DESTINATION Generic 41 Photosets
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| Rim Trail #10 North End, AZ | | -
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| | Rim Trail #10 North End, AZ | | | |
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Rim Trail #10 North End, AZ
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| Hiking | 6.70 Miles |
1,032 AEG |
| | Hiking | 6.70 Miles | 6 Hrs 58 Mns | | 0.96 mph |
| 1,032 ft AEG | | 15 LBS Pack | | |
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| no partners | | This was my third day car camped above the end of Crazy Jug Canyon on the North Rim Grand Canyon. I decided to do some exploring in the rim area near camp instead of descending into the canyon as I had done the previous two days. My Garmin Topo US 24k Southwest map showed an unnamed trail passing near my camp. My hard copy North Kaibob Ranger District map also shows this trail with it labeled as Rim Trail #10. This trail is shown on that map extending from a TH on FR206 about 3.7 miles east of Timp Point all the way north to another TH at the intersection of FR292 and FR272 about a half mile north of my camp. So off I went to find the north end of this trail and follow it hopefully all the way south to Parissawampitts Point. Not sure where the name for that point came from but it sounds like a derogatory description of Paris Hilton (there, that might help me remember how to pronounce it). This was the beginning of an off and on search for the remnants of this old trail over the next week as I worked my way south along the rim visiting some of the major view points I had not been too on my previous trip three years ago.
This started out as a pleasant walk through a green meadow sprinkled with blue Lupine and a red flower with tiny trumpet shaped blossoms beneath towering Ponderosa Pines. But then my route started up a small drainage towards a hilltop labeled South Big Saddle Point on the map. The drainage soon got choked with New Mexico Locust which appears to be taking over much of the forest areas on the north rim. So far there had been no sign of the trail. I started weaving back and forth trying to find clearings through the clumps of locust. Where the terrain started to level out on the hilltop I spotted a small red flag marker on the end of a wire stuck in the ground. There appeared to be a faint trail through the grass which I back tracked on and soon came upon a white reflective plastic diamond tacked on the trunk of a tree and another red flag. I had found the trail. I then followed this faint trail as it more or less followed the trail marked on my GPS map heading east through patches of open meadow. More red flags, rock cairns, two more diamond markers, and an old wood Trail #10 sign nailed to a tree, and an occasional "North Rim Trail" marker confirmed I was on track.
As the trail approached to within 50 yds west of FR272 it began to show signs of recent maintenance. The ground had been scrapped just deep enough to show the dirt and gravel in the soil below creating a narrow path no more than 1 foot wide. At this point I took a detour on an old logging road bed that was almost completely hidden by grass along the top of a ridge that extended towards the GC. The only clue to the existence of this road was a small sign indicating the number 3672 where this road crossed Trail #10. I would find a number of these road number identification signs at seemingly random locations in the forest marking roads that had long ago been reclaimed by the forest. One was even shown as a road approved for All Motor Vehicle Use on my Garmin GPS Kaibob NF MVUM overlay. The north Kaibob Nat. Forest was logged long ago resulting in a maze of old logging roads, many of which have been abandoned and are grown over. I'm not sure why the Forest Service found it necessary to go to the expense of posting signs on all these unused roads, especially when many of the signs are not within view of roads currently in use.
I continued to follow what appeared to be the beginning of restoration of the old Rim Trail #10 but it soon deviated from the route shown on my map and connected with the end of FR3637 (not on the map). From there I assumed it followed FR3637 to where that road branches off of FR272C. At this point the trail appeared to end and did not proceed on towards Parissawampitts Point as the old Trail #10 had. From here it was a long way by road to P. Point so I dropped that destination from my itinerary, stopped for lunch, and then headed back for camp the way I had come. On the way back to camp I found more trail markers at the other end of the trail and followed what I think is the old route of Trail #10 all the way to where it ended at the intersection of FR292 and FR272. Although a TH is shown here on my hardcopy map of the North Kaibob NF, there is no sign for the trail and it is obviously out of use at this location. I'm not sure if the Forest Service plans to restore this north end of the Rim Trail beyond the small amount that I observed. It appears that the only section of old Trail #10 which is regularly maintained is now called the Rainbow Rim Trail starting at Timp Point in the south and ending at Parissawampitts Point. |
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