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| | | Tanner-Escalante-New Hance, AZ | | | |
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Tanner-Escalante-New Hance, AZ
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| Hiking | 28.57 Miles |
7,063 AEG |
| | Hiking | 28.57 Miles | 16 Hrs 47 Mns | | 2.00 mph |
| 7,063 ft AEG | 2 Hrs 31 Mns Break | | | |
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| no partners | | This was a quick--but intense--trip to check out some GC tread that's been on my radar for some time.
Drove up from Phoenix on Friday afternoon and checked into a hotel in Tusayan. After dinner and some relaxing, we hit the hay early for a 2:45 am wake up call. We were on the road to the trailhead at 3:30 sharp, and at Lipan Point with boots on the Tanner Trail by 4:15 am.
Weather was cold but not windy. No moon or clouds to speak of. So, it was dark! There had been a little moisture Wednesday and Thursday, but no significant moisture for a few weeks, so we hoped the trail would be mostly clear--and more important, hoped that the river (our only source to refill water) would be running clear.
Tanner. The upper part of Tanner is steep but not difficult to navigate by headlamp. Hit 75-mile saddle and could ascertain the "narrow" traverse, but I'll have to go back another time to appreciate what this actually looks like.
I was hoping to catch the sunrise from the top of the redwall descent, where there is a short spur trail that offers a great and expansive vista. We arrived there a good 25 minutes before sunrise, but hung around long enough to catch the sun reflecting off the opposing canyon walls a bit. Given our itinerary though, we had precious little time to fritter away. So, suppressing my photography urges, we plunged down the steep redwall trail.
Another mile down, we encountered our first humans--a duo that was finishing up a 10-day packrafting trip, and from all accounts, they had a wonderful time. They reported that the river was running clear and that the LCR was running turquoise. But from where we stood, the river looked pretty silty. When they turned around, they said, wow, that must have just happened overnight. Just our luck ....
Hoping that it wasn't THAT silty, we powered on to Tanner Beach, but secretly began conserving our water (I was packing a little less than 5 liters, including a bottle of Dr. Pepper).
At Tanner Beach, we could see that it was pretty silty. We had thought about bailing on the Escalante Route and returning up Tanner, but this time we couldn't resist the temptation to press on.
We chatted briefly with a couple who were cooking up breakfast and surrounded by a lot of food, suggesting they were on the front end of their trip--indeed, another 10-day trip down and out South Kaibab.
Escalante Route. After taking in Tanner Rapids, we headed of on the Escalante Route proper just as the sun finally caught up to us.
Navigation on this section of the route was easy, but involved a little more up and down than I was anticipating.
Cardenas Beach & Ruins. When we got to the junction providing access to Cardenas Beach, we again debated about whether to check it out, or try to make up some time. Ultimately, we decided to take a quick side trip. Turned out to be a great choice--not only because Cardenas Beach is a cool spot, but there also happened to be a rafting trip overnighting there. They were a friendly bunch and offered to give us a soda water and let us fill up our water. So, we immediately switched from conserving water to guzzling all we could to make room for the refill. :-)
Having filled both the internal and external bladders  , we headed back up to the route proper, and took the high route up "Dox Hill" to check out the summit ruins. They were pretty neat, though didn't quite provide the 360 degree view of the bend in the river that I anticipated. So, we ventured a little further out to the point to take in the view.
Returning to the ruins and then beyond, we crossed a well-used grinding stone about 75 yards up from the ruins. Seemed a little far away from the structure. I wonder why?
The next section, heading north and then west around and beyond the Unkar Delta provided some of the best views of the Escalante Route. Super cool!
Dox Traverse & Crossover. The Dox Traverse up to the point where you cross over into the Escalante Creek drainage was a little exposed, but not bad IMO. About half way along that route, we noticed four trail runners behind us and closing in. They had very little water and only running vests on, and I couldn't fathom: (a) why a trail runner would choose this route, and (b) how in the world they would have enough water/fuel to get out of the canyon from here, as the only exits were where we came from (Tanner) or where we were going (New Hance). I had told my wife that there were no recorded deaths in the canyon along the Escalante Route, but I thought--these guys are looking like strong candidates.
Eventually the runners caught up to us and the mystery was resolved--they were with the rafting group at Cardenas beach and were just out stretching their legs, as they were staying 2 nights at Cardenas. We chatted with them for a bit and they turned around.
We stopped for lunch at the highpoint before descending into the Escalante drainage. It's a striking view--with the broad, open, eroded dox formation spreading out to the east of the ridge, and the narrowing, typical Granite Gorge heading off to the west.
After downing a bunch of calories and my Dr. Pepper, we hit the descent. By this point, the weather was warm but not too hot--at least for downhill hiking.
We passed another couple heading the opposite direction. The man seemed to be enjoying himself more than his female companion. We asked what they thought of 75-mile canyon, and they gave it a lukewarm review, but said they appreciated the shade.
