First Night Canyon is the Tom Hanks designation of an unnamed drainage, where he and Molly, Steve and Erica spent their first night on the Rainbow Plateau. Here the modern trail to Rainbow Bridge departs the Wetherill Trail and heads west to Bald Rock Canyon to the trail cut into the east wall by the Civilian Conservation Corps during Depression years of the 1930’s. This modern cut-off shortens the walk from First Night Canyon to Surprise Valley by six to seven miles. The original Wetherill Trail passed east (right) of Cha Buttes, seen in the first and fourth sets of photographs below. Beaver (Cha) Creek is a nearby ephemeral drainage.
Repeat Photography Site for The James J. Hanks Photographs, 1927-1928.
