Halloween Trip:
Crazy Jug Point was so close we had to go and check it out before heading to Monument Point. The view from there is great and worth and drive into the forest (even during the deer hunt!)
We headed to Forest Road 292A and the Bill Hall Trail located on the east side of Monument Point. There were 18 cars there (I think was the total). We parked and headed slightly up hill a bit before the trail flattened. (This is a nice finish after hiking out). The Bill Hall Trail is steep and rocky, but seems to have fairly good maintence. The other option is the Thunder River Trail, but its 5 miles longer (saves a good deal of elevation and is a better choice for bad knees). Again the dirt of the trail was dry and good even after that deluge of water friday night. We passed a group that was almost out.
The trail switchbacks so its not too awful going up or down, but a pack does make it more difficult for sure. There is one short scrambling section but the rest is straight forward hiking.
It does not take very long to get down the trail and onto the Esplanade where we camped. There were lots of pot holes to filter water from on the Esplanade and we took advantage of a couple of them. We found a great camp that suited us both. I was tucked in the hoodoos where I wanted to be, and Bo was on the other side of a hoodoo in the wide open flat area where he likes to be. It was a great campsite. We almost camped at Surprise Valley but we were glad we chose the Esplanade.
We had lots of day light left to set up camp and explore a bit before dark. The weather was great and never rained again. We had little wind and the days and nights were warm with the mornings being a bit chilly.
Sunday we headed out to Thunder River. We hiked down to Surprise Valley, really glad we did not decided to camp there since it would be a pain to carry a pack out of there. The trail is again quite steep, much like the Bill Hall Trail to the Esplanade, but no where as much of an effort. You know Bo though he still carried a good sized pack for the day hiking. Surprise Valley is pretty barren and a desert scape of cactus and flatter lands. It would not be pretty camping but there are lots of soft, flat spots. Its nice hiking there so you can get some speed going on this part.
The drop into Thunder River is again steep. Its no where near as long of a descent as into Surprise Valley from the Esplanade or to the Esplanade from Monument Point, but its a respectable descent.
About Mid-way down the Trail Thunder Springs is visible. It's magnificent and the trail goes right to the spring, and along side much of it. You are able to get to the spring to filter water, which we did.
This is where we made a rash decision. It was so early in the day that we decided to not go to Thunder River and Tapeats Creek and head to Deer Creek all in one day so we could go and hike another day hike on the rim and see Point Imperial and Timp Point.
Don't do this in the winter! The days are too short.
It took about an hour to filter water and I took a lot of shots. We had lunch and headed out to Deer Creek. We quickly made it out and into Surprise Valley - really rushing --- but its a long way.
We got to the rocks right above Deer Springs where we could hear the water. We tried to figure out about what time it was and calculate how long it would take to safely get to the Colorado River and back to camp. We decided it was not a safe thing to try and wished we spent the time enjoying Tapeats instead. We were not sure of the time since it was Arizona, Daylight Savings Time and our GPS was off 2 hours one way or the other before all that. The sun told us however it was time to head back.
We got back up to the Esplanade with plenty of daylight. We did a LOT of elevation change that day! We decided that we just did not want to do the same path we had just did so we would hike out in the morning and do the options we wanted to do just as if we had done Deer Springs all the way.
The hike out of the Esplande is wonderful and gorgeous. Once leaving the sandstone the trail gets steep, which is not the funnest with a pack but it switchbacks and is very doable.
We had lots of day light left so we headed over to Timp Point. This view point is outstanding and probably better than Crazy Jug. It's about .75 mile round trip out to the view area.
Then we drove around the forest roads looking for the way to highway 67, with Point Superior in mind. We got there and the sign said 16-18? miles on the dirt road. We might make it before dark but decided not to risk the gas situation. We had done a lot of driving in the forest and the gas gage was on low.
We headed to the VC area instead and walked around and looked at the smoggy view. The view was clear when we were down in the canyon, but even this time of year we had smoggy views the entire time from the rim.
A longer day Thunder River and Deer Creek are doable in a day or if you camp at Surprise Valley it would be a okay for a day trip, but still hard and rushed. I suggest doing the full-meal-deal instead. Go to Thunder River and Tapeats Creek and relax. Don't get too greedy like I did.
http://www.zionnational-park.com/grand-canyon.htm/
