Island In The Sky

Though technically not a canyon the Island in the Sky Traverse will test all of your canyoneering skills. The route climbs an extremely beautiful eroded butte up dihedrals and ramps and across a ledge system with exposed drops on all sides. When the top of the butte is achieved, the traverse across is a labyrinth of obstacles that will test your route finding abilities. The tiny clues of 3 parallel scratches and brown reflective disks that are screwed into the rock will only be discovered after you've found the correct passageway, but they will help guide you through the maze of drainages, slots, and cliffs by confirming you are on the right path. For the right group of canyoneers this will be an extremely enjoyable puzzle; for the unprepared it could be mean an unexpected camping trip or worse. While it is possible to complete the Island in the Sky route without ropes or rappelling by descending to the southeast this alternate downclimb route isn't shown in the GPX track above, but it should be noted that it exists and can be done without technical gear for the highly skilled The Island in the Sky route has been the site of frequent search and rescue operations over the years. Most rescues are not injury-related, but rather due to parties becoming cliffed out—stuck in terrain too steep or exposed to safely descend without assistance. The terrain throughout the route is primarily fourth-class, requiring scrambling and solid route-finding skills. The GPX track provides a general guide along the ridge, but there are numerous variations and decision points. You'll need to use your judgment and possibly engage in some bushwhacking and micro-navigation. The most common cause of people getting stuck is the inability to judge the downclimb terrain from above. What might look reasonable from the top can turn out to be exposed or too steep once committed. If your downclimbing skills are limited, this can quickly become a serious issue. Another major factor is navigating in the dark. Even with high-powered headlamps, it’s incredibly difficult to judge terrain and distances after nightfall. Many parties have become cliffed out because they attempted the descent in the dark and couldn’t safely pick their way through it, even with lights.

Head towards Island in the Sky from the North (campground) end. The official trailhead is at 37.199470,-113.643495. Start up wherever looks good, gain the top and traverse through the maze following intuition, RoadTripRyan's map and the physical markings. The last canyon exit to the first rappel is hard to find, but there are three hard to see markings there. The first rappel is in a short windblown cave. Brice Pollock's blog post has photos of all rappels. Warning: Black plated holds on the scrambling are not as secure as Red Rocks and I could often break these holds off. Opting for open hand slopers more often.

There are many routes of various technicality, descends an exposed 5.6 chimney climb. It may be advisable to have at least one strong climber in your party. The last canyon exit (which has three markings) was at 37.193317,-113.642325. Originally it was listed that there were two rappels, but Brice Pollock's write-up found four and has good pictures of each:

A half mile shuttle would be ideal, but it is not necessary.