brightangelblog

We were supposed to do a nice, calm hike into Clear Creek this week, but life is what happens when you make other plans. We must be in Prescott Wednesday, no ifs ands or buts, so I spent 15 minutes in the backcountry office re-permitting.

Clear Creek in one day less: no can do. Bright Angel Campground full the last night.
Hermit to Bright Angel: nope. Indian Garden and Horn Creek full.
Kaibab to Grandview: uh uh. Whole use area full.
Escalante route. Okay. There is room on the Escalante Route, formerly known as the Death March. Ranger Casey thought it was hilarious that I called it the Death March. However, Red Canyon is full, so we had to camp at Hance Creek and hike out Grandview.

We figured that we have probably not done this route for at least five years. Going down the Tanner was Okay, except that ice at the very steep, narrow, slippery top is scary, even with Katoolas. In fact the whole first mile is steep, narrow, and slippery. Redwall wasn't as bad as I remembered, though I did have to carry out some else's toilet paper (ugh). We camped in a lovely beach site, lovely that is once I cleaned out and scattered the charming little fire ring.

As for the rest of the route, I remember pioneering this back in the 1960's. Dr. Butchart suggested that we check it out one Veteran's Day weekend. His exact words: I think there is a route between Tanner and Red Canyon. At that time, the route climbed to the top of the Unkar Cliffs and then back down to the River and a nasty little down climb of a small cliff directly over a big whirlpool. Now there is a worn in path which continues up and around the Dox formation and back into Escalante Canyon.

The major factor of this hike is that in order to get around one small cliff, which would take perhaps 30 seconds on a boat, takes 45 minutes to two hours to climb around. Such is life off-trail in the Canyon. So we climbed up and around the nasty little cliff, then up and around the 75-mile cliff, then stumbled into camp along the River.

Had to erase some graffiti in Escalante Canyon. I expect that kind of nonsense in the Corridor. I don't expect it off trail. Rico and Pat: you have just advertised yourselves as amateurs and posers. and Canyon Coyotes: just stay out of the Canyon.

We passed a private river party at Nevil's Rapid. As we packed in the morning preparatory to climbing over the Papago cliff, I kept looking upstream to see if they were wending their way down. I was going to throw myself into the boat to ride 50 feet down river rather than climb 200 feet up a nasty cliff and down a worse rock slide on the other end. Alas, they slept in that morning.

So we climbed up the scary cliff. At one point my water bottle fell out of the pack and rolled back down. My anguished cries of "no, no, no!' echoed off the walls. Actually I was a lot less polite than that. Fortunately it stopped on a small ledge, and I was able to scramble back down and retrive it.
Then down the Great Terrible Rock Slide, which is indeed great and indeed terrible. Then we were, praise Spirit, on a trail.

Climbed back out of Red Canyon into Mineral Canyon and finally onto the Tonto. It was very odd to be walking on the flat, on a wide trail, where I could actually look around without fear of falling to my death. Camped in Hance Creek, all by ourselves.

Climbed out Grandview in the morning. Getting up the Redwall is scary too. In fact, there was a lot of scary. I guess I've spend too much time in the tourist areas of the Canyon. It is humbling to realize that as spooked as I was, that is how a lot of people feel on the Bright Angel and Kaibabs.