down drop-offs. Finally the trail opens up and reaches the Colorado River, which signals an about-face for the return hike.

5. Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park, Colorado

   
   North Vista Trail
   Few canyons anywhere match Colorado’s Black for its combination of sheer walls, narrow opening, and depth. It’s 2,722 feet deep at its greatest depth, and in places its rim-to-rim opening is a mere 500 feet. Its name comes from the darkness of its gneiss and schist stone, but lack of direct sunlight contributes to the effect. No trails venture into the canyon, but determined scramblers can make their way down rock-filled gullies, as fly-fishers occasionally do to cast in the gold-medal trout waters of the Gunnison. The return trip is arduous. Get guidance from park rangers before attempting a hike to the bottom. Otherwise, this is mainly a look-at, rather than a hike-into canyon, and the best look-at hike is probably the North Vista Trail, a 7.2-mile round-trip. It leads from the North Rim Ranger Station to Exclamation Point, for one great look at the canyon, and then to the top of Green Mountain, 867 feet higher, for a high view that takes in the rim as well as the canyon. #PART2
   
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