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| Backpack | 62.50 Miles |
15,000 AEG |
| | Backpack | 62.50 Miles | 4 Days | | |
| 15,000 ft AEG | | | | |
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| no partners | | I timed my visit to Cheyava perfectly - it's booming! We also took the opportunity to explore other arms of Clear Creek, although some side-trips were foiled by the sheer volume of water. Clear and Bright Angel creeks are high and brown with all the snowmelt. I didn't consider it beforehand, but of course Clear Creek is high when Cheyava is flowing.
On Thursday we started down South Kaibab at sunrise. It was an unusual, beautiful sunrise - there were clouds to the west, making the canyon look dark there, while it looked whitewashed to the east. We reached the river within two hours then had a good break at Phantom Ranch. It was still overcast so we didn't bake on Tonto. I wanted to try an alternate approach to the main camps in Clear Creek by dropping into Zoroaster Canyon, contouring around, and descending near the mouth of Clear Creek. The scrambling was fun, route-finding straightforward, and the bed of Zoro has nice smooth granite pouroffs (with some green potholes - curious whether these last). But when we looked down on Clear Creek we realized, like Bright Angel, it's hardly it's normal meek gurgling self this month. I don't know if lower Clear Creek has narrows but we didn't want to back ourselves into any sketchy fords so we retreated to the trail via another easy break in the Tapeats. At camp we met other hikers who had turned around early on their attempt to reach the river, although they seemed to have a lower risk tolerance.
On Friday we made the hike up to Cheyava. This seemed slower than usual because we had to select our creek crossings carefully and push through brush whenever we left the main use trail. I think about half of the water in that canyon is coming from the Cheyava arm, half from below Ariel Point. We finally turned a corner and saw Cheyava pouring out of the cliffs a mile ahead. How exciting! The brush seems thicker close to the fall but we found a large flat-topped limestone boulder with a good view and lounged for a few hours. I scrambled up to the base of the redwall below Cheyava, where I thought I saw some perfect little rectangle outlines, but there was nothing there. The wind would blow and the whole waterfall would drift into different cracks and some side falls would turn brown with fresh rockfall. On our return to camp we detoured a short ways up the arm towards Ariel Point. The water here is in a narrow channel so the creek was deep and fast and crossings were unpleasant.
On Saturday we had a leisurely hike up the east arm with no specific objectives. This stream was braided in places, like a great glacial river. I think it was contributing about 1/3 of the water to lower Clear Creek. I found a roasting pit and two buck skulls with antlers intact. The Quartzite and Tapeats narrows were pretty, but also more tedious with the high water. We continued up the two wetter arms in the Bright Angel Shale where we found lots of nice little pouroffs. I investigated (and removed) some cairns which seemed to indicate the best way to the Angel's Gate saddle.
I starteda few hours after my friend for the hike out on Sunday and ran into some interesting folks on the trail. I'm surprised by how many people we met had plans to visit Cheyava and how few actually did - we were the only ones up there in at least three days, and there was just one woman who seemed likely to visit after us. On Tonto, I nearly stepped on a gopher snake stretched across the trail. I didn't start up South Kaibab until after 12:30 on this somewhat hot, sunny day. That's okay though - I know the best shady alcoves and took deliberate breaks. The lower trail was quiet in the heat but there was lots of traffic up top.
Spring has finally sprung! The redbuds and sego lillies are blooming, agave and yucca are sending up stalks, and beavertail and prickly pears are just starting to open buds. |
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