
View back toward the Canyon Point parking area as we start along the rest of the road.

Descending along the road to the rim where we begin dropping down.

Overlook from our descent from the rim. The head of Buzzard Canyon is seen on the right.

Close-up at the descent, Buzzard Canyon top center.

On our way down, a view toward the Colorado River and Fortification Hill.

View back at the Class 2 descent.

View back up at the rim as we enter the drainage.

Hiking along the drainage toward the head of Buzzard Canyon.

Entering the first short section of narrows.

Nothing except a few short obstacles up here.

Getting narrower.

A very cool hairpin turn.

At the top of the first (and largest by far) rappel. It's two-tiered. Luke is seen rappelling from the top of the first to a large platform where he continues.

Top of the first rappel, a two-tiered cumulative 200'. First drop is about 20'. Luke seen on the platform starting the second drop.

Looking back up the first tier.

At the bottom of the big rappel, view back up.

Close-up at Mike rappelling. It was free-hanging for most of the drop.

Continuing down the canyon.

Some boulder obstacles to scramble down.

Entering the second set of narrows.

Class 2/3 scrambles.

A short drop, rope not required here.

A meat anchor on a rappel that can be downclimbed by a capable climber.

View down at the rap/downclimb.

View back up at the downclimb.

A two-tiered rappel, roughly 120' total.

View back up at the two-tiered rappel.

Nuisance rappel.

View back at the short nuisance rappel.

Starting down the final set of rappels into the Colorado River, seen below. This rappel is about 40 feet.

View from the top of the rappel.

View back up at the 40' rappel.

Final two sections, the first can be down-climbed at Class 4.

Close-up to the start of the final rappel, 30 feet into the Colorado River.

On our trip the river was low enough that we had a substantial beach to blow our packrafts up on.

View up at the final rappel as we get ready to paddle upstream to Bighorn Canyon.

Bighorn Canyon's mouth seen center.

View back.

We reached the beach at the mouth of Bighorn Canyon.

Starting up Bighorn Canyon, much more brushy than I'd experienced in the past.

I found keeping to the left on the cliffs introduced Class 2/3 scrambling, but avoided a massive amount of bushwhacking.



View down toward Richie, who had decided to bushwhack instead of take the high road. Granted, getting back down required a bit of a sketchy downclimb, so maybe don't go super far.

I made my way back into the drainage to meet everyone else, who were significantly more covered in spores and thorns. It's actually pretty dangerous - we passed an angry rattler, hard to see in the brush.


Bighorn Canyon is pretty, but the brush has taken over.

Continuing up Bighorn Canyon. At a junction, keep right, sticking to the watercourse.

A couple of Class 2/3 boulder obstacles and we were free of the brush.

Entering the narrows.

Gorgeous narrows of Bighorn Canyon.


A lovely hairpin turn as we ascend Bighorn Canyon.


There are a few boulder obstacles within the canyon.


And then we reached the Class 4 obstacle. Most of us chose to stem up the chute, like Mike seen here.

View down at the Class 4 Bighorn Canyon crux.

Others in the party preferred the more exposed, but less difficult option by sticking to the face.

Continuing up Bighorn Canyon.

Bighorn Canyon opens up into some gorgeous badlands.

Once we reached the mouth of this red slot canyon, we kept right and ascended using a rocky gully.

View back down the rocky gully, pretty badlands behind us.

Up the gully to the ridge separating Weeping Springs Canyon to the north from Bighorn Canyon.

At the ridge, view back down toward Bighorn Canyon.

We located the social trail that would take us back west rather than dropping all the way down into the rocky Weeping Springs Canyon wash. The cars are located top center.

Just past the massive boulder seen on the right, a cairned route leads up to the rim using a social trail on a minor rib/slope. You could just ascend up the slope directly, but that requires looser terrain with lots of broken glass higher up.

Ascending the rib/slope to the rim above.

View back down into the Weeping Spring Canyon drainage just before reaching the rim.
Hire me or show me some love!
Hire/refer me as a web developer or send me a few bucks if you find my site useful. I’m not sponsored, so all fees are out-of-pocket and my time preparing trip reports is unpaid. I really appreciate it!