Hikers, this is Rogil's annual Grand Canyon hike. These hikes definitely require training, since you'll have to keep a reasonable pace all day to cover a lot of miles and a lot of elevation change, while carrying all your water needs for the whole day. The Grand Canyon is well worth it! --Kathy
Subject: 12 Oct 02 Grand Canyon all-day hike
Date: Mon, 22 Jul 2002 14:40:37 -0700
From: Rogil Schroeter
This is the annual all-day hike. We plan to hike as much of the Boucher trail as we can. I am planning to start this hike from the Waldron trailhead. It is not an appropriate hike for anyone who has a fear of heights, as the trail follows the cliff edge often. From Waldron's trailhead to the Colorado River by Boucher trail is ~11.5 miles. The hike returns the same way as you go in, so you can turn back whenever you have reached half of what you wish to do for the day.
Friday, October 11
Saturday, October 12
If we get back late, restaurants will be closed, so bring camp food as backup.
Be prepared for camping in the freezing cold with no facilities for Friday & Saturday nights.
During our hike, it will probably get pretty hot with no shade (bring a hat).
Be prepared for rain, too.
I'd recommend 1.5 gal. of water for the hike. No reliable water, except Boucher Creek & the Colorado River on this hike, unless you wish to make 1 mile round trip detour up to Dripping Springs or Santa Maria Spring. Cashing a 1/3 of your water at the 2/3 point of the trail is also a good idea.
The trail is very steep in places, so most will want to bring a walking stick.
Bring a flashlight case you return after dark.
SUN
Begin civil twilight 6:07 a.m.
Sunrise 6:33 a.m.
Sun transit 12:15 p.m.
Sunset 5:57 p.m.
End civil twilight 6:23 p.m.
MOON
Moonset 10:12 p.m. on preceding day
Moonrise 1:31 p.m.
Moon transit 6:20 p.m.
Moonset 11:10 p.m.
Moonrise 2:21 p.m. on following day
First quarter Moon on 12 October 2002 at 10:33 p.m. Mountain Standard Time.
I will be at the canyon 2 weekends before the hike & will try to get up-to-date info about the road, camping & trail at that time.
We will drive out near the trailhead Friday & camp just outside the park boundary. There will be most of a moon visible in the evening, none in the morning.
It is maybe a 15 minute drive (4.5 miles) from Moqui Lodge to the campsite we would use (on good dirt roads). It is another 30 or 40 minutes (another 4.5 miles) to the trailhead by 4x4 roads.
Go toward the south entrance of the Grand Canyon. I'll be going by way of Williams. It is 7 miles further, but I'm less likely to hit an elk that way.
Just north of Tusayan on the West side of the road is the Moqui Lodge. On the south end of the lodge is a small paved road (looks like a service road for the lodge, but has a street name), turn here. Go maybe a city block & turn left following signs to Apache Stables. I believe this road is FR-328. Follow it to the fork to Pasture Wash, 4 to 4.5 miles. Looks to be a reasonable campsite on the NE corner of this intersection (on the right, before the intersection, not marked). We will try to camp here.
I would like to leave camp around 5:00am Sat. to continue to the trailhead. To get to the trail head, take the right fork. It crosses the RR tracks & comes to a T intersection (.5 mile). Turn right, go less than a mile to a picnic shelter on the left. Turn left, go .5 mile to a fork. Stay right, you will immediately cross a road running diagonal to yours (The previous fork & this cross road form a triangle intersection. The left fork takes you to the sewage treatment plant, so you won't stay lost long). Go straight at intersection maybe .4 mile to another cross road. Cross this. The next 2 miles are slow & bumpy. Just before the trailhead sign is a deep wash. Don't cross it. Just before the wash is an area on the right big enough to park 4 cars.
To hike, cross the wash in the road. Look for trailhead sign. There is a detailed description of the hike below.
We'll turn around when tired or after 1/2 our time is gone. Sunset is 5:57 PM, so the turn around time should be approximately 12 or 12:30 PM. We want to be back at the rim before sunset, but there will be 1/2 a moon that evening for light.
If it rains that week, this road would be impassable & we would hike another easier accessed trail, maybe Hermit's Rest trail.
If you plan to do this hike, please let me know, thanks. You can invite friends too, but make sure they see this email.
We will need to work car-pooling. I need to know when each of you can leave Phx, if you can drive, what type vehicle & how many passengers you will take. 4x4s are preferable, but we'll regroup at the campsite for the last stretch & get everyone into 4x4s.
Here is a site with trail descriptions. Below it is excerpts from this site. If you would like .gif files with the map on them, let me know.