Escalante Beach & 75-Mile Canyon/Beach. When we finally made it to the Escalante creekbed, we came across one of the coolest looking chuckwallas I've seen. After taking some photos, we continued to Escalante Beach and what I call Escalante Bay--an amazing, carved-out, sandy bay that peals off at the foot of a nice riffle. A great place for camping. We laid down on the beach for a bit and enjoyed the flat soft ground, while stretching our backs and giving the feet a quick rest.
Then it was on to 75-mile canyon, which we were anticipating despite the couples' lukewarm review. I'm glad to say we found it much more cool. The overlook from 200 feet above the canyon's river exit provided an amazing viewpoint, and looking down into the narrow canyon as we traversed the ledge up towards the drop in point was cool.
The drop in point was obvious and relatively easy to navigate--we walked down the sloping rock without having to resort to any butt scooting or use of hands.
Walking through the narrow canyon back to the river in the early afternoon was a real treat. Beautiful sheer walls, and shady, flat terrain were just what the dr. ordered.
After exiting, we enjoyed checking out Nevill Rapids and long stretch of fine beach that, as that time was partially in the shade.
The Low Route to Papago + Wall & Slide. At this juncture, the "official route" (if there is such a thing) ascends high and over to Papago Creek, but we had read about a low, beach route, which we decided to try. It worked out pretty good and saved us some elevation, though there is a fair amount of navigating rock slides/boulder fields once you get to the end of 75-mile beach.
Arriving finally at the storied Papago Wall, we found the "sheer" section easy to ascend. I suppose it could be sketchy for those with a substantial fear of heights, but in terms of scrambling, it's pretty non-technical.
But we ended up patting ourselves on the back too soon. Instead of ascending fully to the top of the point above the wall, as we got suckered into trying to cut across a lower trail and got cliffed out and had to backtrack a bit.
The Papago Slide on the other side looks impressive from above (as does the view downriver to Red Canyon and our exit). The Slide is much more "dangerous" that the wall, but we carefully picked our way down, and had no issues.
The remaining traverse from the bottom of the Slide to Hance Rapids/Red Canyon was "brushy" and took longer than I expected. With long pants it wasn't an issue.
Arrived at Hance Rapids at 4:15 pm. We changed out socks, fueled up, and I filled my Nalgene with a liter of silty "insurance water," in which I sprinkled a little alum and hope for the best.
New Hance. We left Hance Beach at 4:45 pm, knowing that the possibility of getting out before dark was a pipe dream at this point (sunset was at 6:30 pm).
As we headed up Red Canyon, we were in the shade, and were surprised to see water running down in the slickrock area near Red Canyon Wash. I regretted getting insurance water from the river, but at this point, we were too lazy to stop and filter--and were worried about navigating upper New Hance in the dark, so we soldiered on.
We had been down New Hance a couple of years ago, and I remember it being pretty gnarly going down, so we knew we were in for a "treat" on the way up. And so it was ....
More than any of the other south rim trails I've done so far, New Hance has been largely reclaimed by nature.
Just as we conquered a steep climb that got us above 5,000, the "trail" starts a long traverse, which actually loses elevation and crosses what seemed like a dozen rock slides. By this point, my "balancing" muscles were pretty shot, so the uneven terrain was definitely not welcome. But more concerning was the fact that after navigating a rock slide, relocating the trail on the other end was getting increasingly difficult--especially as darkness descended.
I was less concerned about my energy reserves than I was about staying on the trail. It's one thing to be hiking tired--and another to be wasting your energy hiking around in circles trying to figure out where you are supposed to go next. Thankfully, that only happened once, when I got completely turned around, and when I thought I needed to course correct by going one way, I ended up just getting further off track. After a frustrating 10 minutes or so, we finally figured out where to go next, and powered on.
It seemed like it was taking forever to get to the Coronado Butte saddle, and with no moon, we couldn't see a thing beyond our headlamps. After a while I looked at my GPS and realized that we had passed the saddle and were actually on the final, steep climb. That last climb is a beast! Navigation was still an issue, but the hand-over-fist climbing in places and the scrambly route never allows you to get in a rhythm.
About 0.3 mi. from the top, my wife (who was our designated driver) whistled down and let us know we were "close"--a relative term.  She had walked out through the forest to the edge of the rim and down the trail a little bit to see if she could make out our ascent. She said it was hard to see our headlamps, but she could hear the clicking of our hiking poles.
At long last, we dragged our sorry butts out onto the rim around 8:40 pm, where the breeze picked up and made for cold walk back to the car.
We were wasted, but feeling great about the accomplishment and the opportunity to get in a full day of GC experience.
The drive home was uneventful. We stopped in Williams to change clothes and get gas. Drank some chocolate milk, which hit the spot. Arrived home at 2 am--37 hours; 29 miles of hiking, and 7000+ feet of aeg after we left. Whew! |
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