Canyoneer Right Fork of North Creek (Direct) Zion National Park, UT

May 19, 2022 — The Right Fork of North Creek is a lesser-visited canyon in Zion National Park because of its remoteness and length. Unlike the Left Fork of North Creek (aka Das Boot and The Subway), most people choose to do the Right Fork as a backpack since it requires a long approach and exit, but we went for it in a day. Many parties also choose to skip what's known as the potholes of the "Right Fork Direct" by hiking around this section via a ledge, though doing this skips what we considered to be the most fun part of the day while reducing the technicality and required time to complete the canyon. I highly recommend including the potholes if you have the knowledge for dealing with them or you'll be missing out quite a bit. Since the technical section of the canyon is pretty short, I'd say overall this route feels more like a backcountry hike with some rappelling rather than an exciting canyoneering adventure, but there's a lot of gorgeous features to see and like anything in Zion it's worth the effort.

There seem to be three main approaches for reaching the Right Fork of North Creek. The first is from the Wildcat Canyon Trailhead here (37.340165, -113.075797). This approach is a bit shorter, but requires some more route-finding and scrambling. Chris and I didn't choose this option to get into the Right Fork, but you can see the details of this approach from my trip report for Das Boot Canyon (Left Fork) if you want to compare these options. Going this way drops you into the head of the Left Fork of North Creek, merging with the route Chris and I ultimately took. I added a blue line on my attached map for reference. The second route option is to descend from the West Rim via a feature called The Hammerhead Approach, but this would add a few long rappels. Unsure how long the day would be, we decided not to take this option either (in hindsight, we kind of wish we had). Instead, we started from the West Rim Trailhead and took the Wildcat Canyon Trail from there. This required a bit more driving, but felt fulfilling since it follows the entire drainage, and route-finding would be a bit easier since we had to just stick to the drainage. Regardless of the approach route, you'll need to place an ending shuttle car at the Right Fork Tailhead here (37.27087, -113.10313).

We made our way along the lovely Wildcat Canyon Trail from the West Rim Trailhead down to where it reaches the head of Blue Creek. The trail ascends to the west from here, but we left the trail and began south along the rocky and immediately brushy Blue Creek drainage. Not expecting it to be quite so tedious, we grew a little concerned about how much of this we'd have to deal with. After about a half mile of downed tree-hopping, 'shwhacking, and curses, the drainage opened up a bit more and we could see the towering cliff faces around us. Relaxing our moods a bit, we continued along the alternating slickrock and brushy forest until we descended to around 6300', where finally the nonsense opened up into views of Phantom Valley. Through this whole process, my best recommendation is to always stay out of the watercourse. It will be tempting to drop in when it gets slotty and pretty-looking, but the brush gets severe and forces you out again anyway. This becomes especially true once the views open up and the slot gets deeper and more tempting. We kept to the west of the Blue Creek drainage on higher ground for as long as we could, and while there was still some brush to contend with, it was far less bad as we neared the head of the Left Fork of North Creek.

We would have to cross the Left Fork in order to ascend to the head of the Right Fork, but the walls framing the Left Fork could prove to be tricky to overcome. With some Class 2 scrambling and slight navigational skills, we got down into the Left Fork drainage (I'm sure there are plenty of options to get into it) and followed the drainage until reaching the head of Upper Das Boot Canyon, marked by an abrupt narrowing into a slot. This is where the other option (blue line) would have met up, so from here either approach route will be the same. I would say overall the approach to this point was simply not fun. I don't know if it's more efficient than the alternate (blue line) option, since both take roughly the same amount of time. I guess it doesn't hurt to see a part of Zion I'd never explored before, right (yay, optimism)?

Just before the slotty part of Das Boot we noted a brushy, steep slope that had some sort of animal/social trail. This worked well for us, and after a couple hundred feet of ascending we could see a mostly clear route leading up to the head of Right Fork. There may have been another perfectly reasonable option for getting back out of the drainage earlier than we did. After ascending for about a mile on a gentle and sometimes sandy slope with plenty of prickly pear cactus bombs embedded in the ground, we got to the head of the Right Fork of North Creek. From here we descended for a few hundred feet, keeping to a low ridge rather than dropping into the brushy drainages on either side. We had to do some light bushwhacking and navigating around some cliffs, but nothing exceeded Class 2. I marked the spot where we dropped into the drainage, where finally we could walk unencumbered by annoying obstacles.

Walking through the wash was pleasant, but we were excited for some technical stuff. There's a route that leads along the west rim of the drainage, avoiding the longest section of technical canyon. We didn't pay too much attention to where this bypass was, but other resources give info regarding this bypass. Taking the bypass avoids the potholes of "Right Fork Direct" and drops you back into the drainage shortly before the significant bend where the drainage starts to head southwest. Like I mentioned earlier, without this technical portion we would have been pretty disappointed by the Right Fork. However, other trip reports mention potholes within this technical portion. While we didn't encounter any keepers on our trip, keep in mind this is a possiblity.

After suiting up, we headed into the narrows, where we had four rappels (none exceeding 60 feet), quite a few downclimbs and partner assists, and a couple of short slides. Depending on water levels, these notes will vary. We observed where some of the keeper potholes could develop, but with a potshot it's likely they wouldn't have posed too much difficulty.

The pothole section opened up for a bit (where the bypass route would have met back up), then narrowed into a gorgeous, deep slot. Here we rappelled one short and annoying drop and then continued to a section nicknamed "The Black Pool", a long swimmer in some deep narrows. It was quite cold, but a very pretty portion. Another rappel dropped us into some short narrows. We continued through the drainage, boulder-hopping and enjoying the scenery. A bunch of obstacles, including a nuissance rappel, led us to where the canyon became more open and introduced teasers of what we'd soon find in the mystical "Grand Alcove".

The Grand Alcove will likely remain one of the most beautiful desert features I've ever seen. Aptly named, a steep and tall overhang stretches far above. Toward its base, a horizontal seep formed an environment suitable for ferns to grow from the walls. At the base of the alcove the watercourse narrows into a slippery passage only a couple of feet wide. We downclimbed along the slippery first few drops through the watercourse, but decided we didn't want to get hurt sliding down and there wasn't anywhere convenient to build an anchor to get down the final 15 foot drop into the lower reaches. Instead of killing time, we headed back out of the watercourse and traversed along a wide ledge 50 feet or so above. At the end of the ledge we located a tree with some webbing, where two rappels would bring us back to the bottom of The Grand Alcove. This is a special place.

Shortly after The Grand Alcove, we reached the final rappel of the day, which dropped us over Barrier Falls. There's a small chance you'll see hikers who came up from the Right Fork Trailhead to reach this spot, but it would be hard to get me to make the out-and-back trek just to see Barrier Falls. Good for those who would. After Barrier Falls we put all our gear away and started the ridiculous exit. The first mile is still gorgeous, at least a dozen little waterfalls posing as obstacles and adding serenity to this magical place. Ample boulder-hopping and light bushwhacking also slowed us down. A featured called Double Falls can be either rappelled or bypassed via a Class 2 social trail on the left (east).

We stuck to the watercourse for another mile or so, some cool elements breaking up the monotony of the boulder-hopping, but then eventually it made more sense to just follow whatever animal trails we could locate on the sides of the creek to more efficiently make our way along the 5+ miles to the second car. Be careful not to miss the cairn marking the exit via the poorly-marked Right Fork Trail. This trail has some Class 2/2+ on volcanic rock to gain the rim.