We were heading north for Toroweap and car camped in Page on Friday night. We had temps drop into the upper teens and it was a long night. We woke on Saturday and geared up for The Ropes Trail.

We drove over from our campsite and started from the west side. It took some navigation to find the upper portion of the route. Once we found it, we made quick time down. The route is a lot of fun! There are several eyelets to follow and things get fun when you come to the first notch. There was a solid rope that makes the descent straightforward. Once below that, it's careful going as you work your way down. There were a few more ropes and the final drop to the bottom involves a long drop. You have the option of a steel cable or a rope. I had garden gloves with a rubber grip and went with the cable.

Once down, we headed over the main area where there are two nice campsites and an outhouse loaded with TP. After enjoying the area for a few, we started our return. The climb up went really well. The rock has good grip and the exposure isn't as bad since you're looking up. We topped out and then headed back to the vehicles. From here we are heading for Toroweap.

This was a really great hike but it's not worth doing stand alone. Add this if you're already in the area. It only takes 2-3 hours and is time well spent.

This is by far my favorite hike I have done in the Page area. It is also one of my favorite short day-hikes ever. Thanks so much to @paleorob for the beta on this route. The adrenaline rush of going down each drop as you descend to the river is thrilling. I highly recommend this route, but caution you to assess the quality of the cables before descending/ascending. Some of them are starting to rust out. I also would not recommend doing this route after it rains. It had rained the day before we arrived, and most of the sandstone was dry. But it was still difficult to get good traction with vibram soles. It was still doable, but felt a little sketchy without the normal dry sandstone. The plus side of doing this hike in the winter: hardly anyone was around

Yet another after-work Ropes excursion, went with Edmonia this time. Actually went over the to the campsite and saw the petroglyphs this time, and visited the water for a couple minutes. Drank a couple handfuls of river water, it was fantastic. Got dark on the way back to the car again, but no problems.

Showed my co-workers Kyle and Glauco the Ropes after work. Ran out of time on the descent and turned around a little past halfway down the cliff as we didn't want to be climbing the exposed route after dark. Still had about a mile of walking in the darkness on the return to the car but never even needed the headlamps as there was a full moon at our backs. Good times.

After hearing about my great experience on my first trip out here, my roommate Paul wanted to do it with myself as his guide. He got off work late so we didn't start until nearly 6pm. I brought my tripod because I wanted to shoot this pool up by the radio towers, but I didn't want to take it all the way down ropes so I stashed it for the way back. I navigated us directly to the drop-off point without a hitch, and we started our descent. I think Paul was a little rattled by the exposure so we went slow and steady and made it down to the bottom without incident. We hung out for a minute or two but needed to head right back up due to the late hour. We crested the canyon rim right when the sunset was just ending and the light was fading quick as we tromped back toward the mesa. It was dark by the time we reached the foot of the mesa but navigated up its slickrock jungle easily and retrieved my tripod with no detours. So much for photos of the pool! We decided we didn't like the sound of the off-trail descent down the northwest side of the mesa so we just took the radio tower road back down, which apparently has two different gates to keep cars from driving up there. Yet another successful Ropes trip in the books.

I'd heard about this route for a long time, and I was definitely anticipating it being hairy, so I'd put off doing it until I found company to join me. My co-worker Mike had gone solo about a week before and tested it out, but he got nervous down near the bottom so we decided to join forces for an after-work hike, and coerced another co-worker, Brittany, to come along too. On Mike's solo hike, it sounded like it took him a couple hours of poking around to find the actual route down off the rim. Using his memory, and my photographic memorization of mapped route here on HAZ, we were able to climb up and over the radio tower mesa and find the drop-in point without much trouble. I had a bit of trepidation seeing the exposed sandstone tongue containing metal posts (minus the cables or chains that they once held). I even told Brittany something along the lines of, "I don't have a problem turning back if it gets too gnarly." The sandstone tongue soon led to a notch in the sandstone that, had I been alone, probably would've caused me to turn back out of unnecessary fear. With a bit of coaching from Mike, it turned out to be a breeze to down-climb. After another brief semi-exposed slickrock walk, we encountered another pitch similar to the first. Both actually had ropes fixed, but were wholly unnecessary, and one in particular was not a rope designed for climbing, or of very good quality, and was also fraying to the point of probably multiplying the danger instead of mediating it. After another stretch of ledge-walking we got the the spot where Mike turned back, a long, steep embankment of sandstone equipped with a long cable to use as a climbing aid. We figured out that it looked worse than it was, and there was plenty of traction to "friction climb" up and down the slope without use of the cable. I attempted to use the cable just to try it out, and I actually found that since the cable just went straight off the steeper parts of the pitch, it didn't follow any of the natural avenues to climb up or down, and therefore I preferred moving completely under my own control than with the "aid" of the cable. It's really more for novelty or show than anything. We hung out down by the river for a good half hour and soaked up the scenery before heading back up. As always the climb up seemed easier (in respect to the technical aspects of the climbing), but it's a real lung buster, and I wasn't really in shape for the blistering pace at which Mike attempted to ascend. We got back to the car uneventfully, but fully satisfied with the trip. In my opinion, this is the best option for a really good hike in the direct vicinity of Page.

