We camped out at the Monument Point Trailhead on Wednesday, September 2 after it had been raining a lot of the day. Fortunately, the rain stopped before we camped, but it was pretty windy. The gravel road to here from the main North Rim road was beautiful. From the junction of 67 and 422, it took 32 miles and 61 minutes to get to Monument Point using my 1983 Honda Civic Station Wagon. Details:
| Mileage | Time | Location |
|---|---|---|
| 0 | 0:00 | Junction 67 and 422 |
| 19 | 0:32 | Junction 422 and 425 |
| 28 | 0:50 | Junction 425 and 232 |
| 29 | 0:52 | Junction 425 and 292 |
| 32 | 1:01 | Monument Point (Millet) |
Gene and Linda went first, and we didn't see them again until the next day! The rest of us went part way down while waiting for Allen Adler to show up. This accounts for the first trip partway then back to rim. We had camped out on rim while Allen had stayed in St. George on the way to the GC.
After starting with Allen, we unfortunately tried to take the old ridge trail, but after encountering a very difficult descent, realized the error of our ways and went back. We hiked down one major barrier, but the next major barrier posed a "10% risk of death" according to Rich and Allen! We decided to drive to the Indian Hollow Trail head, and hoped that the trail would be clearer from there. The Bensons went ahead to the car at one point while Allen was adjusting his pack. After getting back to the trail junction that I thought was the junction of the Indian Hollow and Monument Point Trails, I decided to continue west to explore that direction. Very quickly it was clear that this was the correct trail. Unfortunately, by then the Bensons were at the car, so Allen and I dropped our packs there and hiked back up to the car to get the Bensons and more water.
We ended up camping at the Esplanade when we ran out of daylight, after hiking 14-16 miles that day.
On Friday, we hiked down to Upper Tapeats Campground. I was wiped out when I got there so rested from 1-3 pm. Then walked along the west river trail as far as I could in the time remaining. It rained about 4:30 am on Saturday morning just enough so that Allen and I threw our stuff under a ledge, at which point the rain stopped.
On Saturday, crossed Tapeats Creek twice and made it to the Colorado River. The Trail was somewhat scary at the end - the entire 400' drop occurred at the end of the trail at the river. Before then, the trail was at the top of the intrusive diabase sill, and one misstep and that's it for hiking in the GC. I walked along the river for a while.
We were ready to hike out at about 3 pm after a big lunch, but it rained quite hard and delayed our start. In Surprise Valley, we consciously decided to hike to Dear Creek valley edge and do some moonlight hiking. Hike up to Esplanade was tough. Gene and Linda went beyond the site of our previous camp, so spent some time finding another. Greg was really wiped by that day!
Had an easy hike out on Sunday. Drove to Thunder River Trailhead to check it out. It has a beautiful view of Mt. Sinyala from there.
| Recording number | Mileage | Time arrived | Time left | Altitude | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0 | 0.00 | 8:42 | 7100 | ||
| 1 | 0.55 | 8:53 | 8:53 | 7100 | Millet |
| 2 | 0.75 | 8:58 | 7100 | Stop - returned to car to wait for Allen | |
| 3 | 2.30 | 9:44 | 7100 | Back to #2 with Allen | |
| 4 | 2.50 | 9:50 | 10:04 | 7100 | Monument Point |
| 5 | 2.90 | 10:15 | 10:24 | 6850 | |
| 6 | 3.35 | 10:39 | 6650 | Error? Went west to Mon. Point! | |
| 7 | 3.50 | 10:44 | 6750 | Jct E and W Bill Hall Trail | |
| 8 | 3.85 | 10:55 | 11:35 | 6600 | Stuck! How to get down? Cairn leads to drop off. Finally went straight down ridge (turned out to be error) |
