At the end of the year, David's grandfather passed away after a long and active life. He lived in Hot Springs Village, Arkansas, and we quickly found out that getting…
Day two of our Havasu adventure was set aside for exploring the area. We started off by spending the morning downstream at Mooney Falls, a side canyon, and a natural…
Checking off the bucket list The optional extension to the Columbia Sportswear event last month was a three day trip to Havasu Falls, home of the Havasupai Indian Reservation, towering…
Prior to the Columbia event we were asked to choose an activity for Saturday. Our options were yoga, mountain biking, or hiking of various difficulty levels. I had a moment…
Having survived the rainy night we awoke to grey but dry skies and packed up the truck in between photos of the stunning terrain that surrounded us. Valley of the Gods is BLM land and a great place to experience the beauty of Southern Utah without all the restrictions and regulations of National Park Land. Driving out, we wound our way through the red rock buttes before hitting pavement, having to cross a small stream that hadn’t been there the evening before when we drove in.
Sunrise in Valley of the Gods
As we headed south towards Monument Valley we made a couple of side trips. Only a few miles off the road is Goosenecks State Park, essentially a bluff-top parking area with a famous view of the goosenecks in the San Juan River. There was a whole tour bus that had camped there the previous night so suddenly the paste-like mud we had dealt with in Valley of the Gods didn’t seem so bad (Goosenecks was my backup spot).
Clear Creek Falls
“What wonders lie ahead?”
This is how Dave started us off on the trail every day of our six day trip into the Grand Canyon. Our group, (me, Paige, John, Dave (Paige’s Dave), and David (my Dave)), spent an incredible week exploring some remote corners of the Clear Creek canyon, while also enjoying some civilization at the Phantom Ranch down along the Colorado River.
View the extended entry for the trip report and links to pictures. It’s a long one, but I decided to keep everything in a single entry instead of posting a separate entry for each of the six days on the trail.
Day 1: Wednesday, March 26
South Rim to Bright Angel Campground via the South Kaibab Trail
We spent all of Tuesday, March 25 driving from the Bay Area to the Grand Canyon. After a late arrival and night at the Yavapai Lodge, we met for breakfast and last minute shopping at the store nearby. Having been warned about ice along the trail, I picked up a cheap pair of ‘shoe chains’ so I wouldn’t have to carry my bulky and heavy crampons. This ended up being a wise choice – I didn’t even need the chains, but at least they weighed significantly less than the crampons.
After picking up our permit, we left the car at the Bright Angel Trailhead and waited for the shuttle to take us over to the South Kaibab Trail. By late morning we joined the throngs of dayhikers heading down the the South Kaibab. Near Ooh Ah Point it was practically a waiting line. Fortunately, once we got below Cedar Ridge the crowds thinned out to a manageable level, mostly people hiking to and from the bottom as part of multi-day trips.
The last stretch of the SK, from Tipoff Point to the Colorado, is just stunning, zigzagging steeply through the Redwall layer. The trail spits you out onto the Black Bridge, where hikers and mules can safely cross the dangerous Colorado River. Some interesting sites lie on the other side – a grave for one of the builders of the Black Bridge, Ancestral Pueblo ruins, and a fresh sandy beach formed by the controlled flood of a few weeks ago.
A few minutes after crossing the Colorado we arrived at Bright Angel Campground and set up in site 31. From there we walked the ~1/4 mile up to Phantom Ranch where snacks and cold lemonade and ranger program awaited. The descent was really rough, especially on my calves and knees, so this treat was much appreciated. We came back later for a couple of rounds of cold beer and Yahtzee – I was the champ, of course!
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