Royal Arch Canyon, GCNP from the river, Feb 2011
Last February, Rich Rudow got this crazy idea of drawing a GC rafting permit and floating the big river, and doing as much canyoneering as is (super-)humanly possible. They invited me along to slow things down - so I hiked in at Phantom with Karen Hage and joined the fun for 14 days. February 15th found us visiting the lovely Royal Arch Canyon, a sought-after difficult hiking destination from the rim. From the river, not so bad, especially if you have guns who can climb the climb. A bit of a hike around to an easy entry into the canyon, and we found the fabulous Royal Arch. Wow! A couple nice rappels below the arch leads into Elves Chasm, then back to the beach for a fine dinner.
A fun and scenic day out.
