On Friday, October 15th, I completed a trip down through Granary Canyon after collecting beta from Ryan Cornia's web page. It being the UEA weekend vacation off of school, Moab was hoping with people. However, we did not see anyone all day long up on the mesa top. After leaving a vehicle at the Jug Handle Arch parking lot, we were shuttled up to the trail-head off of the Canyonlands/Island in the Sky road by one of the wives.
After a delay of following a small drainage into the wrong canyon, we recognized the error and retraced steps to get to the right location. Lost some time, but soon. At the designated drill hole, head more south than east to find the proper small shallow drainage to the first rap into Granary.
Granary had little to no water, except in a few potholes. Most, if not all can be avoided by directing the rappel or downclimbing. We got our money's worth by rappelling at just about every opportunity, even if other dirt ramps, rim walk down options were present.
The open views of this hike are spectacular, and a main attraction. Great views of the Fins, Behind the Rocks, La Sal Mtns among others.
It took are large group of 7 a full 10 plus hours to complete the hike, including a full hour to get everyone down the final 200 foot rappel by Jug Handle Arch. We actually had a 187 foot rope, connected to a 220 foot one for a double strand descent of the final rappel and found the 187 ft to be the exact length of the rap. So for us, we found it to be slightly less than 200 feet. It is an awesome rappel as it contains a little bit of everything to it: a 50 foot free hang, with another 50 feet of 45 degree angle walk down, and then a final 100 foot or so "5-10" to the bottom. You are not able to see the bottom of that rap from the top. The highway and river further below, gives the pyschological illusion that you are doing a match longer rap.
It was a great all day adventure.
Kerry
