Grand Canyon North Rim—North Kaibab & Widforss Trails

Weather:  75°, mostly sunny

About this hike:  Eight years ago I hiked the Grand Canyon South Rim to the river and back in a day.  I did this via Bright Angel Trail.

Since that visit to the canyon so many years ago, I've dreamed of going back.  I even booked a trip back in fall of 2017, but it fell through last minute.  

With an America the Beautiful Pass that expires on May 31, I thought now was the perfect time to return to Grand Canyon.  

Instead of the crowded South Rim, I opted to explore the less-busy North Rim.  The drive is longer, and I even opted to rent a fuel-efficient car.  With no off-roading planned, this seemed the better choice.  The car paid for itself in fuel savings. 

Unlike my South Rim adventure eight years ago, I had no plans of reaching the Colorado River and back in a day; it's simply too far from the North Rim.  

I hiked down North Kaibab Trail, only planning to reach a milestone called as Cypress Point.  I was cognizant of the fact that what goes down must come back up. North Kaibab starts as descending switchbacks.  Mule poop is everywhere and it smells like a farm—gross.  To make matters worse, the trail is soft pack like fine sand.  This means mule poop dust—doubly gross.

The first waypoint was at the watering pit and restrooms.  Some shorter mule tours stop here and then go back up, meaning the droppings on the trail become less bothersome past this point.  The trail surface also transitions to hard pack, meaning less dust.

After availing myself of the facilities, I continued my descent.  Immediately the trail went through a neat red sandstone tunnel.  The Redwall Bridge comes into view in the canyon far below.  It's about another mile to reach the actual bridge.

Redwall Bridge was the next waypoint.  This footbridge crosses Roaring Springs Canyon.  As the name implies, the red cliff walls are breathtaking.  If you have a healthy fear of heights like I do, the next part may also take your breath away.  North Kaibab Trail becomes a shelf trail.  One wrong step and you'd fall to a likely death.  

The final waypoint was Cypress Overlook.  My nerves were already a little frazzled from the aforementioned shelf trail.  As I rounded the corner toward Cypress, a wicked wind blew up out of the canyon, smacking me in the face with dust and gravel.  This wind didn't relent.  I backed away from the edge of the trail, fearing a blast of wind could knock me off balance and ultimately off the trail.  I didn't make Cypress Overlook.  Likely but a few hundred yards short, I turned back to begin the 2,500 foot climb back to North Kaibab Trailhead. 

North Kaibab begins in dense conifer forest.  You get to watch the climate zone transitions in real time as you descend into the canyon.  Conifer gives way to cypress and other high-desert flora.  The rocks transition from pale white to red rock.  I love the dense forest around the North Rim when compared to the high-desert pinon and junipers around the South Rim.  

Since I reached the trailhead by about 3:30pm, I opted to do one more quick hike.  I explored a couple miles of Widforss Trail.  This trail hugs the canyon rim but through dense forest which occasionally opens up into sweeping vistas of the canyon.  To be honest, I liked Widforss better and wished I had time to explore more of it.  The peaceful, dense forest without all the Rim-to-Rim warriors, mules, mule poop, etc. was a welcome respite after North Kaibab.  

 

Pine Canyon

Weather:  82º, dry, sunny

About this Hike:  First let me say that I didn't come into this hike with high expectations. The lower end of this trail begins at a large trailhead in the town of Pine. I've hiked Highline Trail and likely portions of Pine Canyon trail from this very trailhead in the past.  It's hot, dry, exposed, and definitely not the best scenery Rim Country has to offer.  However, there is an upper end to Pine Canyon.

The unmarked upper trailhead for Pine Canyon Trail 26 is a quick turn off AZ-87 heading north from Pine/Strawberry and just passed the AZ-260 west junction.  We used a map and carefully watched for the turn off.  There is a rollaway cattle gate that you have to open and then close after you drive your vehicle through.  Once back near the trailhead, there's parking for a few cars and a couple numbered OHV roads branch off as well.

Once parked the trailhead was easy to find, as large signs denote it.  The trail began in thick ponderosa forest and then quickly descended into the canyon via switchbacks.  The scenery here is incredible.  Pine Canyon is more majestic than I ever imagined--a little bit of Grand Canyon and maybe a bit of Oak Creek Canyon too.  The forest is thick and heavy, but the trail is well blazed and marked.  

