Nankoweap Trail
North Rim Trails
8,800 feet (2,682 m): FS Trail 57 at FS610 roadhead
7,560 feet (2,304 m): National Park Service trailhead at Saddle Mountain Saddle
2,760 feet (841 m): Colorado River
14.5 miles (23.3 km): FS610 roadhead to Colorado River
14 miles (22.5 km): FS445 roadhead to Colorado River
11 miles (17.7 km): National Park Service trailhead (Saddle Mountain saddle) to Colorado River
Wilderness Trail
Washouts and rockslides require some route-finding skill. Hot and dry in summer. Stash water on way in for use on way out. Use instep crampons in winter.
In 1882, canyon explorer and geologist John Wesley Powell directed the building of a trail into Nankoweap Valley that followed a Paiute route. His colleague, geologist Charles Walcott, used it to reach isolated rock formations in the eastern Grand Canyon. Kolb Arch, the largest natural bridge in the canyon, is found in an upper arm of Nankoweap Canyon below Woolsey Point.
