Canyoneering | Lower Granary Canyon
Hype:
Lower Granary Canyon is an awesome little canyon. It has several big rappels and a couple of pools of water that are avoidable. There are also several arches and natural bridges.
Most people choose to do Upper Granary Canyon and Lower Granary Canyon back-to-back (7.1 miles). However, if time is as issue, you can also do just Upper Granary Canyon (4.2 miles). It's not recommended that you do only Lower Granary Canyon because if you're going to do Lower, you might as well do Upper too to save on hiking.
Canyon Rating: 3A 
Time: 5-7 hours to do Upper and Lower Granary
Length: 7.2 miles round trip
Longest Rappel: 5 rappels up to 100 ft if returning or 6 rappels to 200 ft if exiting down Jug Handle Arch
Gear: Standard technical gear. Bring lots of extra webbing as many of the anchors are located away from the edge.
Fees: None
Recommended Ages:
 | 0-3 |
 | 4-11 |
 | 12-19 |
 | 20-49 |
 | 50-69 |
 | 70+ |
Recommended Months to Visit:
| Jan |
| Feb |
| Mar |
| Apr |
| May |
| Jun |
| Jul |
| Aug |
| Sep |
| Oct |
| Nov |
| Dec |
Permits: Permits are not required.
Links: www.roadtripryan.com
Navigate to 38.547647, -109.714759.
The trailhead is accessible via UT-313 (paved for all but the last 2-3 miles) or via UT-279 and Long Canyon Road (paved for all but the last 6 miles, high clearance).
The approach is 0.5 miles over mostly flat terrain. There is no established trail, so be sure to bring adequate nagivation.
The technical portion of Upper Granary Canyon is 1.6 miles long.
From the bottom of Upper Granary, you can exit the canyon and hike back to the trailhead (2.1 miles), or you can hike 0.3 miles over to the top of Lower Granary Canyon (followed by 1.1 miles in the canyon and a 3.6-mile exit hike).
Drop #1 - 100-foot rappel off a tree
Pothole - Easily walked around.
Drop #2 - 100-foot rappel off a tree that is 30 ft from the edge.
Drop #3 - 15-foot rappel off a 2-bolt anchor into a 3-sided alcove.
Arch - A large arch spanning across the canyon.
Trigon Arch - High on the canyon rim.
Drop #4 - 50-foot rappel off a tree.
Drop #5 - 20-foot rappel off a deadman anchor.
Large Pool - Can be bypassed by running right (north) while on rappel.
Pothole - Can be bypassed on the right, medium difficulty.
Pool - Can be bypassed on the left via a running wall ride.
From the bottom of Lower Granary, you have two options.
Option 1: Exit back to the upper trailhead (3.6 miles)
Option 2: Continue east overland (1.1 miles) to the top of Jug Handle Arch, where a final 200-foot rappel deposits you at the shuttle parking area. Keep an eye out for the granary near the bottom of the rappel. You might have to search a bit to find it as it blends in.
By Jeremy Dye
Jeremy Dye, Cooper Dye, Anthony Dye, Miller Dye, Kevin Christensen, Michelle Christensen,
Start: 10:20
Top of Upper: 10:45
Bottom of Upper: 3:20
Top of Lower: 3:40
Bottom of Lower: 5:55
Jug Handle Parking: 8:00
Cooper woke up at 6:30. We ate breakfast and gathered our bags for the day. From camp at Bride's Canyon, we drove to 191 then took Potash Road up to Jug Handle Arch. We dropped off Anthony's truck at the parking area there and piled into Kevin's SUV to drive up Long Canyon Road to the top of Granary Canyon. Part way up the road, his SUV started making some aweful sounds. We got out to check where the noise was coming from and discovered that some sort of fluid was leaking. We pulled off to the side of the road and hitched a ride with the next passing truck. They dropped us off at the fork in the road. We ended up walking about 0.7 miles extra, but it could have been a lot worse.
At the first rappel, we realized that none of up brought a fiddlestick, which was a huge disappointment for us. Anthony rigged a macrame knot, and once we were all down, it took us about 15 minutes to release the macrame. It took two of us tugging on each side to release it. Not a great solution.
At one of the next rappels, Anthony forgot to toss the pull side down before rappelling. Rather than ascend back up, I was able to find a way to rock climb up the side wall. I then threw the pull side and rappelled down. Another 15 minutes lost due to a rookie mistake.
