Tierdrop Canyon, Arches National Park, Utah

We headed to Arches National Park to check out the 3AII canyons and escape the tour bus loads at Delicate Arch. We could see Delicate Arch from a distance — a line of hikers in single file working their way up. Parked at the Park Ave trailhead and hiked up a steep talus slope a couple hundred feet to the top of the buttress where three canyons sit: U-Turn, Tierdrop, and Not-Tierdrop.

Of course I chose the most challenging. At the top of the first drop, beautiful canyon views opened below. The first rap was around 40ft — a good warm-up to get everything dialed in. The second rap used a Deadman anchor at around 80ft. I rigged a Fiddlestick since the anchor was far back from the edge.

The views became more spectacular as we worked our way down the tiers. The top of the last rap — around 100ft to the base of the dry wash valley — gave a beautiful view of Park Avenue gorge below. We traversed a shelf around the canyon to reach the valley floor.

Back to the trailhead in 3.5 hours — just in time to head out to Island in the Sky for the campsite. With Laura. Three canyons in the Park Ave section total: U-Turn, Tierdrop, and Not-Tierdrop — all 3AII and all worth doing in a single day from Moab.