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| Escalante Route: Tanner to Grandview, AZ | |
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| | Escalante Route: Tanner to Grandview, AZ | | | |
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Escalante Route: Tanner to Grandview, AZ
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| Backpack | 34.82 Miles |
8,566 AEG |
| | Backpack | 34.82 Miles | 2 Days 11 Hrs 30 Mns | | |
| 8,566 ft AEG | | 20 LBS Pack | | |
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| Partners |
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none
[ show ]
| no partners | | This was my 1st of 2 Grand Canyon Backpacking trips for 2024.
Preface
The Escalante Route was my first excursion away from a named "trail" and onto a "route" below the rim. [Although this is nearly a trail at this point]. Initially, we planned for 3 nights at Tanner Beach, Red Canyon, and Horseshoe Mesa, but we ended up pushing from Red Canyon to Grandview TH on Day 3.
Day 1
We were dropped off at Tanner Trailhead at Lipan Point and started down the canyon by 8AM. There were several prickly pear cacti with vibrant pink blossoms all throughout the way to the head of 75 mile canyon. We made it to the top of the Redwall by 11AM and skipped down the Dox Sandstone mounds to Tanner Beach by 2PM. We saw no other hikers the entire day, even at the beach. We watched a few river trips tackle Tanner Rapid. There was a nice sand beach where the main wash met the river. [I recently visited Tanner Beach in April 2025 and noticed none of the sand in the wash remains and the river height was noticeably lower.] It was nearly a full moon throughout the night, but I snagged a few pictures of the sky after the moonset around 3AM.
Day 2
We departed Tanner Beach by 5AM and officially began the Escalante Route with Red Canyon as the target for camp that night. We took a detour to the Anasazi Hilltop Ruins near Cardenas Creek overlooking the Unkar Delta. The shoulder before Escalante Creek is an epic view since you can view the wide Furnace Flats to the east and the narrow canyons to the west. The light scrabble that bypasses a pouroff in Escalante Creek was a nice change of pace. We spent an hour or so watching rafts float by from the relaxing beach after Escalante Creek and before the bench rises up to 75 mile canyon. We made it to the slot canyon portion of 75 mile canyon by 1PM and we enjoyed the narrow walls. My hiking partner was a bit skeptical on the difficulty of the famous Papago Wall, but it was very straightforward. The chute on the descent was actually more difficult due to navigating the loose scree with our packs. We made it to Red Canyon by 5PM and enjoyed the sights and sounds of the mighty Hance Rapid. Another day of not seeing a single hiker. [Unheard of for me being from NJ].
Day 3
The [original] goal for today was to camp atop Horseshoe Mesa. We departed Red Canyon by 5AM and noticed the Desert View Watchtower way up on the South Rim during sunrise. As we were hiking towards the crossing at Hance Creek, we passed a single trail runner (our first contact since Tanner TH). He told us that when the rest of his group passed us, to tell them they are slow and to catch up  . At 9:30AM we stopped and sat behind the large boulder at the creek crossing and found water flowing below the trail crossing. After enjoying the shade, we decided that we could make it to Grandview TH before sunset and not camp that night. We took took the east ascent option up past the mineshaft and mining ruins across from Page (Miners) Spring and made it atop Horeshoe Mesa after checking out the mineshaft by 2:30PM. We checked out the other ruins on the mesa and cruised up Grandview Trail to make it to the TH before sunset. As we watched the sunset, some tourists asked us to take their photo despite our exhaustion ](https://hikearizona.com/dex2/images/smilies/eusa_wall.gif "Brick wall") . |
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