Arches, Humphreys, and the Grand Canyon, 10-24-92

This report describes the first half of my trip to the desert southwest in October 1992 including a short trip in Arches National Park, climbs of Humphreys and Kendricks peaks in Arizona, plus a day hike and two backpack trips into the Grand Canyon. I started planning this trip after I was laid off from my job as a geologist at the Homestake Gold Mine in South Dakota. The layoff occurred, not surprisingly, at a downturn in the mining business and I expected the search for a new position would take a while. I had already begun the work to convert my newspaper columns on hiking in the Black Hills to a published guidebook, and had signed a book contract with Cordillera Press. After a few weeks my field work for the guidebook was going well, but the job search was not.

The traditional two weeks of vacation I was likely to get in my next job was also looking meager for outdoor adventures I had in mind. I decided to take a block of time off to travel and explore areas I’d not visited. For late October/early November going to the mountains wasn’t practical, so I looked at the desert southwest. I read a lot of adventure travel and the Grand Canyon is the subject of two of the best works in that field, Powell’s “The Exploration of the Colorado River and Its Canyons” about his first descents of the canyon in 1869-71, and Fletcher’s “The Man Who Walked Through Time” about his 1963 traverse of the Canyon within the national park. I’d never been to the Grand Canyon, and probably was the only geologist who had that hole in their resume. I built a three week trip around a trip to the Canyon, and also made plans to visit my friend Todd at Zion or Grand Gulch.

I left Lead, SD at 8 AM and made a stop at REI in Denver while heading toward Arches National Park. I pulled over at an interstate rest stop to sleep in the back of my pickup, but ended up moving twice because of the noise from idling trucks.

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I arrived at Arches early and was one of the first onto the Devils Garden Trail. A light rain that night had washed all the previous tracks away giving a feeling of solitude. I found the name Devils Garden to be a misnomer, there was nothing sinister or evil about the place. Instead, it was a celebration of landforms in stone. The arches are the stars, but the fins, fossil dunes, and steep red rock cliffs stole the show.

The trail went by a lot of the big name features including Landscape, Partition, and Double O arches. I took a lot of pictures. The clouds and recent rain kept the light perfect. But I must have been a bit disorganized this early in the trip as I ended up losing my film from the first few days. The only downside of the hike was that someone had poached a deer right on the trail. I heard the shot and soon came upon the gut pile.

The park seemed to be two distinct areas: the Windows and Devils Garden. I made a note to try the Windows next time, or maybe find a place to do some off trail exploring. It was a shame to spend only half a day in Arches, but my plan was to try and climb Humphreys Peak before hiking the Grand Canyon, and it seemed there might be few snow free days ahead.

Driving toward Flagstaff from Moab I saw a huge storm over the La Sal and Abajo mountains, But there was no snow on the valley floors, and I knew the Colorado Snowline was at 12,000 feet, so I still thought I had a shot at Humphreys. Next I drove through Monument Valley. The spires and castles here were no larger or complex than others in the southwest, but their setting was perfect. Each one has its own space to frame it. The valley was like a demonstration of the perfection of presentation: how can this feature look its best? Even with rain falling, there was a photographer in action at every pullout.

The weather cleared up by the time I reached Flagstaff. I arrived just in time to see snow on the top of the San Francisco Peaks. Following my state highpointer guidebooks, I parked for the night in the lot at the Snowbowl Ski Area where there was just a trace of recent snow. Lucky me, I was taking a vacation to the desert and getting rain or snow every day! Good thing the trailhead area was quieter than last night, I had a long day ahead and needed the rest.

Devils Garden Trail Arches NP, ~4.2 mi.

Snowbowl Parking Area

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Though the night was quiet it was also cold, in what would be a recurring theme for the trip. I awoke to frost both inside and outside of the truck. The Humphreys Peak Trail was in great shape, almost all on snow from what looked like the first fall of the year. The weather was perfect dry, clear, calm, and warm enough, once I got moving. In general, the snow was only 3-4 inches deep. The trail took gentle switchbacks to a view of Agassiz Peak, then a moderate section to a saddle on the ridge, and some nice easy cruising north to the summit of Humphreys. I had brief route descriptions from my Highpointers guides, and the USGS quad, though the quad did not show the trail. The lower slopes were covered in spruce, a species I was used to seeing in the Black Hills only in the higher, shaded draws. Lower down I saw lots of tracks, but only one set to the top before the saddle. Of the two highest of the San Francisco Peaks, Agissiz looked more dramatic, but Humphreys is a more massive summit and was the peak that had caught my eye from the drive in.

I spent about an hour on top, probably the longest I could have without getting chilled. The San Francisco Peaks are the remnant of a large volcano, and the surrounding peaks such as Kendrick and Bill Williams are likely parasitic cones.

I hiked part of the route with a couple from Burns, OR, who were also thinking about hiking Kendrick Peak the next day. It felt great to be climbing again. Just two months earlier I’d gotten away for a week of Colorado peak bagging, so hiking through the snow was familiar still. My notes indicate I took 3.25 hours up and 2 hours to descend the 3,100’ route.

After the climb I went back to Flagstaff then onto the USFS trailhead at Kendrick Peak. The drive to the trailhead reminded me of the Black Hills, lots of logging, cattle, and pine trees, but still through some flat country. I was glad to have a break from two long days of driving, and just to be out of the pickup. The trailhead lacked water, but had garbage and a toilet.

I realized I’d made the right choice not to visit the Canyon right away. I needed a few hikes to humble me first. My right calf hurt on the descent of Humphreys, and even later in town. I’d only hiked 9 miles, but was still in major pain. At least this way I’d be sure not to underestimate the canyon, and be more conservative in my routes. Hopefully that would leave more time for me to learn about it, and to get the right backpacking permit.

Humphreys Peak, 12,633’, 9 miles

Kendrick Peak Trailhead

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Earlier I’d bought a copy of the 1991 edition of “Arizona’s Mountains” from Cordillera Press (the publisher of my Black Hills trail guide). I used it to identify Kenrick Peak as the highest in the area outside the San Francisco Peaks, and thought it would be a good transition hike between Humphreys and my trip into the Grand Canyon. At 10,418’ it proved tall enough to be a challenge, and low enough to avoid deep snow.

I spent a long quiet night at the trailhead, sleeping for nearly 12 hours and reluctant to venture into the cold. Once I was rolling though I found a nice, well maintained trail that switch backed most of the way to the top. The trail seemed well travelled but I saw no other hikers. The tower on top was closed, and without it the views from the top didn’t match some of those from the trail below. The San Francisco Peaks stood out sharply, they are clearly the major range for a long distance. The rest of the surroundings looked like minor parasitic cones stretched over flat plateau. Most of the trail was in a nice open forest that that changed from pine to spruce going up and reminded me of the Black Hills. The eight mile roundtrip took me two hours up, and an hour and forty minutes to descend. At least I finished up the roll of film I would eventually lose, and have a meager number of slides from the rest of the trip on. With the Canyon awaiting I headed off immediately for the south rim.

Kendrick to the South Rim was a 70 mile drive. Once there I went to the backcountry office, but found it open only 3-5 in the afternoon. I took the time to shower and get a campsite (probably at Mather Campground). Once the office reopened I quickly realized that anyone requesting a walk up permit for the next day was assumed to be a suicidal idiot. I was told that there were permits available for the next day, but they wouldn’t tell me where unless I submitted a detailed itinerary and passed a quiz. This was a much a much different experience than Jean and I would have in 2002 when our South Bass trip was snowed out and the rangers carefully selected the Escalante Route for us as an alternative. I ended up on the wait list for a permit the next day, remembering why I had avoided backpacking in NPS sites, and hoping I’d do better the next day at guessing the open the campsite game.

I saw the park movie in the visitors center and had a horrible meal in the village. I wanted my first view of the Canyon to be from my trailhead, so I never even looked over the rim. Back at the campsite I had traded the solitude of Kendrick for a set of bitchy neighbors. Being optimistic, I packed for a three day trip.

Kendrick Peak, 10,418’, 8 miles

Grand Canyon Campground

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I finally solved the permit riddle. At 9AM all of us poor permitless souls were treated to a half hour lecture on Grand Canyon hiking safety, then came the long awaited moment, the raffle for permits. I was # 15 on the list. For a while things looked grim as all the permits for Indian Gardens and Bright Angel were taken. But I got lucky and secured a permit for Hermit Creek and Monument Creek! Though I didn’t get a loop hike, this route would keep me out of the crowded corridor zone.

By the time I had the permit in hand it was 10:30, so I celebrated by eating an extra breakfast for the road, but delaying my start just another hour longer. Of course, it had rained all morning, but not enough to dim my excitement. The Canyon was still full of clouds as I drove to the trailhead at Hermits Rest. I still wanted my first view to be with my pack on at the trailhead, but I couldn’t help but sneak a few glances. Of course, the rain continued as I finished packing up, only to quit immediately once I got below the rim.

I had reread some of Powell’s descriptions of the Canyon before starting the trip. Even in the age of flowery prose one of the masters was left groping for stronger language to describe what he’d seen. I wasn’t sure where to begin except to say the beauty of the canyon was all I’d hoped for. At times it was hard to focus on the trail with so much scenery to distract. On the descent there are two distinct platforms, one on the Supai and another on the Tonto above the Tapeats. I’d been in two beautiful sub canyons already, and had yet to see the Colorado River. It was humbling to realize that Hermit isn’t even one of the major side canyons. This place could take more than a lifetime to explore, with the side canyons the most interesting of all.

My trusty Trails Illustrated map of the park contained a stratigraphic column for the canyon geology. The column basically shows the names and characteristics of the rock formations one hikes through descending into the canyon. Since these layers are relatively flat lying, most hikers use the rock layers rather than elevation to track their progress. Two formations, the Bright Angel shale near the bottom of the canyon, and the Hermit shale midway up are easily eroded and form wide benches on the Tapeats and Esplanade formations below them. The Tapeats and Bright Angel formations are part of the Tonto Group, so hikers will often speak of traversing along the Tonto Plateau or along the Esplanade. The thick sheer Redwall Formation lies between the two benches and its cliffs are often the major barrier to a canyon descent.

Hermit is a great trail, with a mind boggling amount of work in its construction. Despite what the NPS says, it was getting at least some maintenance, just not as much as the corridor trails. A few short washouts were the only real obstacles. The campsite near the junction with the Tonto is nice, but tucked back in the creek drainage and without the expansive views so common on the trail. Hermit was about the size of the average side creek in Escalante Canyon (which I had hiked in 1989), but had a stronger flow of water. The water was warm and there were some pools to wash up with. Another party told me that Monument was the nicest campsite between Hermit and Bright Angel. I was very anxious to see the river the next day. Standing by the Colorado would give me the full experience of hiking the canyon.

View into Hermit Canyon.

Hermit Creek Campsite, 8 miles

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This would be an easier day. I just needed to move east on the Tonto over to Monument Campsite. The short backpack would give me time for two side trips, each down to the river from Hermit and Monument campsites.

Hermit Rapid

There had been a short rain overnight and the sky remained overcast giving me another cool day, unlike the furnace conditions that Jean and I would encounter on subsequent trips to the canyon. After breakfast I took the route down Hermit Creek to finally see the river up close. It was running a milky brown as it frothed over Hermit Rapid. I watched it for a half hour before another brief rain reminded me to return to camp.

Colorado River and the inner canyon.

The creek goes underground into some coarse alluvium just below Hermit Campsite, just beyond the unconformity. The unconformity itself is startling, suddenly the Precambrian core appears after a few days of nothing but flat-lying sedimentary rocks.

Luckily the Tonto provided easy walking. Just beyond the Hermit junction the river is visible, and I spotted six rafts entering the Hermit Rapid. From the Tonto it seemed the rafts barely moved, but to the rafters I’m sure it seemed a wild ride. The Tonto dropped into Monument (which I misnamed “Granite” in my notes) almost to the unconformity. I thought I might have missed the campsite, but finally found one that seemed relatively open.

Near Monument Campsite.

From the campsite I followed Monument Creek down to the Colorado again. Monument Creek was more open and easier walking vs Hermit. The trail led to a large sandy beach with great campsites. I dozed a while in one, hoping to be able to photograph some rafters, but none came through. Back at camp, I explored around it as well. There is a great narrow canyon in the gneiss just downstream. I’d been “lucky” with the rain I’d gotten, all the creeks were up, and finding water wasn’t an issue. Only one other hiker at Monument that night, a guy in the midst of hiking the entire Tonto.

Monument Creek, 9 miles

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A daunting day, where I needed to rehike the Tonto back over to Hermit, then climb that trail all the way to the rim. With the cool weather and cloudy skies, the horror stories one hears about climbing out of the canyon just didn’t apply to this trip. At first my problem was just staying warm. Last night’s winds had brought in a cold front, and by the time I reached the top of the Redwall I needed to put on a long sleeved shirt. This kept me warm enough while I hiked, but I got chilled anytime I stopped.

Tent and campsite at Monument Creek.

The climb out took 5:40 including breaks. I passed both the parties I’d seen at Hermit the first night. The traverse through the Supai was a savior as it broke up two long climbs. I was feeling good, though my thighs were still a bit sore from the first day’s descent into the canyon.

Once on the rim I stopped more to enjoy the overlooks. The scale of the canyon is such that it was hard for me to believe that I’d been “all the way down there.” Next, it was time for the visitors center and museum, which were vaguely disappointing. I guess I expected a park of this stature to offer more, but should have realized that its wonders are outside, rather than inside. At the Backcountry Office I managed to get a permit for  Sunday night at Tanner along the river on the east end of the park. My plan was to day hike on Saturday, then leave the park on Monday after returning from Tanner.

My Grand Canyon trips map.

9 miles

Mather Campground

 

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My plan for the day was to hike down the Grandview Trail and then walk the loop on the west side of Horseshoe Mesa. Overnight temperatures were 25F with a lot of rain. My sleeping bag was not keeping up with the cold. But the rain was keeping the canyon colors vibrant, and the vegetation green. Colors here are stronger than the muted colors of the Badlands.

View near Horseshoe Mesa.

I took 1.5 hours to reach Horseshoe Mesa from Grandview Point. The trail was steep down to the Supai, and then traversed over to the plateau. There was an old copper mine in the shale None of the mines here looked big, but supposedly they operated for several years. The loop around the west side of the perimeter took 2 hours down to the Tonto and up Cottonwood Creek. I lost the trail off the plateau briefly near its end and found myself out on the Tonto. 

Stone House on Horseshoe Mesa.

Cottonwood Creek had the pretties campsite I’d seen yet on the Tonto. I stopped for lunch and a rest, by that time I still underestimated the length of the loop. It was a long steep climb up to Horseshoe Mesa. The trail seemed too steep for mules; it may have been built as an access to water by the miners. It took about 1.5 hours to hike out. Walking without the heavy backpack helped my legs recover from the backpacking. They weren’t sore during the day hike, but that might change the next day with a descent all the way from the rim to the river. I was really looking forward to the full descent and the chance to camp next to the Colorado River.

Once back on the rim I got a meal and hit some of the touristy spots. Things seemed expensive and I hoped Bryce and Zion (next on my agenda) would be cheaper (and hopefully warmer). The lack of wildlife in the park was a surprise. I was expecting to see more in the canyon, but had only seen a few squirrels and birds.

West Horseshoe Mesa Loop, 11 miles

Mather Campground

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Another cold night, but no rain and I awoke to a clear blue sky. The upper section of the Tanner Trail proved steep and rough. It took 45 minutes to descend to a long traverse on the Supai. Early on I could see the Watchtower at Desert View to the east, and was able to keep it in sight all day.

The rest of the hike was wonderful. Only the descent of the Redwall was especially steep, but my legs felt better than they had on my first descent down Hermit.  I saw 13 people hiking out, so it must have been a busy night down at Tanner Campsite. There was already another group at the site when I arrived.

I even saw some new rock formations. I hiked through the Proterozoic Grand Canyon Group, which I like because of its absence of thick cliff forming layers. The GC Group doesn’t appear further west at Hermit. There was a nice fault just across the river from camp. I set up at a sandy head on the delta at the mouth of Tanner Creek. I would sleep on the sand and listen to the river. I was able to wash in the river, but it was too cold for swimming.

In the afternoon I napped alongside the river once again. It was too late in the day to see rafters, but I’d gotten a glimpse of a few boats from higher up on the trail. The campsite was quiet and peaceful, but did have a lot of flies, maybe there were some sanitation issues? My site got late sun, but it still was an early evening. I slept under the stars below a crystal clear sky.

At 6PM it was barely light enough to write in my journal. While doing my cooking and cleaning chores I was treated to an ever deepening of the colors on the canyon walls. John Muir called the Sierras the range of light, so perhaps the Desert Southwest should be the land of colors. I realized the Spanish name Rio Colorado could be meant for canyon walls, not for the water itself.

The river thundered and surged. Often I heard dull thumps and muted crashes that I imagined to be boulders carried down the riverbed and scouring the channel. Sometimes the river would roar at a high pitch, and I would look skyward for a plane. Laying here I felt the attraction many others have had for a wild river.

I’d also learned to my surprise that none of the Grand Canyon was designated wilderness. But for all I saw the park was managed like wilderness below the rim, except for the Bright Angel Corridor, and I assumed some motorized river trips. It was hard to imagine a better place for wilderness, for it seemed very few ever ventured off the park trails. 

Comanche Point from the Tanner Trail.

Tanner Campsite

9 miles

11-2-92, I slept under the stars enjoying a warmer night, at least until I heard a mouse rattle my food bag and I had to get up to move it. I hiked all the way out of the canyon without taking any pictures, photography was definitely not a priority on this trip! My pack was light so the whole trip took only 5 hours. I was feeling the strength I’d built up so far, and really felt like I was rounding into good shape. I saw no one else hiking in, a bit of a surprise, I expected this would be a popular route. It was easy to mark my progress by keeping an eye on the Watchtower.

That afternoon I drove over to Bryce Canyon National Park, mostly on the advice of my folks who thought that it was the prettiest of the parks in the desert southwest. I’ll document the rest of this trip in separate post covering the Utah half of the trip, Bryce, Zion, and the BLM’s Grand Gulch areas.