9 miles, moderate

We enjoyed a bit of a sleep-in today, then walked on down Dark Canyon to where the Sundance Trail begins. We took a lunch break here and then headed up the trail through a huge talus slope from the river to the top of the canyon. We climbed 1,200 feet in 1.2 miles on this loose “trail” full of big boulders to climb over and loose scree. It went by pretty quickly, and I was really glad to b e going up on this trail instead of down, it’s way more stable feeling.

TRAIL NOTES:
The Sundance Trail has been re-routed up on top where it crosses the dirt road. The book has you going straight and now the trail goes left and follows the road. We took the old route since Dave has been on it before, but the cairns have been removed, and where it goes over large sections of slickrock you’ll just have to head in the right direction. It’s probably best now to follow the newly routed trail, but we estimate it adds 2-3 extra miles based on the topo, though it is dirt road so should be easy miles.