Our ambitious Lake Powell multi-sport trip cut short, my mind continually cycled through other possibilities in the area that would consider the extreme heat and our ultralight gear inventory. It did not take me long to land on packrafting the 16 mile free-flowing section of the Colorado River between Glen Canyon Dam and Lee's Ferry as an enticing possibility if we could surmount the logistics. Access below the dam is very limited. Nearly all visitors catch a motorboat up from Lee's Ferry to the base of the dam, then offloads a kayak or paddleboard to work their way back down the river. A few descend one of the few technical canyons requiring very long ropes (longer than we had at present), then float out. To my knowledge there is only one hiking route from the rim to the river in this steep-walled Navajo Sandstone canyon, the Ropes Trail that I knew as little more than a rumor from some friends. While downing large shakes in the park in Page we all scoured the internet to see if we could find any concrete information on the elusive Ropes Trail the day before. Once an official "Angel's Landing style" trail within Glen Canyon Recreation Area, it has been decommissioned and forgotten by all but a few locals. Spaced poles were drilled into the rock and linked by cables that followed a miraculous joint that provided a steep route all the way down to the river. The best way to picture it is as a vertical cliff that happened to have a 10ft wide ledge slanting sideways down the cliff like an escalator, exposed but safe. If we could find and get down this trail we would be well positioned for a relaxing float down 14.5 miles of the river to Lee's Ferry which seemed like a good use of our packrafts.
The Ropes Trail had a weird multi-layered presence online that made it hard to decipher where it was and whether it was accessible. The most accessible layer was a Google pin suggesting people park near the dam (restricted access) and lots of reviews saying the trail is closed, blocked off, and patrolled by armed officers. The next layer had some blog-type accounts of people going down the trail to the river and back, but none of these occurred in the last five years so access could have changed. Finally digging deepest I did find one account of someone going down the trail and packrafting out, and this had enough of a description and a GPS track that would allow us to find the start. It seemed quite reasonable that we could take a wide berth around the critical dam and electrical facilities without causing anyone harm and I could not see why the trail itself would be blocked off in the open desert. We were still not 100% sure it would work out, but were confident enough to set a shuttle the night before. Lee's Ferry was only about 8 miles away from Page as the crow flies but due to the terrain and roads it was a 42 mile one-way drive!
We left Page at a comfortable 7am and drove across the Glen Canyon Dam to the roadside Beehive Campground where we staged our car. We started off on the rock-lined slickrock paths that circled around some roadside rock formations, which made pleasant travel compared to the deep sand that surrounded. Keith and I carried the boats, freeing up Heather and Kari to not have to worry about carrying loads down whatever tricky things the Ropes Trail might throw at us. At the end of the slickrock we merged onto sandy roads until we needed to cross country over to the next road. We had one barbed wire fence to slip under (zero no trespassing signs in sight) and then regained slickrock as we worked our way through ledges towards the rolling canyon rim. This area would have felt quite remote were it not for the major transmission lines overheard and the dam tunnel infrastructure on the opposite canyon wall. It was not clear that we were doing anything wrong by being here but I still felt uneasy and was looking forward to getting down the canyon wall. We had one exposed traverse move that slowed us down a bit but then I could see the spaced poles that would mark our route down.
Happily the Ropes Trail was quite straightforward and the joint ledge wide enough to help combat the exposure. We found two steeper chimney sections with a fixed line but were able to get down without needing them.
Two-thirds of the way down the route abandoned the first joint and briefly jumped to a second. From this spot it looked like the last part was going to be the crux of the route as we could see cable and rope beelining steeply straight down toward the river instead of sideways as the route had been proceeding. Fortunately once we got over to the top of this section we could see that there were plenty of features and there was only a few feet of steepness. The ropes and cable were not needed but provided some mental security. Once down the wall we followed some cairns downstream to the river's edge, or rather just above it (in hindsight there must have been some other trail branch heading upstream to the camp area). It took care to carefully descend the slippery slope into the frigid river. I waited in the waist-deep shallows helping everyone else get positioned in the water. And then we were off, floating our way down the river.
After the first bend in the river we past beneath Ferry Swale Canyon and its neighbor, which I am quite convinced are the remnants of an enormous meander cut-off. Being just below the dam the water was a crystal clear green providing a neat floating effect as we drifted over the shallow rocks and water plants below. We saw a group of big horn sheep eating vegetation and drinking from the river. This section of the river was turning out to be a lot nicer than we thought. Yes there were occasionally motor boats and other groups of kayakers or paddleboarders but overall we had solitude and scenery a plenty.
After a shady corner we arrived at a busy beach for a petroglyph detour. I tried to walk to them barefoot but retreated to grab my shoes. The Descending Sheep panel was quite neat with two cookie-cutter copy trails of sheep and many other considerably more abstract motifs pecked into a dark patina. Back at the beach I went for a quick dip in the cold water and we ate an early lunch. The petroglyphs were actually on a tighter bend than the too famous Horseshoe Bend immediately downstream. From this beach I could see the silhouette of a hundred stick figures on the canyon rim snapping the same picture of Horseshoe Bend.
I have to admit Horseshoe Bend is less scenic at water level but no complaints on the comparable solitude we had. On the downstream side of the bend there was a good section of cliff for cliff jumping but I did not realize this in time and the current soon carried us past before I could investigate. Vertical cliffs cut by steep closely-spaced joint sets predominated the canyon but occasionally we would have an alcove or perfectly planar striped cliff.
Onward we continued with no break from the warm sun. We all continually dipped our hands into the water to soak our faces and necks. Heather and I spotted some climbing routes following prominent cracks on river right in this section. Near 6 Mile Campground there was a rare patch of shade tucked in tight against the cliff and we stopped, alongside several of the motor tour boats that knew the spot well.
Taking photos I drifted a bit behind the others at this point. Canyon right had a vertical cliff plunging right into the river with a remarkable density of sandy colored lizards with 1-2 lizards every 3 feet. I rejoined the others at the Waterholes Canyon mouth for a brief stop where I very disappointingly realized I lost my sunglasses at the petroglyph beach which put a damper on my mood. We continued on through the last few bends in the river. The canyon changed dramatically in style as the layers began to tilt and move the Navajo Sandstone above river level. We paddled past the mouth of two interesting canyons on canyon left as the wind began to pick up. Seemingly on queue with the wind was an enormous sand dune coating landslide deposits of the Kayenta Formation. On canyon right I spotted a stellar cliff jumping spot and Keith and I both took laps climbing up the cliff and jumping off the perfect perch into the shockingly cold water.
We saw some more big horn sheep on this section that treated us with complete indifference. We had a lousy headwind and paddled to maintain progress. The last few cliffs of colorful tilted sandstones and mudstones were particularly impressive. We turned the final corner and landed on the upstream side of the Grand Canyon launch ramp at 3pm. Car retrieval and packing went smoothly enough and we drove back to our car at the start. All agreed it was a great trip. We were glad to be able to see this section of canyon and to be able to access it without motorboats like nearly everyone does. It was a really neat trip overall.
We had some indecision due to hunger back at the trailhead but voted to drive on to Kanab for pizza. The pizza restaurant we were aiming for was temporarily closed and we went to another one instead which wasn't really worth the wait or prices. While we waited we figured out our next trip. We were heavily limited by the lack of rope (75ft total) and the lack of permits going into a busy Zion weekend but eventually settled on a Misery Canyon trip as something to do. We drove through Kanab and camped the night at the Ponderosa Grove Campground near Coral Pink Sand Dunes.
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