| 9 | 4.50 | 11:45 | 12:37 | 6400 | Middle of rock slide - another tough place Decision point: turn back! |
| 10 | 5.20 | 6650 | Up first bad part | ||
| 11 | 5.35 | 6700 | =7, continue on West Trail | ||
| 12 | 5.70 | 6700 | Continue on west trail | ||
| 13 | 5.95 | 6700 | Continue on west trail | ||
| 14 | 6.35 | 6700 | This is it! I explored on ahead and came back, in order to verify this is the trail. Left pack here and got Bensons and more water at car | ||
| 15 | 7.00 | = 7 (Trail Junction) | |||
| 16 | 7.45 | Monument Point | |||
| 17 | 8.50 | 2:40 | 2:52 | Car! Starting hike over now! | |
| 18 | 9.50 | 3:10 | Mon. Point | ||
| 19 | 10.25 | 3:31 | = 7 (Trail Jct E and W) | ||
| 20 | 10.90 | 3:50 | = 14 Back at packs. | ||
| 21 | 11.65 | 4:32 | 6250 | Bottom of rock slide | |
| 22 | 12.00 | 5:04 | 6100 | Moleskin stop for Greg | |
| 23 | 12.50 | 5:17 | 5:25 | 5800 | Jct little drainage |
| 24 | 13.00 | 5:37 | 5650 | ||
| 25 | 13.70 | 5:54 | 6:12 | 5600 | |
| 26 | 14.70 | 6:37 | 5500 | ||
| 27 | 15:05 | 6:59 | 5600 | ||
| 28 | 15.95 | 7:18 | 5450 | Camp on Esplanade just before tipoff |
| Recording number | Mileage | Time arrived | Time left | Altitude | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0 | 0.00 | 8:00 | 5300 | Start again with 4 of us. | |
| 1 | 2.50 | 9:04 | 9:26 | 4000 | redwall descent |
| 2 | 3.50 | 9:43 | 3600 | jct deer creek falls | |
| 3 | 4.50 | 10:07 | 10:35 | 3900 | summit - edge Surprise Valley |
| 4 | 5.50 | 10:59 | 11:45 | 3400 | Thunder River spring |
| 5 | 6.70 | 12:04 | 12:17 | 2900 | Shade, rest feet, wait for Bensons |
| 6 | 7.50 | 12:33 | 2550 | Camp |
| Recording number | Mileage | Time arrived | Time left | Altitude | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0 | 0.00 | 8:30 | |||
| 1 | 10:10 | 10:20 | Tapeats Rapids. Two river crossings so far - not bad. Trail had 1 4' drop. Pretty scary on ledge on top of diabase sill near river. Elevation drop is all at end of trail. | ||
| 2 | 10:40 | West along river - got past diabase column in river by trail behind it. | |||
| 3 | 11:00 | 11:10 | Tapeats Rapids | ||
| 4 | 12:30 | Back at camp |
| Recording number | Mileage | Time arrived | Time left | Altitude | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0 | 0.00 | 3:55 | 2550 | Start Hike out | |
| 1 | 0.50 | 4:10 | 3000 | Thunder River stop | |
| 2 | 1.05 | 4:30 | ~4:35 | 3400 | Check out geology |
| 3 | 1.20 | 4:45 | 5:05 | 3500 | Thunder River spring - fill up with water. Carrying up 3 l water - 1 l cached on Esplanade. There were rain pockets on Esplanade. |
| 5 | 2.85 | 5:53 | 3800 | Deer Creek junction | |
| 6 | 4.75 | 6:32 | 3800 | To Deer Creek edge and back, so that we could hike in moonlight later! | |
| 7 | 5.30 | 6:50 | 6:55 | 4100 | |
| 8 | 5.70 | 7:14 | 4650 | ||
| 9 | 5.95 | 7:33 | 4750 | ||
| 10 | 6.20 | 7:51 | 4950 | ||
| 11 | 6.50 | 8:14 | 5150 | ||
| 12 | 6.75 | 8:36 | 9:01 | 5300 | Camp from 2 nights ago. Look for gene and linda, get cached water. |
| 13 | 7.25 | 9:16 | 5450 | Found gene and linda |
| Recording number | Mileage | Time arrived | Time Left | Altitude | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0 | 0.00 | 8:13 | 5350 | ||
| 1 | 2.25 | 8:55 | 5400 | Jct Thunder River - Bill Hall Trail | |
| 2 | 2.70 | 9:10 | 9:18 | 5700 | |
| 3 | 3.00 | 9:33 | 9:41 | 6100 | |
| 4 | 3.25 | 9:57 | 10:05 | 6450 | |
| 5 | 3.35 | 10:10 | 6650 | Met rest of group who started at 7:40. | |
| 6 | 3.90 | 10:34 | 6750 | Jct the false ridge trail. Put some rocks there to block it! | |
| 7 | 4.25 | 11:00 | 11:37 | 7150 | Bill Hall {Sig.?} |
| 8 | 5.35 | 11:56 | 7100 | Car! |