148.3

River Mileage

L

River Left

About Matkat Canyon

Matkatamiba Canyon is one of our favorite stops on a Grand Canyon trip (known by many just as Matkat Canyon). The canyon carves its way through thousands of feet of sheer cliffs. You’ll feel tiny walking along the creek bed, with the walls towering over the top of you. You can take the trail as far back as you want, at every bend the canyon just seems to get more and more interesting.

Hitting the Matkat eddy

Eddying out is tricky here and the problem only becomes more difficult when it gets busy. Some strategies to help: 1) Communicate with other groups and the members of your party. 2) If you are the first raft into the eddy, give yourself a headstart to allow yourself to get tied off either high or low in the eddy, and then act as a catcher for the other rafts coming in. 3) If you miss the eddy, run the rapid and then pull over on river left and you can still hike into the canyon.

Exploring Matkat Canyon

There are two ways to get into Matkat. The harder way is just start heading up the creek, which involves some scrambling along the walls if you don’t want to get wet. The other way is a well-marked trail that starts just downstream of the creek. A lot of groups will climb up the narrow slot canyon and then take the trail back to avoid getting wet again.