Francois Matthes Point

 

Tim and I had a morning to hike something at the Grand Canyon. There were many trail options but having a down and up day the day before, meaning we went down into the canyon and came back up, we decided to hang out on the rim. I had always wanted to get my eyes on Cheyava Falls which is the tallest waterfall in the Grand Canyon. It is a bit elusive and only runs during the Spring. It was Spring now, but likely it would not still be flowing because you need a good bit of snow melt and we hadn't had that lately. I still wanted to give it a shot. 

We figured out that if we hiked out to Frances Matthes Point, we could peer down into Cheyava Falls. Frances Matthes was a photographer in the early days of photography and would popularize the Grand Canyon with some of his photographs. We figured if this point was named after him, it was probably pretty photogenic. We also found out that if we parked on an old abandoned logging road, there would be a path most of the way to the point for us to follow. So that is what we did. The walking was really pretty easy being mostly flat rim trail walking. We ran into a couple of interesting things including a survey marker and an old ladder.

 Mostly it was walking through open forest with not much to fight off in the way of vegetation on the forest carpet. When getting to the point, we had to sort of pick our best route to the edge, but when we did, we were rewarded almost immediately with amazing views of the canyon. This was an angle I had not seen it from before, so it was amazing. There is no good way to sum up the feeling that you get when you look off into the distance in the Grand Canyon. It is the feeling of eternity that this place had been here for millions of years looking very similar to how it looks now, but also the knowledge that it took millions of years for it to become what it is. 

The whole idea of millions of years is beyond our thought process, but it is on display in front of our very eyes. Cheyava was definitely not flowing, but we could easily see the spot where it would flow from the cliffs. If it was me and I lived at the Grand Canyon, I would come out to Frances Matthes Point every April to see the water flow. It would be much easier than to hike down to Phantom Ranch, over to Clear Creek, and then up the Clear Creek drainage. Sure, looking up at a waterfall is much more interesting than looking down, but you still get to see it. Tim and I enjoyed this point and took many pictures. Then it was back on the old logging road, back to the car, and off to home again to hope that our house sells. I was hoping I would see Tim before I left for the Northwest, but who knows if I would. Still, he would be a life long friend as Tim has the same sense for adventure that I do.