Five friends and I drove from Flagstaff to the Wahweap Campground, set up our tents, and then drove back toward Page about 300 yards on Highway 89. We took a two track road about two miles southwest, parked, and then continued walking along the two track. The road eventually ended under twin high voltage towers. From there we kept walking northeast until we saw the two foot post sticking out of the rock that marks the start of the Ropes Trail. The trail/ route follows a diagonal crack to the southwest. There were two places where we had to down climb and two other places where there were fixed cables. The total drop was about 700 feet. We spent about 4 hours by the Colorado River fishing, "swimming", and just hanging out. I did catch a rainbow trout that I later had for dinner. The hike down was rather warm as we were in full sun. We waited long enough for shade to cover the first part of the climb. We spent the night at the campground.

We walked out to Horseshoe Bend on our way back to Flagstaff the next day.

I had a dilemma during the day; join a group of friends at the movies after work, or go for a solo hike down The Ropes to the Colorado River and do some fishing. Both had their appeal, but I reasoned that the movie would soon change to something that I had more of a desire to see than Twilight: Eclipse, so I headed home to get changed. I also found that I had no decent river bait, and with only about 2 hours of usable daylight left, I didn't want to screw around waiting in line a Wal-Mart, so I turned the trip into a photo hike instead. I rolled out to the parking area, descended into the old cable trough between the two ridges, and hiked out to the sand hills beyond.
It had been too long since my last time out to the West Rim, so I hit the rim further west than I needed to be. I lost some time, and probably could have made the river had I cut further east. It turned out alright, though, since I was able to enjoy some beautiful scenery along the rim.
The drop down into The Ropes was slightly sketchy, since I was off of the usual approach, but I got down into the main basin (hoping I'd be able to get back out easily), and immediately picked up the "trail" - poles in a line, leading off of a steep edge. Steep, but walkable: I love Navajo Sandstone. I headed down a ridge with a nearly sheer drop off to my left down to the Colorado River and a deep fissure between the ridge and the cliff face to my right. It was then that my Camelbak decided to fail - the stop valve popped out and water started gushing. I saw where the valve landed, however, and with the pipe in my teeth I downclimbed into the fissure and retrieved it. Restoring functionality to my hydration pack, I came to the first downclimb. I was only moderately concerned, since I was solo, but a quick test allayed my concerns. The handholds were large and the toeholds obvious. I downclimbed the 6' drop and continued down the ridge towards the second downclimb, with a steep landing at the base. Another quick test and I went for it, reaching a broad ledge without a problem. I was getting close to my turnaround time, judging by the shadows on the canyon wall, so I followed a fissure down to a slickrock apron where the last pole stood, anchoring the "rope", in reality a length of steel cable that allows hikers to go down (and back up) the otherwise impassable slickrock dome. I knew I didn't have time to make the river, but I did set up my camera and snapped a picture of myself on the "rope", climbing back towards the anchor. It was time to go.
The going up was much tougher than the going down, and I certainly got a good cardio workout gaining the rim ~700' above the anchor. The sun was just dipping below a local horizon, casting some of the rocks in a stunning light. I was glad I brought my camera, so I shot away. I found old crawler tracks in the sandstone, from when builders were running the lines to the towers in the 1960's. The steel treads were strong enough to leave permanent marks in the Navajo Sandstone. I cruised past the substation and up into a draw with some more lovely photographic opportunities. I dropped back down from a plateau into the original cable trench and then climbed back up to my truck just as the sun was dipping below the true horizon of the Paria Plateau. All in all, a nice after-work hike!