split-mountain

Updated: June 22, 2025

At the head of this valley is Split-Mountain Canyon, 8 miles long, with ragged, craggy walls 2700 feet high. It contains a number of medium rapids. Island Park separates it from Whirlpool Canyon. It is a charming little valley, full of islands, a mere expansion of the walls, 9 miles long, 9 miles of rainbow, for the surrounding rocks and marls are of every hue.

Frederick Samuel Dellenbaugh - The Romance of the Colorado River : The Story of its Discovery in 1840, with an Account of the Later Explorations, and with Special Reference to the Voyages of Powell through the Line of the Great Canyons

A wild and ragged wilderness stretched out in all directions, while down in the canyon more of a narrow valley than a canyon after the entrance was passed the river swept along, marked, here and there, by bars of white we knew to be rapids. Crags and pinnacles shot up from every hand, and from this circumstance it was at first uncertain whether to call the canyon Craggy or Split-Mountain.

Frederick Samuel Dellenbaugh - The Romance of the Colorado River : The Story of its Discovery in 1840, with an Account of the Later Explorations, and with Special Reference to the Voyages of Powell through the Line of the Great Canyons