The key to this trail is to stay to the RIGHT at the first two forks in the road. Otherwise you end up have to cross back-and-forth over the stream several times. There should be just two crossings ~ the first is shallow and you can rock-hop across or use the logs. Stick on the North side of the water as you continue forward. The path is clearly defined but there are many side-trails so there is a bit of route finding. The second steam crossing is deeper, but a series of big logs make it manageable. After that second crossing, things start to get a bit more overgrown so you really have to push through a bit.
We backpacked to the second camping site, which was way prettier than the first and had direct access to water source.
Heavy rain set in that night, so we had to cut our 2-night backpack down to 1.
On the way back we hit a small trail that took us closer to the basalt column area on the south side of the canyon ~ pretty, but not passable. So be sure to take the same trail back as you did when hiking in. Lots of route finding!
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