The March 2011 hike (March 13–16) with my daughter Vivian was an aggressive choice. I must admit that I did not believe that the hike we chose would be as difficult as described in the Hiking Grand Canyon guide where it describes the New Hance Trail…
The New Hance Trail is an exciting, challenging, and very scenic route to the Colorado River, but it is also the South Rim’s most difficult trail.
The guide did not include information about the Royal Arch Loop and so I was a bit skeptical about it being classified as the South Rim’s most difficult trail. Comparing it to day 2 of the Royal Arch where one hikes down the tributary to the Royal Arch Creek, spur hikes to the natural arch and then continues to the rappel and Toltec beach I would have to say the New Hance is at least equal in difficulty to this part of the Royal Arch Loop. It’s nice to be able to sit back and reflect on these two great experiences and know that I can make an experienced observation about these hikes.
Our plan was to hike down the New Hance Trail on the first day, hike from Hance Rapids to Hance Creek on the second day, hike down Hance Creek to the Colorado and then return to camp and hike to Horseshoe Mesa on the third day, and hike out the Grandview Trail on the fourth day.
Day 1—March 13, 2011
New Hance Trail to Hance Rapids
Vivian and I met our shuttle driver, Dennis Tacey, at the Grandview Trailhead where we had parked our rental car. Dennis dropped us at the New Hance Trailhead at about 7:15 and we began our descent (7.4 miles to the Colorado). Within an hour I had fallen two times due to the ice and loose pebbles on the trail. Clearly this was not a good sign as the trail seemed to increase in steepness. Vivian and I began to keep score on the number of falls and I was quickly behind 2-0. Fortunately that turned out to be the final score as we were determined to move carefully and avoid further mishaps.
Gravelboy [podcast]
Okay, it’s March 13. It’s about 5:00 in the afternoon. Vivian and I are camped at Hance Rapids. It was a wonderful day for us hiking. Um, the Hance Trail proved to be as difficult as all the publications said it was. It really, really was trecherous for me. At times I just wanted to lay down beside the trail and… and go to sleep, but um, we plugged on and uh we made it down here. We started at 7 in the morning and arrived here about 4. A couple of hours before arriving we came across a flowing water and that was like uh, this wonderful oasis for us so we got fresh water and we’re all ready for um the next portion of our hike where we’ll…where we’ll head… camp at the Hance Creek tomorrow. I’m going to turn uh…that’s all I’ll say for now and I’m going to give it over to Vivian.
Video—Wonderful Oasis
Vivian Ibarra [podcast]
Okay, uh, this is Vivian, this is the first day on the New Hance Trail. Um…it was hard. There were parts of it where we had to like… slide down rocks, take our packs off and… the first hour or so we were just sliding down on ice and had to be really careful. When we got to the creek things started to get a little better because we had a lot of water. Right now, um, I’m in my tent, eating leftover pizza and reading a book. And my dad was just lying down. I think he is taking a nap so he hasn’t set up his tent but I’m all set to go for tonight. So, that’s it. Peace out.
Videos—
Day 2—March 14, 2011
Hance Rapids to Hance Creek
We left Hance Rapids about 7:00 am and headed for Hance Creek (5.1 miles) where, according to our guide book we would find a nice place to camp with running water. The trail gradually climbed through an area of Hakatai shale and enters Mineral Canyon. After reaching an altitude of about 3300 feet the trail basically follows a contour to the Hance Creek. The later part of the trail parallels the Hance Creek (which we could see far below us).
Gravelboy [podcast]
Well it’s March 14. It’s about, uh… 4:00 in the afternoon. Vivian and I have been here for a couple of hours now, at the Hance Creek campsite. Uh, we have a nice water source here, we got our tents set up. We tried to relax a bit, we were both pretty tired but the flies here were horrendous and now that the suns gone down a bit they seem to have abated just a bit. Um…tomorrow we’ll head down this uh…Hance creek to the Rapids. That’s about 3 1/2 miles from here. And we’ll see how that goes. But today’s hike was ah…pretty good. It was a bit of climbing, and up and down. But we did hit the Tonto plateau where it leveled out and we, uh, made fairly good time I thought. That’s about it for now.