South Rim trails: http://www.kaibab.org/gc/bc/gc_trail.htm#south
Mileages are as follows (one-way):
Elevations:
The Waldron trail descends from the rim near Horsethief Tank and comes in from the south to meet the Hermit Trail. If you wish to use the Waldron Trail to descend to this point you can reach its trailhead by driving out on Rowe Well Road. This road is not paved and may require four-wheel drive if wet or covered with snow. Check with the Backcountry Office for road conditions before attempting to drive on this road. From the top, the Waldron trail follows a gently sloping drainage for about 1/2 mile. After it crosses this drainage, near Horsethief Tank, the trail descends on short steep rocky switchbacks through the Toroweap and Coconino formations. The trail gently descends through the Hermit Shale connecting up with the Hermit Trail in the Hermit Basin.
At this point the trail is descending through the Hermit Shale and after another quarter mile or so you will come to the junction with the Dripping Springs Trail. This trail should be used to reach the Boucher Trail as well as Dripping Springs itself.
The Dripping Springs Trail itself is fairly level. It varies in elevation only slightly during the traverse between the Hermit and Boucher Trails. Picking up the Boucher Trail at the western terminus of the Dripping Springs Trail, the trail continues north along the western wall of Hermit Gorge. The first (as we will call it) three miles or so of the trail are virtually flat with some extremely minor changes in elevation. The trail heads out along the western side of the gorge and stays very close to the edge, it is not for those who do not like exposed places. After traveling about 2 1/2 miles to the north the trail comes to Yuma Point, contours around the point, and then turns and heads back towards the south, into the head of Travertine Canyon. The views from Yuma Point are spectacular and have to be seen to be believed. The views of Whites Butte to the west and Cope Butte and the inner gorge to the east are prime photo opportunities The trip out to Yuma Point actually makes for a pretty good day hike, if you don't mind pushing yourself.
Once the trail reaches the head of Travertine Canyon the real fun begins. From there the trail heads almost straight down into Travertine, through the Supai formation, for a mile or maybe a little more. The descent is clogged with boulders of all sizes ranging from footballs to small houses. There are some difficult places where you may have to take off your packs and lower them down with ropes. It is again amazing to think that people at one time, in the not too distant past, used to come down this trail on mules. As well as being steep and clogged with rubble and boulders, the descent though the upper sections of Travertine Canyon is also quite beautiful as it is extremely lush with growth.
Once you finish the descent you are rewarded with a fairly flat stretch of trail for the next mile or so that will bring you out to the saddle between Whites Butte and the rim. This section of trail travels right along the top of the Redwall Limestone and really opens up your view of the Canyon. When you get to the saddle take a rest as you're going to need all of your strength. There are some more spectacular views and some more Kodak moments to be had from this vantage point. When you are ready you can take the plunge and head down into the southeast drainage of Boucher Canyon and the last difficult section of the descent.
From here down it's only about 1 1/4 miles, through the Redwall and Muav Limestone, to the junction with the Tonto Trail, but the top 1/2 mile or so of that is a lot like what you just went through coming down through Travertine. I think the vegetation may actually be a little more dense though. After that first 1/2 mile or so the trail simmers down a bit, remaining steep but on a reasonably clear trail. Some sections of the trail get a little narrow and you are traveling right on the edge so again it is not a trail for people who don't like feeling exposed. It remains like this pretty much all the way down to the junction with the Tonto. There are some really nice views of Boucher Creek from most points along this section of trail. The little trees that you can see down there are actually fairly large Cottonwoods located right at Boucher Camp.
The junction with the Tonto is marked by a sizable cairn. Once you reach this point you can relax. The descent along the combined Tonto/Boucher from this point down into Boucher Creek is a breeze. This is not to say that you shouldn't be careful, but the trail is not nearly so steep and it is fairly clear of rocks and the such.
The creek provides water year round and there are a number of trees that provide some shade during the heat of summer. Be sure to visit Boucher's stone cabin while you are down here. If you have some spare time it is also possible to walk quite a ways up along Boucher Creek into the back of the canyon. There is nothing really tricky about this, you just follow the stream. Sometimes it goes underground for a bit but if you continue upstream you will find it above ground again before traveling very far.
If you are heading for the river, and most people are after coming this far, it's only about a mile away by following Boucher Creek. This creek does some pretty serious meandering and the trail actually leaves the bed a couple of times to take shortcuts. Keep an eye out for cairns along the banks that mark these shortcuts. Rogil Schroeter
<snip - Contact Kathy if you need Rogil's contact information>
I don't mind going nowhere as long as it's an interesting path.