Tag: Cheyava Falls

I have made considerable progress on the Grand Canyon web pages on this blog. I only have my last hike, the 2009 hike with Vivian to Cheyava Falls, to write about. Here is a beautiful photo of the Black Bridge that we captured on the morning of the last day of our hike. On the far bank the South Kaibob trail can be seen winding it’s way upwards. That day was exhausting. We arrived at the South Kaibob Trailhead at 7:00 and had started at 7:00 AM.

My next project will be the Appalachian Trail pages. I began that hike in 2004. This July will be my 6th year on the trail and I expect to hit the half-way point. This is probably more than I had expected as it is a challenge to do this each year. And, it’s not getting easier.

Vivian and I returned last Thursday after a grueling 6 days and 5 nights in the Grand Canyon. The hike to Cheyava Falls was challenging but certainly a great adventure for the both of us. I am currently going through our photos to prepare a DVD for Grandma and eventually a page describing the hike here. For now here is a color coded topo map from our GPS tracks of our hike.

Red = Bright Angel Trail

Green = Clear Creek Trail

Purple = Cheyava Falls via Clear Creek

Yellow = Colorado River via Clear Creek

Orange = South Kaibob

The Cheyava Falls and Colorado hikes were both done by following Clear Creek. This involved a bit of bush-whacking and some route finding to get to Cheyava Falls. My hike to the Colorado was stopped a mile short by a 15 foot pour off. There was a rock climb passage down the west side but it was steep and I was unsure of getting back out and back to Vivian at the Clear Creek Camp. The National Park flyer states to stop here if you are not comfortable with rock climbing. Duh.

The final hike out was quite difficult. We left the AK9 campsite and hiked 2 miles to Phantom Ranch in the early morning of March 17. We exited the canyon around 6:30. It was a tough, steep hike out and the packs were heavy.

I spent this morning running errands and finalizing purchases for the Grand Canyon 2009 hike to Cheyava Falls. Goode Sport coupon was good for a hat and Mountain House Food and also a stuff sack for my tent. I believe we’ve got what we need and when Vivian and I pack up at the motel on Wednesday afternoon we can run out and purchase any other items necessary. Of course, I’m assuming we will be in Tuscayan at the Seven Mile Inn.

Vivian arrives tomorrow in the late afternoon. I am currently writing the Grand Canyon, March 2007 hike which is quite difficult as a lot happened on that hike and a lot happened leading up to it.

Today I am attempting to concretize the hiking permits for Vivian and I to go to the Grand Canyon over the upcoming Spring break. The process has not been a smooth one as the original hiking permits, approved, no longer worked for us. We have different spring breaks this year and  I mistakenly organized a trip under the assumption we would be off at the same time. In one sense it is a good thing because for some reason my trip itinerary was ridiculous. I had us starting down the Grandview Trail and then heading over to the Kaibob and across to Phantom Ranch. I only allowed one overnight for this but if I had a closer look at the map I would have realized that we would need two overnights just to get to the Phantom Ranch area from the Grandview. That would be a trip in itself and there is no need to mix it up with a Cheyava Falls trip. The new request has a problem with the dates so I am going to phone them right now and see if I can nail down the dates. Hopefully we can do this Cheyava Falls trek.

OK, just now got off the phone with the Grand Canyon park ranger and we are set with our permits. We will be hiking into the Clear Creek area (down Bright Angel early morning of the 12th) and stay somewhere outside of Phantom Ranch where we can. Day two we will hike to Clear Creek and set up camp. Day three we will hike to Cheyava Falls and hope that the falls are running. Day four we will begin the trek back and Day five we will exit by way of the South Kaibob Trail.