Tim and I decided to meet up for another trip while he was still working at the Grand Canyon for the season. This was nearing the end of his season as he was heading back to Yosemite for the summer. The Grand Canyon is amazing in the spring and it is such a wonderful time to visit. I had to take my chance.
I was hoping to go to Cheyava Falls, but all of the permits were taken, so instead we decide to head down the Tanner Trail. I hiked the Tanner Trail 3 times before, but I still love it. I knew it was going to be steep, so I tried to pack accordingly as I was going to have to keep up with super hiker Tim.
I drove over to Desert View from Zion and we were able to get an early start from the nearby Lipan Point. There was still quite a bit of snow at the beginning of the trail, but we were able to navigate through it with little issue. After we got down about 1.5 miles, the snow disappeared and it was just beautiful spring desert. I admired some of the deep narrow canyons that were coming in as the trail flattened out for a period of time. The vistas were incredible and we were taking our time as we just wanted to get down the Tanner and on to the Beamer Trail. This part of the canyon is so wide and expansive, the views are truly some of the most incredible any place in the Grand Canyon. The yuccas were blooming in quite a few spots as the desert tends to come alive in the spring. We descended the steep Redwall and then it was just smooth sailing from there. We hit the river still pretty early in the day and had to make our way out to the Beamer Trail. We found a nice flat bench not too far away from the river a couple of miles in and made camp for the night.
It was an early morning the next day as we wanted to fill the day as full as we could. The Little Colorado was our destination. I had been on the Beamer Trail before, but had only done the trail as far as I could with one overnight. This time we were giving ourselves a bunch more time to make sure that we could complete the journey.
The Beamer trail follows the east side of the canyon right near the edge on the Tonto. It is not a difficult trail, but one where watching your footing is important as it is similar to walking on the edge of the roof. We could see river runners below us and look up to the site where there was a big plane crash in the 1940's. It is such an awesome feeling to be hiking in the canyon. As I looked around, I thought of all the places that I would never get to go, but always would want to. There were washes, canyons, and buttes overlooking the river on the North side that looked appealing, but also rather inaccessible.
The trail itself seemed to wind its way up and down usually staying high, but sometimes dipping low. Eventually the trail dumped us out right at the confluence of the Colorado and the LCR. Our goal was to get up the LCR about as far as we could, so we headed upstream. After a while, though, we realized that it was going to be a long journey to get to anything different, so we enjoyed the turquoise blue waters and the rolling cascades of this awesome river. The Lower Colorado is truly one of the most pristine and protected places on earth just due to its inaccessibility. I hope it will stay that way in the future.
On this day, though, we were able to make it down to the big river again before heading back to our campsite. Here we found a group of rafters enjoying their lunch on the other side of the Lower Colorado. We waved to them and it was nice to see some other folks considering that no one else was hiking out here. As we were back on the trail, we were able to see them rafting down the river. Part of me would have taken a ride, but it is much better to soak in the goodness of the canyon when your feet are hitting the trail sometimes. We made it back to camp where we were able to just sit and chill. Tim is such a great hiking partner.
He is always up for whatever anyone else is willing to do and he is really easy to get along with. It was nice having him close to Zion for a little bit so we could chill. The next morning we were up bright and early. Now came the tedious process of hauling all our stuff and ourselves up the 4500 vertical feet of the Tanner Trail. I looked up to the top and always the tower at Desert View was there staring the two of us down. We compared it to the eye from Lord of the Rings because it seemed that it did not matter how far we traveled, it would still be just as far away looking at us. That of course was not true as we made pretty good time getting up and out.
When I got back to the top, I had the uncertainty of what this year was going to bring for me. Jacqueline and I had already been applying to other jobs and I had a voicemail from the Grand Canyon asking about my availability for a Permanent Job. I had to weigh my options, but really it would be hard to give up this desert wonderland. I really felt blessed to be here, but my term appointment could end in another year and I didn't want to be left without a job to go back to. A lot to think about, but on this weekend I was just pleased to have such an excellent journey in the Canyon with a good friend.
