Some destinations keep tugging at your sense of wanderlust year after year. For us, Grand Canyon is one of those magical places. There are so many grand places to see that you could spend your whole life exploring its endless nooks and crannies and still have something new (and yet so very old) to experience.
Our intent this time around — our ninth time backpacking below the rim — was to visit the tallest falls in Grand Canyon, 800-foot Cheyava Falls. The falls flow only occasionally (indeed, “cheyava” means “intermittent” in Hopi), just when a significant amount of rainfall or snowmelt brings them to life.
We were joined by our friend Sarah and were excited that this particular route would be her first overnighter below the rim. This trip combined a classic corridor experience (down South Kaibab Trail, staying at Bright Angel Campground on nights 1 and 4, hiking out via Bright Angel Trail), with an off-the-beaten-path visit to Clear Creek and Cheyava Falls in between.
We arrived to our first night’s camp around noon, giving us plenty of time to lounge around under tree shade sipping iced tea at Phantom Ranch — a good thing given our arrival coincided with a heat wave. That night we dined at the canteen for the first time, enjoying a convivial time chatting with hikers visiting this wonder of the world from many different states and countries.
On our second morning we took the North Kaibab Trail for a short distance and then headed east along Clear Creek Trail, where we exchanged trail updates with a couple of hikers returning the other way. They reported the falls had been “just a trickle” when they visited the day prior. Undeterred, we figured we might as well try anyway. After all, how else would we spend our time if we didn’t go through with our plan to hike through the Clear Creek narrows, up some side canyons, bushwhacking the deepest few miles of the cross-country route that was to come?
As luck would have it, suffering under the hot spell was not for naught. To our delight, the combination of above-average temperatures and stubborn perseverance prevailed, and the falls were flowing beautifully.
Cheyava Falls flowing in their 800 feet of glory
Moving through Grand Canyon means walking through geologic time. But on this trip we were lucky to also move through the seasons over the course of a few short days. Walking, watching, and listening in nature means you sometimes get to witness the changing of the seasons, and we were fortunate to be present for the leap into spring. As we sauntered, the warming trend awoke the canyon out of a long, snowy winter. In the days that followed our descent, we would get to witness that transition in ways large and small.
One way we saw this transition was in water. When we arrived to Clear Creek on the second day, the stream was indeed flowing clear. But the water was soon loaded with increasing levels of sediment as tributaries upstream swelled with snowmelt. In this vast, arid, sparsely vegetated land there is little to prevent silt and sand from being transported by water — sometimes hundreds of miles away. It’s precisely these erosion and displacement mechanisms that we have to thank for exposing the layers of earth at Grand Canyon.
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Clear Creek was increasingly loaded with sediment when we visited. Our usual reliance of Aquamira drops and/or using bottle-top filter like the Platypus Quickdraw wasn’t going to cut it. Here’s what we did.
1. Filled a collapsible Sea to Summit bucket with water.
2. Diluted some alum powder per John Ladd’s detailed instructions, and mixed the solution into the bucket.
3. Let the sediment settle for at least 90 minutes.
4. Filtered the water through a Platypus GravityWorks filter.
Another way we saw the seasons change was in the flora. The out-and-back portions of this route meant we hiked back along the same stretch of trail a couple of days apart. In the space of just two days, a burst of wildflowers greeted us on the way back that weren’t there when had first arrived.
Experiencing these rhythms of nature puts the human heartbeat in sync with the planet. We are tremendously fortunate to get to enjoy wild spaces that, under different circumstances, would have been developed, dammed…and damned.
With thanks to our hiking pal Sarah for joining us on the hike and for snapping some of the photos in this blog post!
Days: 5 (April 8 - 12, 2023)
Mileage: 44 mi.
Elevations: South Kaibab trailhead 7,260'; Bright Angel campground 2,480'; Clear Creek 3,600; Bright Angel trailhead 6,860’. Total elevation loss/gain 6,913’.
Camp locations: Bright Angel Campground; Clear Creek.
Enjoying watching the Colorado flowing its natural chocolate brown
Rock bench at Phantom Overlook, a part of the trail originally built by the Civilian Conservation Corps circa 1935
A few years ago we found ourselves in Grand Canyon during the last week of April. We tried for and were issued a walk-up permit to backpack down into the Canyon, spending a few blissful days and nights soaking in its grandeur. Right then and there we got hooked on the splendor and intimacy of a trek below the rim. And so every last week of April since, we have made it a point to return to that big crack in the earth and tackle a below-the-rim route.