Upper Monarch Canyon is the top half of Monarch Canyon, which runs from the Monarch Canyon Road, down through Monarch Spring, and to the edge of the 110 foot waterfall drop-off. There is virtually no way to see both halves of the canyon in a single hike, thus I decided to split this trip report up into two sections, which is the way we hiked the canyon. To reach Upper Monarch Canyon, we drove Daylight Pass Road almost 3 1/2 miles east of Hell's Gate, until we came to the dirt and gravel road turn-off on the right side of the road. The road was marked as a 4x4 only, but except for a couple of short rough spots, we had no problem taking our 2wd truck all the way to the split in the road 2.3 miles in. At the split, we turned right and headed down into Upper Monarch Canyon. We were able to save 7/10 of a mile hiking by driving almost all the way down this side road, where we parked close to the beginning of the walking path and major dry fall. After carefully looking over the edge of the huge dry fall from the hill next to it, we headed down the old trail to the left until it dropped us into the canyon. After a little while, we came to the remains of the Indian Mine. Then, we continued working our way through the ever-thickening brush as we got into Monarch Spring. Some of the areas were hard to get through, so it was slow going. Our feet got wet and it started to get really dark. Thus, just prior to the waterfall overlook, we turned back, realizing that our photos wouldn't come out in the dark, anyway. We enjoyed Upper Monarch Canyon, but we liked the lower canyon even better. Check out our trip report for Lower Monarch Canyon to find out why.
This first photo was taken while driving down the first part of Upper Monarch Canyon:
Just before the final turn, we pulled over and parked our truck. The road was in very good condition for driving:
Looking over the top of the huge drop-off. You can see why vehicles must stop at this point:
We headed down an old miners trail which slowly dropped us into Monarch Canyon:
Once we dropped into the canyon, we simply followed the wash:
Evidence of Monarch Spring soon began appearing, as there were some thick areas of brush to pass through:
We were able to bypass this brush by following the ledge along the right side:
The sun was starting to set, so it cast a beautiful glow on the upper part of the canyon walls:
Our first view of the famous Indian Mine off in the distance:
Arriving at the Indian Mine and exploring the ruins:
The next four photos show you some of the ruins of the Indian Mine, which ceased operations about 100 years ago, in the year 1910:
Steve getting a photo in front of the Indian Mine:
Afterwards we continued hiking down canyon in search of Monarch Spring and the top of the waterfall:
We found plenty of evidence of Monarch Spring, as can be seen in the next two photos. But it was difficult pushing our way through the brush:
The pictures started getting blurry, the further down canyon we went, because it was getting dark outside. This is the last picture which turned out (barely):
Finally, it was too dark to continue, so Steve got one final picture where we stopped. We didn't quite make it to the top of the waterfall. After this, we hiked back by flashlight to our vehicle:
