What's the most remote difficult place to reach in the park?

[John Morrow]

Dang. Would have been more than happy to do water drops for you but work has me unable to travel until the very end of the year at the earliest. Sorry about that.

I do sympathize with your friends’ lack of enthusiasm for backpacking DVNP due to lack of water. I carried 13+ liters doing the Upper Big Fall out and back to help support the person I was hiking with. That was a total drag.

i remember your report about that water carry.  I'd like to repeat your trip.  They look like beautiful canyons.  I thought about a daytrip water drop across the valley floor, then backpack your rough route to it.  but it is up to 8 miles wide in that general area!

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I’ve not done Dry Bone thru but I’ve done the top portion as an out and back day hike.  The drop into the canyon in order to bypass the technical falls at the head is largely a talus slope most of the way and then some rock scrambling closer to the base.  You need to do some route finding so as not to end up above a ledge along the way.  It is pretty solidly class 3.

With a daypack it was really not a problem at all though trekking poles are nice to have on such steep and unstable slopes as they can help to keep you upright when talus starts sliding.  With a heavy pack for an overnight I can imagine it being more awkward in spots and perhaps taking off the pack being a good idea in spots.  I went both down and up it so really it’s not that bad.

Photo from the top of the drop in:


And from the bottom looking back up (from a bit down canyon so that the whole route can be seen):

Your pics on your site are really beautiful!  Natural color 9 not over saturated) and beautiful textures and composition.  Talk about stoke!