Scouting the Canyon

The terrain north of the Dirty Devil river is rolling open desert. Side canyons cut deep gashes into the sandstone. Larry Canyon is one of the longest and deepest.

It is difficult to see down into the canyon and assess possible difficulties. We walked along the rim toward the head of the canyon searching for a route down. We could see the sandy bottom winding between the sandstone walls. We could not see the huge dropoff that had been reported.

Trundling Rocks

We followed the canyon until we could see the pouroff at the very beginning. We had been told there was a dropoff fairly close to the pouroff requiring a rappel, and had been advised to throw rocks into the canyon to use as rappel anchors.

We reached the pouroff at the head of the canyon.

Moqui Steps

There were some Moqui steps on the far side. We walked around the head and investigated. The steps looked really scary; rounded and with no handholds nearby. Finally we rappelled from a juniper tree.

In The Narrows

At first we followed a narrow sandy trail between vertical walls of rock. Shortly we came to a dropoff. In this narrow canyon it seemed like hole. We had been warned that there would be water, that we might want wetsuits. After several rappels we were in a waist deep pool. The water was cold. Wetsuits would have been a help. We traversed a long section requiring knee and heel chimney technique. We were quite high up. The climbing was easy, but a fall would have dropped us into unknown depths below.

The Central Section

After what seemed like an eternity we came out into the sun again. We had reached the central section of the canyon. Our pants were torn to ribbons and our knees were red and raw. We were able to bypass a pouroff on the left. The canyon became wide and sandy with cottonwoods. A stream entered. We stopped for lunch at 11:00. The narrows had taken five hours.

Lower Canyon

The Last Rappell

Across the Desert