Grand Canyon: Monument Creek Campground
“Monument Creek is my preferred vacation spot under the South Rim”, mentioned a lengthy time Grand Canyon indigenous and well-acknowledged geologist as we hiked down the South Kaibab. This was absolutely ample to peak my desire. Immediately after recently relocating to the South Rim we were being nervous for the temperature to neat off so that we could continue on our exploration of the Inner Canyon in much additional detail. My spouse Wendy and I have been hiking in the Grand Canyon for just about 25 a long time with basically hundreds of descents off the Rims. Now that we are living a few minutes wander from the South Rim, we determined that a person or two backpack journeys a month was totally within cause. Our initially destination was Monument Creek Campground on Monument Creek for each our friend’s advice.
If you have performed any climbing in the “Corridor Trails” of the Grand Canyon, (Vivid Angel, South/North Kaibab), the hike down to Monument Creek is unquestionably a massive move up. The Corridor Trails are properly maintained, compared to the Hermit Trail – are practically groomed. First off, for any overnight camping trips below the Rims you must secure a backcountry allow by calling the GCNP Backcountry Office at 928-638-7875. There are nominal charges affiliated with the allow. Then arrange your gear and set a clean memory card in your camera for a amazing plunge into a far more distant section of the Grand Canyon.
The vacation down to Monument Creek starts at the Hermit Path with a swift 1000′ descent down to Waldron Canyon. From Waldron Canyon the trail heads owing north earlier the Dripping Springs Trail to a neat small rock pour off. The path up to this stage is properly managed and receives pretty a couple of day hikers on their way to Santa Maria Springs, considerably less than a third mile away. I mention the pour off because the path from right here ahead results in being substantially more hard. There are quite a few rock slides masking the path with many regions of vertical publicity. All of this is completely doable with a backpack, you are just not going to make great time.
Santa Maria Springs is an oasis adjacent to the Redwall development approximately 2.2 miles from the trailhead. This tends to make this region a favored day hikers’ location. There is a amazing tiny spring seeping into a cattle trough the place you can fill your water bottles. (Bear in mind to generally filter your h2o any where in the Grand Canyon.) Future to the spring is a tremendous neat rock hut with a bench and a way amazing double rocker with the phrases “Rest Bit” engraved into the back again relaxation. The perspective west from inside the rock hut is protected with hanging vines – think me, Martha Stewart could not have designed a extra at ease rest property.
Touring down the trail hugging the Redwall development with numerous rock slides for the subsequent hour or so will deliver you to Lookout Level, an great put to just take a crack and appreciate the view. Immediately west of Lookout Stage across Hermit Creek Canyon is the Boucher Path. It is extremely tough to see and is pretty rugged. This trail is named soon after the unique hermit Louis D. Boucher. Another hour or so however hugging the Redwall formation with a lot of rock slides and vertical exposure will bring you to Breezy Place. Breezy Position is 5.5 miles from the trailhead and is a good position to have lunch. The commanding sights to the north present a preview underneath of the Tonto Trail functioning southwest to Hermit’s Camp and to the northeast in the direction of a modest saddle that potential customers to your vacation spot at Monument Creek.
Winding previous Breezy Place and still hugging the Redwall with numerous rock slides and more vertical publicity will bring you to the Cathedral Stairs in all around a fifty percent hour. Cathedral Stairs is the crux, or the most tricky portion of the hike. Trail builders have actually carved a slim trail into this development. It is steep and rocky, but quick, much less than a 1/4 mile. At the time at the bottom of the Cathedral Stairs a person feels considerably launched from the partitions of the canyon. There is a extended traverse adjacent to Cope Butte and soon after many switchbacks you will join with the Tonto Trail at around 7 miles from the authentic trailhead. A single won’t be able to aid but stare back south at Breezy Level and the Cathedral Stairs and marvel at the ingenuity of the trail builders.
The Tonto Path heading east presents a nice respite from the rock slides and vertical exposure following many miles of tricky climbing alongside the Redwall. A person can essentially stride this part of the path and enable your muscle tissue to rest. There are glimpses of the Colorado River under as the Tower of Established dominates the northern skyline. In an hour or so you will locate by yourself approaching the Monument Creek drainage. The descent into the drainage is rugged and obtaining the trail can be tricky. There were hikers in entrance of us that descended straight down into the creek, only to bushwack again up. The path actually hugs the rim and descends a bit, search for rock cairns.
The Monument Creek Campground location is an oasis. You have now traveled somewhere around 9.5 miles into a well guarded drainage with lots of mesquite trees for shade with easy accessibility to water flowing more than various pour offs. There are maybe a dozen diverse campsites even though the nightly use permits presently only let 4 camps. So, it is quick to find a “non-public” campsite to your liking. We choose a properly shaded campsite among the mesquite trees to string up a rope to hang our again packs, camp merchandise and most importantly the “rat sack”. A rat sack is a necessity for backpacking in the Grand Canyon, it is a wire mesh bag with a velcro closure that will keep critters, especially ring tails absent from your food. Nevertheless hanging it is commonly not sufficient throughout the daytime hours, the ravens will merely land on the sack and peck by means of at your foods. So, it is ideal to include the rat sack with a different bag. Your backpack will do the job, but the ravens are also incredibly dexterous with their beaks and will soon have all of your zippers open as they rummage by the contents. I have read stories of ravens flying absent from backpacks with money in their beaks! On this excursion we achieved a few mates of ours, purely by probability, and they misplaced a library ebook go over to a especially properly examine raven – no, it was not composed by Edgar Allen Poe.
When settled into Monument Creek Campground you will probably want to discover the Monument alone. This pinnacle towers above 200′ earlier mentioned the campground, standing like a sentinel guardian to Monument Creek. I have read stories of it getting climbed in 4 pitches with a ranking of 5.10A – perfectly previously mentioned my fork out stage.
The Monument by itself blends in with the rock close to it, but can be viewed from the Monument Creek Vista on the Hermit Highway some 3500′ above. By much the very best working day hike from Monument CG is the 1.6 mile vacation down Monument Creek to Granite Rapids. The sketchy path descending to Monument Creek starts at the western facet of the Monument. There are numerous steep switchbacks with unfastened rock, but inside of a few minutes you are standing on the sand/rock drainage of the creek alone. There are straightforward to observe cairns for the very first pair hundred yards and then observe the normal drainage. It is very gorgeous. Monument Creek flows mostly underground, but closer to the Colorado River it is over floor and might be jumped when it has not been raining. Please choose notice of the climate prior to descending into Monument Creek, it will flash flood.
From Monument CG a single can hike the Tonto Trail back to the west and devote time at Hermit’s CG and ascend the Hermit Path or make your way east to Salt Creek CG, Horn Creek CG, Indian Gardens CG and up the Brilliant Angel Trail. We regarded as Monument to be a place of it is have and liked checking out the complete area and then ascending again up the Hermit’s Path. A several several hours afterwards we are sitting in the “Relaxation Little bit” at Santa Maria Springs previously scheduling our following Grand Canyon experience.
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