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| Hiking | 14.00 Miles |
3,500 AEG |
| | Hiking | 14.00 Miles | | | |
| 3,500 ft AEG | | | | |
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| no partners | | I knocked out another trip to the Grand Canyon with CJ this weekend. This time we headed to South Canyon, the Nankoweap Trail and Saddle Mountain. We drove up late Friday night, as is the norm lately with us and woke up relatively early Saturday morning for our day hike of the South Canyon Route and the popular sites on the river.
Waking up at the trailhead for the South Canyon Route is a real treat. An excellent location to watch first light hit the earth. After a quick breakfast we were on the trail, or perhaps more appropriately route. The first section is steep and comes as advertised, however, it was not overly difficult with a slack pack. Especially for us, as we were coming off a full pack descent of the Salt Trail, just a couple weekends before. After the initial descent, the trail is just boulder hopping and the standard off trail Grand Canyon side canyon travel, with your obligatory bypasses. We made all the popular stops once we hit the river. Stanton's Cave was cool and fun to take pictures in and watch the boaters go by. I also enjoyed Vasey's Paradise, however, after seeing what it usually looks like when I got home, it was a little disappointing to know we basically hit it at a trickle. After Vaseys it was a to the beach for a dip in the Colorado with poison ivy scrub. Finally, after nearly three hours on the Colorado, we started to head back. The hike up may have actually been quicker than the hike down, but we both agreed we were ready for the climb after all of the dry creek bed travel.
Final Notes:
This is a really cool destination hike in the Grand Canyon and despite Vaseys being a trickle, I really enjoyed it. The place is a little bumping with river runners, so I don't know how much I would enjoy camping down there, but the area in general piqued my interest for the potential of a river trip one day, or at least an ambitious pack raft in that area. Although, Carrie's explanation of, "groovers" and "grooving" may have put off the prospect of a river trip by a few more years at least!
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