The Rainbow Trail was discovered and opened by John Wetherill and Charles Bernheimer in 1922, after it was determined that travel down Aztec Creek in Forbidding Canyon to either Rainbow Bridge or the Colorado River was not feasible. The principal bottleneck for opening the Rainbow trail was Redbud Pass, a narrow slot through the Navajo Sandstone; here the opening was expedited with explosives, as indicated by the jagged outcrops near the base of the slot.
Repeat Photography Site for The James J. Hanks Photographs, 1927-1928.