(To Vivian) Do you have your uh… podcast ready?
(Vivian in background) I don’t have anything to add to it.
To Vivian) Alright, I’ll let you off the hook then.
Day 3—March 15, 2011
Hance Creek campsite down the Hance Creek to pour off, return to site and continue to Horseshoe Mesa
Our Falcon Guide, Hiking Grand Canyon National Park, states
If you have an extra day for the trip, it is possible to follow the gorge for about 3.5 miles to the Colorado River at Sockdolager Rapids in the shadowed depths of Granite Gorge.
Based on this single sentence description, Vivian and I set off on a half day (?) side trip to the rapids. We made pretty good time heading down the Hance Creek but about a mile from the Colorado we hit an impassable pour off. I was a bit surprised because I felt the guide book would have mentioned this. Unfortunately we have no photos of this side trip, only GPS tracks and a video.
Video—Pour-off
Gravelboy [podcast]
This morning Vivian and I walked down to… well we were going to hike down to the rapids but we couldn’t get that far, about a mile before the rapids we hit this waterfall and just had no way to get around it. So we had to stop there and hike back. So we got back to the camp and have been relaxing and had lunch. Um, later on we plan to leave for Page Miner Springs and Horseshoe Mesa which I don’t believe is gonna be that much further. So we’ll probably take a nap here.
Last night we heard some birds. Uh, they made quite a loud noise. And we’re hoping to capture them. So, um, that’s why I’m making this recording, now we just heard the bird and we’re hoping that, uh… we’ll get some more from them. So that’s about it for today.
Hance Creek to Horseshoe Mesa
Vivian and I continued to Horseshoe Mesa in the early afternoon. As we were breaking camp we happened upon another hiker who asked us if we were kept awake by the frogs last night. In talking with him we learned that it was bull frogs that were making the loud noise and not birds. Here is an audio clip of the frogs.
Just leaving Hance Creek we bunched up with a fairly large group of high school students (maybe 10 or 12) and two of their teacher sponsors. They were doing the same hike we were (minus the Hance Creek spur hike). They were a great group of young people getting a wonderful experience. For some of them it was there first time in the Grand Canyon.
We had about a mile walk to Page Miner Springs where we replenished our water and then we continued via a stiff climb to Horseshoe Mesa where we arrived in the early evening.
Day 4—March 16, 2011
Horseshoe Mesa to Grandview Trailhead
Vivian and I got an early start out the Grandview Trail. Unfortunately we shared a Backpacker’s Pantry Wild West Chili & Beans. Big Mistake. We both ate maybe four or five mouthfuls before throwing it away. It unsettled my stomach for the hike out and caused a few problems that I won’t go into details about.
The Grandview Trail is a tough hike out. I’ve hiked it on 6 different occasions but always as a day hike. Hiking out with a backpack is a bit different. But Vivian and I kept a steady pace and were at the trailhead by 11:30.
Gravelboy [podcast]
Well it’s Wednesday, March 16. I’m strolling out on Horseshoe Mesa right now. Um, we arrived here yesterday evening from the Hance Creek. It was a bit of a climb to get up here but it really didn’t take that long. And Vivi and I had a nice dinner and are looking forward to walking out now. We’re going to be walking out the Grandview Trail. I think we should be out around 12 or 1 o’clock.
Vivian Ibarra [podcast]
OK, so it’s about 7:00 in the morning. We are getting ready to eat breakfast and start hiking out. Yesterday we had a pretty good hike uh, to Hance Creek to hike down to the rapids but we couldn’t make it because there was a big pour off. There was just no way to get down it. So then we went back to camp. And then we decided that it would be a good idea to probably just rest for a little while and then start hiking up to Horseshoe Mesa which is what we did. And, I guess kind of unluckily for us we got stuck behind this really big group and we couldn’t pass them and they couldn’t really pass us and we just walked together basically the whole way. Um… other than that I’m ready to just eat and head on out before the other people leave.
And that brings us to the end of our Grand Canyon hike for 2011. I was very proud of Vivian. The trail was extremely steep going down on the first day and then hiking out the Grandview trail is always tough. We celebrated by going to our favorite restaurant in Tuscayan-We Cook Pizza & Pasta.