The switchbacks eventually level out and the trail traverses beautiful forest.  It also parallels Pine Creek which was flowing strong in mid-May, but not too strong for a couple creek crossings.  There are a lot of interesting, well-signed side trails to check out including Tiny Cave and Darling Rocks.  The tiny cave is exactly what it sounds like, but we didn't get too close since it's in the creek bottom and there was poison ivy and poison oak in the vicinity. 

The main trail is denoted by red metal blazes nailed to trees.  However, many trees had orange spray paint marks on them.  The spray paint was very fresh and also detracted from the otherwise wonderful forest smell.  As I loudly made a comment about, "How many gallons of orange paint is out here? Are they putting a fresh coat on the whole forest?" I rounded a corner and ran into a forest service contractor with two gallons of orange tree striping paint in his hands.  Foot in mouth moment.

He was a friendly gentleman with an even friendlier black lab.  He explained that the striping project is in preparation for forest thinning.  Overgrown forests are full of fuel, and I would hate to lose Pine Canyon to a fire. However, I also hate the thought of them sawing down all those trees with the orange stripes.  There are a lot of orange-striped trees out there right now.  

We reached an interesting bridge that the placard said was built in 2016.  The bridge crosses Pine Creek and from there the trail continues another six miles into the town of Pine.  At this point we also reached Camp Lo Mia which is an LDS church camp for women.  The fenced property had No Trespassing warning signs all over, and we decided this was a good turn around point.  In fact, when you've reached the camp you're closer to civilization than you realize.  From highway 260 the road that runs up to the camp branches out into residential neighborhoods full of cabins.  

We turned back and explored the Darling Rocks side trail on the way back up.  The trail eventually became a little overgrown and poison ivy was present.  The Darling Rocks is a large rockslide pile.  A sign denotes this, and there's also a well-worn memorial placard posted as well.  While the side trail is considered an out-and-back, it was considerably lengthy and there was the aforementioned poison ivy.  My All Trails hiking GPS app showed an off-trail jaunt would return us to the main trail.  This proved tricky because I followed the orange-marked trees at first, thinking the forest service contractor had likely come from the main trail.  I had to study the GPS map on my phone carefully in order to stay on course.  I also tested the ground before every step with my hiking pole.  The ground was very soft in spots, almost like you would step and full into a booby-trapped pit.  

A steep climb up a short embankment, and Trail 26 was back in sight.  We left the forest behind and headed back up the switchbacks.  The rocks of Pine Canyon was illuminated completely different now in the late afternoon sun.  

I am so glad to have discovered this.  I've probably passed this trailhead countless times heading to Rim Road (FR-300) or Blue Ridge Reservoir.  Pine Canyon definitely outdid my expectations.  

Aspen Creek Do-Over

Weather:  79º, dry, sunny, windy

About this Hike:  Last August I tried exploring Mt. Francis via Aspen Creek Trailhead.  The only reason I was hiking in August was thanks to an active monsoon, the temperature was tolerable.  Unfortunately, that active monsoon blew in a huge storm not so long after I began my hike.  It ended with me scrambling to get back to the trailhead.  I tried waiting it out, but the storm was unrelenting.  I finally gave up and headed to one of the many breweries in Prescott. 

So today was a do-over.  The weather was perfect and it's not monsoon season yet.  In fact, there wasn't a cloud in the sky, but there was a strong breeze which made for pleasant natural air conditioning.  While not an intense hike with any major elevation gain, it was still warm in the sun.  

I hiked up and around Mt. Francis wandering down many of the side trails and often following old roads.  It's a good idea to have a GPS and maps.  I use the All Trails Pro app on my phone.  The network of trails and side trails extensive and confusing in here.  If you forget to download your map ahead of time, you'll likely have service as several major cell phone towers are on top of Mt. Francis. 

After exploring Francis it was too early to head out.  I opted to hike up Cold Spring Trail 393 for a ways, eventually veering onto a side trail.  All of this takes you through beautiful ponderosa pine forest.  I saw plenty of deer and a massive Sonoran gopher snake sunning itself on the trail.  On the way back down, I found a freshly severed deer leg on the trail, meaning there's mountain lions in the vicinity.  I'm guessing the lion wouldn't be too interested in me, having just eaten a deer for lunch.  

There are miles and miles of trails to explore in this part of Prescott.  In my opinion, this is the better part of Prescott with dense ponderosa forest.  I look forward to escaping the heat of Phoenix and coming back here soon.