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| Backpack | 35.00 Miles |
8,000 AEG |
| | Backpack | 35.00 Miles | | | |
| 8,000 ft AEG | | | | |
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| no partners | | This is probably my new favorite Canyon hike. I've hiked almost all the South Rim established trails, and this one really stands out for beauty and adventure.
I went with my 19-year-old son and my good friend Sam.
It snowed a couple inches in Tusayan the night before we started, and the temperatures were in the teens when we drove to the trailhead. I might have canceled at this point, but this was the third time that I've had a permit (first time canceled for weather, second for illness), so we went for it anyway. The weather was supposed to clear up after a day or two. I was concerned about getting to the trailhead, but now that I've driven to the South Bass trailhead in the rain and in the snow, I can report that snow was easier.
Day One: Trailhead to the head of the first arm of the Royal Arch drainage. This day was easy walking. Hiking on the Esplanade is unusual, and it's great to hike at this level.
We camped on the large shelf just before the trail descends into the drainage. Overnight it started raining, about 2 am. I lay in my sleeping bag for a couple of hours until the rain slowed, then got up to pee. Turning on my headlamp and unzipping the tent fly, I found that it had been snowing, not raining. At least 2" of accumulation already. I got back in the bag and lay awake until dawn, wondering what we should do. Things looked better in the light and the snow started melting almost right away.
Day Two: Royal Arch drainage to Toltec Beach.
We didn't get started until 10 am because I let the other guys sleep, given our rather sleepless night, and then morning preparations were slowed by the snow. We were all packed up and ready to go when another storm rolled through and we got sleeted on for another 20 minutes. When it cleared, we stood around for another 15 minutes trying to decide what to do: go back to the trailhead (how much snow was up there now, could we get out?); wait a day to see if the weather cleared (which we didn't have time for); or go ahead and take a chance that we'd get rained on all day. We could see that the snow cover was gone about a mile down the drainage, so we ended up going forward.
Descending the drainage through the Supai layer was a lot easier than I expected. Lots of long sections of walking on flat rocks, punctuated by boulder fields and detours around pour offs. We used the right-hand bypass around the biggest pour off instead of the "Ledge of Death" to the left.
The going got a little slower in the main Royal Arch drainage as it descended through the Redwall. More boulder jumbles.
We got to Royal Arch by midafternoon. The canyon is really pretty in this area, and the arch itself is a lot more massive than I expected. You need humans in the photos to get the right perspective. We pumped water for the first time, from the creek under the arch, though we had seen plenty of tinajas with water along the way.
We decided to try to make it to the Tonto Shelf past the Arch for camping, but walking on this section of trail was so fast that we made it to the rappel by 5:15. The rappel was scarier than any of us expected -- there's not much room on top to maneuver, and there's a lot of exposure below the landing ledge at the bottom. I had brought a rope along and webbing to tie up into a harness, as the Park Service recommends, so everything went smoothly. My son went down first, then we lowered the packs. As we lowered my pack over the edge, my steel water bottle slipped out a side pocket and fell; it didn't stop at the lower ledge, but bounced and kept going down the shear slope below. Eventually the threaded plastic top popped off with a loud bang, and water pinwheeled out as the bottle bounced into oblivion. My son said "That's what's going to happen to you when you fall!" I love him too.
We had no more rain or snow this day, and it was warm down at the river. We made it to the beach at 6 pm-ish. Camping at Toltec Beach was great.
Day 3: Elves Chasm, then Toltec Beach to somewhere on the Tonto
In the morning we spent almost 3 hours on the Elves Chasm side trip. That is a rough trail. We filled up with water at Elves Chasm. The Colorado was full of dirt, and the water in the puddles in Toltec drainage looked suspect, so this seemed like the best option.
We started off in early afternoon headed upstream from Toltec Beach. The going was slow and tough where the trail runs close to the river, especially since we were loaded down with water for a dry camp that evening. Some of the rocks that you have to climb over are so sharp that it hurts to put your hand on them. The trail got better as it climbed away from the river, and the ascent through Garnett Canyon was really nice.
Walking on the Tonto was easy, and quite a relief after the last 1-1/2 days of rough trail. We made it to within a mile or so of Copper Canyon before camping on the Tonto Shelf.
The sky was perfectly blue on this day without a single cloud. The only bummer was that my son's ankle started hurting, so he was hobbling by day's end. He probably hurt it sometime on the second day with all of the jumping down from rocks in the drainage. He's not nearly as cautious as us old guys.
Day 4: from somewhere on the Tonto to the trail junction on the Esplanade
We hiked the rest of the Tonto in the morning and arrived at the South Bass shortly after noon. We planned to either descend to Bass Beach for the night or climb to the Esplanade for the night, depending upon the water situation. We found water puddles in the drainage below the junction, so we filtered water and headed up the hill.
It was windy and colder by the time we got to the Esplanade about 5:30-ish. It was getting cloudy and looked like it could rain, but we decided to camp anyway rather than climbing out because my son's ankle was really causing him pain. He had been hiking mostly on one leg since midway through the day before.
We made it all almost all the way through the night without precipitation, but it started snowing at 4:45. We waited until it started to get light at 6:15 to assess the situation, at which time there was over an inch of snow on the ground and it was plain that this was not just a passing storm.
Day 5: Esplanade junction to trailhead
We packed up everything in the snow and headed for the rim. Luckily the trail was easy to follow at this point, even in the snow, and we made it out by 8 am. There was only 3 inches or so of snow on the ground at the trailhead.
Driving out from the trailhead was easier than I feared. We had no problems with my 4x4 Sequoia. Again, the snow was better for driving than was the mud on a South Bass trip several years before. |
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