TRIP REPORT PHOTOS
The entrance to Crescent Bridge Canyon, the location of which has not been published. Several other hikers have used clues found online and located the canyon:
Notice how the water flow and erosion has crafted the texture of the walls:
The first of many rocks and interesting formations seen high above the canyon:
These walls are even more sculptured a little farther up canyon:
Steve hiking through lower Crescent Bridge Canyon. Note the incredible pinnacle in the distance:
The 1st Narrows of the canyon can be seen farther ahead:
Horizontal lines across the canyon wall are quite striking:
Passing by a deep undercut area with solid rock ground to walk on:
To reach the 1st Narrows, it is necessary to navigate through this giant boulder field:
Notice again that this area has solid rock to walk on through the canyon:
Looking up at a pinnacle far above the canyon floor:
Now into the 1st Narrows of Crescent Bridge Canyon:
The red arrow marks the stunning entrance to walk through Crescent Bridge. Notice how (above the arrow) Crescent Bridge is quite large and connects both sides of the canyon:
Steve passing through the narrows just before Crescent Bridge:
Now let's take a tour through Crescent Bridge. This is the magnificent entrance:
Sunlight shines and filters into the bridge through openings:
Looking up from inside the middle of the bridge:
Notice the dizzying whirlpool lines and curves that circle through the passage:
Looking up at the structural integrity of Crescent Bridge:
And this is at the other end of the bridge, where the passage exits to continue up canyon:
Walking back through the bridge and looking out the entrance:
Steve getting his picture at three special spots in and around Crescent Bridge:
Exiting the bridge and continuing on. The scenery only got more and more impressive from here on:
Another undercut with a towering overhang up high:
Javan was with me on this hike. Here he is continuing up canyon:
The size of the walls in the narrows soon reached epic proportions:
Curving around another small undercut. There weren't many straight sections in the narrows:
This canyon wall off to our left caught our attention for two reasons:
The first was this boulder which looked like it was ready to fall into the canyon at any time:
The second was this pretty enclosed dry fall area right next to the boulder:
More unique formations high above the floor of the canyon:
In this area, there was only a small trench to walk through:
Javan climbing up and past a boulder wedged in the trench:
The 1st Narrows continued to be majestic and beautiful:
Crescent Bridge Canyon is a very steep canyon, but most of the climbs are easy:
Like its Death Valley cousins Funeral Slot Cyn, Sidewinder Cyn, and Mormon Point Cyn, this canyon is quite special:
Positively towering narrows with perfect lighting for pictures:
This undercut in the canyon was high above us, unlike most which are near ground level:
Notice the pathway of small rocks which we were now walking on:
Rugged and steep terrain in the midst of the 1st Narrows:
As shown here, you can never see too far ahead in the canyon so there are surprises around every corner:
Large cracks rising up the right side of the canyon wall:
This canyon is not for those who are claustrophobic or don't like confined spaces:
Passing under a boulder which is being supported by the bank on the left side:
Arriving at the one major obstacle in the canyon. This boulder jam must be bypassed on the right side on a very loose scree slope with exposure. In view of this, to maintain safety this is probably a good spot to turn around and head back down the canyon:
We decided to take the bypass and thus I kept the young hiker with me above me so I could stop him in case of a fall. But at least two other groups have turned back at this spot as they were not comfortable taking the bypass. One of those groups found another way to get into the upper canyon by way of a very long ridge bypass:
Above the challenging bypass some gigantic boulders have fallen into the canyon:
Getting past the giant fallen boulders requires crawling through small passageways:
A massively undercut wall that somehow still supports the weight above it:
More boulders as we rounded yet another bend:
These narrows remained incredible for a long distance after Crescent Bridge:
At times, the canyon was very steep to hike through:
The canyon soon exited the 1st Narrows and opened up a bit:
Take note of the very interesting obstacle in the canyon up ahead. Both sides are blocked:
However, there was a small passage that had to be crawled through:
The open area still had pretty colored rock to check out:
The open area looked like it would come to an end up ahead:
Soon we were walking into the 2nd Narrows of Crescent Bridge Canyon:
These narrows had a different color to them. My color reader says that the walls are dark orange:
These narrows were slightly more shallow than the 1st Narrows:
Looking up at the beautiful rock making up the canyon wall:
We really enjoyed passing through the 2nd Narrows. Truly an amazing area:
Out of nowhere, the formation in the distance rose up like a rock cathedral above the canyon:
Unlike the lower canyon, this part of the canyon had a very nice wash to walk on:
There were no boulders, gullies, or uneven areas to make hiking difficult:
Looking up out of the 2nd Narrows at the sky above in the next two pictures as we had perfect lighting:
As we got deeper into the 2nd Narrows, the walls grew in height:
Check out the indentation in the canyon wall up ahead:
More quick turns as we progressed through the narrows:
At this point, the walls were absolutely towering above us:
In the next two pictures, note how the sunlight lights up the walls in the background:
Crescent Bridge Canyon briefly opens back up once again:
But not for long as there are more incredible narrows ahead:
Three more pictures taken through the upper portion of the 2nd Narrows:
These were some interesting pinnacles that we spotted above the canyon:
Take note of how the rock type is about to transition from red conglomerate to solid grey rock:
This change gave the canyon a completely different character:
Off to the right there was a small enclosed dry fall:
Some very deep gravel that we had to slowly climb up:
From here on, the canyon got quite a bit steeper and there was one obstacle after another:
Looking back, notice all of the different rock colors visible:
And this is where Crescent Bridge Canyon came to an end for us:
An unclimbable dry fall about 35 feet high:
Zooming in above the 35 foot dry fall at the dry cascades:
We turned around and headed back down canyon, which included another crawl through this spot:
On the hike back, we discovered these amazing mud drips on the canyon wall which we had missed earlier:
Another view of the fascinating mud drips:
Walking back through Crescent Bridge and saying goodbye to the canyon and our Spring 2012 Death Valley trip:
