Weekend Photos: Grand Canyon, Indian Hollow to Tapeats Creek

Back in October I went in a matter of days from the onset of winter in the Canadian Rockies to some too-hot weather in my favorite big hole in the ground--the Grand Canyon. 

This year's trip was the toughest I've tacked yet, coming down off the North Rim on the Indian Hollow and Bill Hall trails (we got spooked off the Bill Hall trail for the initial drop, and anyway, I really like the Esplanade so didn't mind a longer walk on that platform). I went with my friend Alex again, and we took 5 nights to do the classic Thunder River to Deer Creek loop. 

We'll take a look at the first two or three days.

Day Zero
We needed to cache water for our return trip, a final night on the waterless Esplanade, so we did a pre-hike the day before our permit started to take care of that. Because it was still getting very hot--there was that heat dome thing going on over most of the country, so temps weren't what they should have been in October--we camped near the trail head and made a crack of dawn start, heading down the trail as soon as we could see enough to go.

A short walk through the forest brings the hiker to the edge of the world.

First scorpion I've seen in the Canyon, and a good reminder why I always shake out my boots in the morning!

The sun rose as we descended the trail, a slower process than anticipated as there is a very steep and rough bit dropping through the cliff-forming layers to the Esplanade.

We schlepped our packs full of water (dang that stuff is heavy!) as far as we dared, before dropping the cache, taking a short rest, and heading back up around 9 a.m. in hopes of getting out before the temperature was too miserable. We didn't quite manage that, but survived the hike.  Stats: 8.1 miles, just under 1500' down and back up, temperature at the car... hot.

Since we would be starting the next day with only a 4-mile hike and carrying water to last until mid-day the next day, we planned on a late start for the actual backpack. In between, we drove the 90 minutes back to Kanab, where the wonderful kind folks at the Hitch-N-Rail RV park let us sleep in our vehicles (which was our plan all along) for the price of a couple of (much needed) showers.

Day One
Knowing it had taken us a good three hours the day before to reach our camp/cache site, and that the sun set at about 6 p.m. --and there's little twilight in Arizona--we left the cars about 2:45, which wasn't exactly the cool of the afternoon but gave hope of cooling. Temps may have been a little lower than the previous day, but that's not saying much. Heat was going to be a factor on this trip, something I'd hoped I was avoiding with the mid-October dates.

Late afternoon sun and a rising moon.

Camp

The last of the sun, not long after reaching camp.

We had toyed with the idea of moving farther along before camping, but by the time we got there we'd lost interest in hiking further.

That night we had our first sighting of the comet C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan-ATLAS). We would get another, even better, a few nights later.

Comet heading for the horizon 45 minutes after sunset.

Stats for Day one: 4 miles, with a 1250' total drop (different from Day Zero as the trail across the Esplanade isn't exactly flat).

Day Two:
Because of the heat, we started every day (after the first) as soon as it was light enough to hike safely. Both of us being beyond our first youth, hiking in low light is a little too challenging, and we tried to avoid it. By about 6:10 each morning we could see the trail clearly, and were on it.

My pack, ready for the day's adventures. Still carrying 5 days of food and more than 3 litres of water.

The sun rose as we traversed the Esplanade, but happily we remained in the shadow of the rim until well after 8 a.m.

We tried to hike as far and as fast as we could before the sun caught us, and didn't do too badly. It was a good 4 miles to the point where the Bill Hall trail drops through the Redwall into Surprise Valley, our first real challenge for the day (because we don't like going downhill steeply. Which might beg the question of what we are doing in the Grand Canyon, but never mind).

Looking down into Surprise Valley

The drop was a little painful but not technically difficult, and we found ourselves in Surprise Valley in late morning under a blazing sun. We took a break in what shade we could find, then pushed on to one of the highlights of the trip--Thunder River falls.

The Thunder River springs full-grown from between layers of rock. I'm not sufficiently confident of my Grand Canyon geology to say which layers. Something limestone would be my guess.

Looking down the Thunder River to Tapeats Creek. This may be the only place I know of where a river flows into a creek instead of the other way around. The clump of green is our hope for a cool rest break, marking where the water comes from the hillside.

Thunder River Falls.

Happily for us, there is a little flattish space under the trees by the falls, where we sacked out for a couple of hours, drinking cold fresh water and waiting for the sun to go off the rest of our trail.

More of the falls.

Eventually we pulled ourselves together and dropped the remaining thousand feet to Tapeats Creek, and wandered on down to the Upper Tapeats campsites, where we had our reservation.

Tapeats Canyon

We hadn't waited quite long enough at the falls (my bad; I get restless when I know there's more hiking to do), and had to shade up a bit at the camp before we got some cooling. It was great to jump in the (very cold) creek to get clean, though.

Tapeats camp. In the Canyon I generally don't bring a tent. That was almost a mistake this time, but on this night it was just fine.

Campsite neighbor.

Dinner just before dark, and bed soon after. I always enjoy reading a bit, which is helpful when there are 12 hours of darkness.

Day two stats: 8.3 miles in about 6 hours (excluding the 2 hours at the falls). 527' of climbing on this downhill day, and 3246' down--most of the way to river level.

I did a little fooling around with night photos, using the tiny tripod I always carry.

 

Next week: down the creek, along the river, and a nice afternoon at Deer Creek. Maybe more if I get the photos edited enough :)

©Rebecca M. Douglass, 2024
 As always, please ask permission to use any photos or text. Link-backs appreciated. 


Don't miss a post--Follow us!