We ended up rappelling at least 6 times in Upper Granary.
Lower Granary went mostly smoothly. We spent some extra effort keeping people dry. At one point, we set up a guided rappel for Miller and Cooper. Anthony was a meat anchor on the lower end and I was mean anchor on the upper end. When Michelle went across, I lost my footing and rolled out of my ledge, dropping Michelle in the water. She was quite shocked and in her hurry to get out of the cold water, she almost pulled Anthony in with her. Weirdly, Kevin didn't want to do the guided rappel like Michelle.
It took us quite a bit of searching to find the anchor for the last rappel next to Jug Handle Arch. We were following beta from roadtripryan.com, and he was quite a bit off on the last anchor location.
We only had three ropes in our group, so we weren't able to sequence very well, and the canyon ended up taking quite a bit longer than we were hoping. We got to the last rappel as the sun was setting. The last rappel was 200 ft and there was a frayed spot in the long rope, so when Anthony went down first, he used an Alpine butterfly to isolate the fray. It was located at a ledge so people could pass the knot on solid ground. Michelle was anxious about passing the knot and not having anyone to double check her re-rigging, so Kevin went down first and belayed Michelle down the first pitch. Then he helped her pass the Alpine butterfly and rappel the rest of the drop before he did the second half. I tossed him the pull cord so he could make sure it wasn't tangled when he went down. Cooper and I came down last. As I was rappelling, I made sure that the pull cord and the rappel rope weren't twisting around each other so that we would have a clean pull. Once we were down, Kevin tried to pull the rope but it got stuck after pulling for a little bit. We both tried tugging on it but we couldn't get it to dislodge. Anthony and Michelle and then later Kevin finished the hike down to hop in the shuttle vehicle and go pick up the Christensen's car. I set up a 7-to-1 mechanical advantage system to try to pull the rope down and get it untangled. But when I heard them shouting and honking at me I gave up and just left the rope there.
They left our food tote for us, so Cooper and I camped on the side of the road and ate treats and talked for a little bit. It was getting kind of cold, so Cooper and I took a walk down the railroad tracks to stay busy. Cooper was anxious about walking on the railroad tracks because he thought a train might hit us. I told him that was unlikely because we would hear it coming. A minute or two later Cooper looked back and saw a car's headlights coming our way and thought it was a train and totally flipped out and started yelling and running as fast as he could sideways. I looked back and saw the lights and saw him running and his fear transferred to me because I thought it had to be something dangerous for him to be that scared. It was very funny in hindsight. The shuttle car came back for us and we drove back to camp and had a late dinner.
After oru canyon the next day, we drove into town and made a game plan for retrieving the stuck rope at Granary Canyon. We figured out that the reason the rope didn't pull is because I forgot to untie the Alpine butterfly knot before pulling. Total rookie mistake. The game plan was that Tara would drive me to the bottom of the canyon where I could check to see if the rope was still there. If it was, then Tara would drive me to the top of the canyon and I would run the exit hike down to the last rappel and collect the rope on my way down. Then Anthony and company would pick me up at the bottom at around 8:30.
When we got to the bottom of Granary Canyon, there was a group just finishing the canyon and they collected our rope for us. But instead of tossing it down to us they packed it in their bag and the last person brought it down with them, which meant that I had to wait for almost an hour for them to finish rappelling. Once we had the rope in hand, our car drove back to Moab on the paved road.
Brides Canyon Designated Dispersed Campsites
By Jeremy Dye
Jeremy Dye, Anthony Dye, Miller Dye, Ondylyn Wagner,
We did Upper Granary and Lower Granary in approximately 6 hours with a 2-year-old. It was a ton of fun and the weather was great.
Camp Sites: Brides Canyon Designated Dispersed Campsites
Granary Canyon Primitive Camping
Canyoneering: 
Fun Places: 
Hiking: Grandstaff Canyon to Morning Glory Arch
Rock Climbing: 
Rappels
Downclimbs
Anchor Building - Fiddlestick
Fixed Anchors
Wetsuit Generally Not Required
No Drinking Water
Arches
Wayfinding
Road Access is Dirt - Low Clearance
Access Road is 2WD Accessible
Access Road is 4WD