water along tonto trail btwn Grandview & South Kaibab

[lcozzetti]

Since it's been a dry year, i was wondering if anyone has hiked this recently and could tell me about water. Especially in Grapevine, Boulder, and Lone Tree. It would be much appreciated.

[hikeaz]

Upstream (sometimes 10-15 minutes) of the trail crossing @ Grapevine will always have water even if there is none @ the crossing. Side note: Building in time to significantly explore up and down Grapevine canyon is very worthwhile - it may even be worthy of a short or layover day.

I have never seen Lonetree dry, the spring that is. It is about 10-15 minutes down-canyon of the trail crossing - creek right.

[lcozzetti]

I got in touch with Backcountry ranger office (not the easiest thing to do) and they said as of march 8 there is water in grapevine and lonetree but not boulder. posting this just in case someone else wants to know.

[lcozzetti]

hi, i didn't see your speedy reply until i was posting again. thank you very much. you gave good info. appreciated.

[hikeaz]

I got in touch with Backcountry ranger office (not the easiest thing to do) and they said as of march 8 there is water in grapevine and lonetree but not boulder. posting this just in case someone else wants to know.

Most times the BCO relays trail/water info from returning hikers/backpackers. Most often folks to not venture much from the Tonto trail crossings, so if they see no water there,they report it as 'dry'.
Boulder Canyon is not exactly a 'garden spot' to camp anyway, so no water there is not much of a hardship. Lonetree is just 3 miles west.
In winter and spring or after rains, the western arm of Cremation often holds some water in the potholes, down 5-8 minutes from the trail crossing. If it is warm out it is also a nice, cool place to hang out and/or camp.

NOTE: The "new-improved? regs prohibit camping west of the western Cremation drainage" if you are supposed to be in BJ9.
This is a crock of....

If exiting @ SK and if you'd like to skip the entourage et al at the big potty stop on the SK, you can bear off the Tonto about 1/2 mile east of the SK and take the angle up that ramp to the SK. The route is very obvious - you can see the hoards on the SK as a marker.

[azbackpackr]

@hikeaz
Good info. This is one of two sections of Tonto I haven't hiked yet. Will get to it eventually...

[lcozzetti]

Mar 20 - Boulder had some water oozing over rocks in the main canyon up from the trail crossing 5 min. Found the spring in the east arm, the water there also oozed so it took a while to get it into a container to filter.
There is a large sign in Cremation denoting the beginning of dayuse only area. I don't know why nps moved boundary. On the bright side, Cremation canyon was a delightful place to camp; lots of sand for sleeping, slick rock for cooking, shade and options for exploring down canyon. Though there weren't many spaces so i'm glad we had it to ourselves. There was one sink-sized pothole with dark water and a very large population of tadpoles.
Lonetree's water was trickling into various bathtub sized pools though they were shallow 3-4".

[chumley]

@lcozzetti
Thanks for the information.

Please consider posting a water report for each of those locations. It will be easier for future users to find and will group each report to the specific source so a pattern of availability during certain dates/seasons can be used when people search in the future.

Water reports can be easily added when you enter a triplog, or you can click the water source icon on the map and then click "add report". http://hikearizona.com/map.php?QX=4675

Thanks!