Finally got around to hiking around the Powell Plateau in the Grand Canyon. This is one of George Steck’s iconic loop hikes that seems so obvious when you look at a map: a big loop around a big plateau. Similar, but different, from the Circumambulation of the Walhalla Plateau I did several years ago scouting the Butte Fault route for my big Grand Canyon thru-hike. Most folks who hike the length of the Canyon, myself included, take a short-cut up the North Bass Trail, through the Muav Saddle, and down Saddle Canyon into Tapeats Creek effectively cutting off the huge corner that Powell Plateau creates around Explorer’s Monument. After going down the river on a float trip in November of 2023, I finally got to see around the big bend of the Plateau. But I knew putting my boots on the ground would afford a wholly different perspective.
The difficulty with hiking around the Plateau comes in timing. Access is a loooooong dirt road either off the North Rim road or south out of Fredonia. In the winter and spring the road to Swamp Point is too snowy to get to usually, so the other option is the fall, which makes more sense but last fall I couldn’t make it out to the Canyon and after a very dry winter it occurred to me that I could get close to Swamp Point this spring. After checking the Sentinel Weekly imagery on CalTopo I realized the winter road to the Bill Hall Trailhead was dry! This would add around 10 miles each direction and having never hiked down the Bill Hall Trail I was like, what the hell. It had been a weird winter and after dealing with an injury for most of it I was raring to get out there.
As luck would have it, a snowstorm blew through the day before and the road was a little squirrelly but I made it to the trailhead without getting stuck (something that has happened to me twice before on the North Rim). As I packed up in the morning, three dudes showed up who were dropping upper Deer Creek (a canyoneering route) so I hiked out with them until the trail forked and I headed down to Thunder River. As soon as I saw the green cottonwoods and blossoming redbuds, I was so stoked for my decision to come out.
I made it down to the river and headed up the trail at racetrack and looked at some beta I had saved on my phone. Whoops! Apparently I mis-read it and there was a ‘ramp’ before the narrows that I was supposed to take. But a quick check on my phone revealed a supposed use-trail right up the corner between the mouth of Tapeats and the upstream river camp which I think is called RaceTrack(?). Definitely not really a trail, but I scramble up the corner to the top of the tapeats and cruised over to Stone before sunset.
Stone Creek was beautiful. Clear flowing water all the way to the river and a beautiful sandy river basecamp. As well as “Switch-Level” Canyon. Beautiful, clear and tasty flowing water, and now I want to go back just to visit those two and hike up into them. The more you know, the more there is to know. I took the use trail around Blacktail, rather than going down to the river camp. There was river group there and normally I would walk right in but I was antsy to keep hiking and didn’t feel like socializing or explaining what I was doing. Around Fossil were some really wonderful Tapeats sidewalks that dipped right into the river and I found this nice bighorn trail skirting the cliffs around the corner that was narrow but made for easy walking. Going around Explorer’s Monument and looking across to Elves Chasm and the Royal Arch route was also cool. A unique perspective, not seen by many. The Redwall looks so big! I camped way down at a pothole in the big drainage off of Explorer’s Monument because it was the only water I figured I would find before dark and it just seemed like one of those places I may never get back to again. The next day going around Walthenberg and Hakatai felt long and tedious. I didn’t know where the “ramp” was into Hakatai so I went wayyyyy around the whole damn thing. Not to mention the prickly pear might as well be as prevalent as the rocks and boy it was exhausting picking my way through them (and stopping a lot to pry them out of my shoes and feet. Maybe Hakatai deserves another trip too, just for itself, to enjoy it and find the shortcut. But I made good time despite the tedium and camped in a protected overhang off the corner of Fan Island. Weather is coming in and the overhang was so nice and quiet despite the winds around it. This is where desert backpacking often feels so luxurious. Had I been in a tent, I wouldn’t have slept at all due to getting battered all night!
As I worked my way up North Bass on day five I realized I would make it to the Muav Saddle earlier in the day than I ever had. It had started raining that afternoon and the shelter of Teddy’s cabin was nice to hang my things up to dry. Although it is always cold way up there, it’s nice to have a little more space than a tent affords. There used to be this amazing logbook in the cabin that was filled with stories, but it’s no longer there. I remember reading about the firefighters who wrote in it as they were saving the cabin. That book brought the cabin to life with hikers old and new seeking shelter there. I hope someone puts it back, it is too special and deserves to be a museum piece for the park. With nothing to read, I went to bed early and the wind howled all night through the big ponderosas around the cabin and I was glad again to not be in my tent.
The next morning I dropped down Saddle Canyon quickly hoping to avoid the next round of weather. A few sprinkles started as I was wading through the Tapeats Narrows but I got to camp near Thunder River around 2:00, right as the clouds unleashed. It was nice to be in my tent before I was wet. I’ve been up North Bass and down Saddle/Tapeats twice before, first on the Hayduke, then on my Grand Canyon thru-hike so I knew where camping options were, which alleviated a lot of anxiety and allowed to me to hike more confidently. The next morning the sky had cleared some and as I hiked up into the snow at the top of the Bill Hall Trail light flakes started to fall again. Despite the cold, it was beautiful and I said thank you to the canyon for safe passage. 💚
