Rochester Active Sports Club

Author’s note: This article describes two backpacking trips in the Grand Canyon. The trailhead for the Royal Arch Canyon hike (named the South Bass Trailhead) is about two slow driving hours west of the South Rim Visitor Center on forest service and park service roads. The trailhead for the Saddle Canyon trek (named Swamp Point Trailhead) is about an hour and a half west of the North Rim Visitor Center (again, on slow driving, high clearance forest service and park service roads). I have the good fortune of having some friends who possess a passion for backpacking in the Grand Canyon and accompanied them twice on treks, both times in October. The first hike was in 2005 down a south rim slot canyon named Royal Arch Canyon. My three companions were Tom Costello, John Edwards, and Jay Lawrence (all current or former IBMers from the Rochester area). The other trip was 2009 down another slot canyon from the north rim, named Saddle Canyon, and this time, Jay Lawrence and I did the trek. Both trips were about a week in length and included some unmatched beauty of the desert southwest as well as some planned and unplanned adventures. There were some beautiful and interesting sights. For example, on the Royal Arch route, two days into the hike, we camped under the stately Royal Arch; the Grand Canyon is not noted for having a lot of natural arches, but this is one exception. On Day three of that same trip, we were hiking, and ten minutes into a cloudburst, we suddenly noticed impressive water spouts shooting out of the sides of 1000’ high vertical walls. On day four, we had a layover day on the Colorado, and we took a hike downstream to a beautiful alcove named, Elve’s Chasm; it is a favorite stopover for rafters. On the eve of our final day on the Royal Arch trip, we ascended the Redwall layer (usually a 1400’ cliff, but here it was eroded enough that a steep trail was built) and set up camp in the dark. Then, in the morning, we climbed Mt Huethawali (which is a 900’ high mountain on the Esplanade layer) for a spectacular 360° view.

The 2009 trek had some equally beautiful sights and sounds. As we descended Saddle Canyon, we came to some smoothed and polished rocks, as well as instances of undercutting of the rock from eons of erosion. On day two, Jay and I were pondering how to get down over a 15’ ledge, when we heard a sharp noise (like a rifle shot) way above us, followed by a staccato of similar sounding cracks as a huge boulder dislodged and caromed down the canyon making a very echoey descent; we got ready to take cover, but luckily it was down canyon from us. On day three, as we neared the Colorado River, Saddle Canyon joined with Tapeats Creek and then, a little deeper into the slot canyon, a torrent of water cascaded down from Thunder Cave. Thunder Cave is an impressive gusher of water creating a hanging garden which is midway up a 2000’ vertical wall. On both trips, we met a few other hikers and rafters. On the Royal Arch trek, we were passed by a couple from Albuquerque who were really into ultralight gear and were traveling ultrafast. On the Saddle Canyon trip, we met up with a younger group of rafters from the NW US; there were maybe 15 of them and were camping a couple of nights at the mouth of Tapeats Creek and the Colorado. They were very friendly and we crossed paths several times as we all hiked up to Thunder Cave. One of the gals (from California) asked where we were from, and when I said, Minnesota, she said that she had done her undergraduate work at St Olaf, and I told her that one of my daughters had also gone there (she thought she remembered my daughter). Both hikes had their share of adventures. For example, in a steep-walled, narrow section of Royal Arch Canyon, we encountered a garage sized boulder, and below it was a deep pool of water. One online trip report said to bypass the boulder by using some cliffs on the left side. We did not see any cliffs, so we ignored the online report and did as our guidebook recommended, and swam the pool (it was too deep to wade). The October sun in the Grand Canyon is generally mild, and, luckily it was warm that day. On another part of the Royal Arch route, we had to rappel down a 20’ cliff. Again, the guidebook told about this, and we had some minimal climbing rope and gear to do the job. On the Saddle Creek Canyon route, we encountered the “slippery slide” as the guidebook called it. It was a smooth, high-walled steep slide in the rock with a pool of water at the bottom. During wetter parts of the year, the slide has flowing water and has some slippery moss growing on it (thus the name). Jay and I put our rain gear on (don’t ask me why, it just seemed that it would keep us a little warmer when we hit the pool). We slid down the slide with our packs trailing us; we hit the water and floated our packs (in their rain covers) as we waded the pool. One other part of Saddle Canyon brought us into a narrow, high-walled section and by now, we were deep enough in the canyon to have a torrent of water flowing in the slot canyon bed. This lasted about a half mile and we were constantly wading (sox off, boots on). Finally the canyon opened up enough to allow us to climb up to some higher (and drier ground). On the 2009 trip, we exited our route one day early (it snowed on the top of the north rim), so we moteled it in a little crossroads inn named Jacobs Lake. The shower and warm, soft bed felt good; although the shower was not immediate as our first cabin had frozen pipes and they moved us to another cabin. Since we had one extra day, before heading home, we drove to another trailhead, that Jay knew about, in Marble Canyon (Marble Canyon is a name given to the upper Grand Canyon). It was a little lower elevation, and thus, we got out of the snow. We took a one day descent into the confluence of two slot canyons (South Canyon and Bedrock Canyon) where they run into the Colorado. There was no real path, only a general route and we got to practice some class 3 and 4 free climbing. Late that afternoon, we ascended and got back to our vehicle just as the sun was setting and casting a beautiful rose hue to the Vermillion Cliffs area of the Grand Canyon. These are two beautiful routes on some seldom traveled regions in the Grand Canyon far away from the crowds (and mules).