Grand Canyon Backpack: The Tanner Trail

Oct 1-Oct 5 2016

"...But the excellence of things is really unscrupulous, it will dare 
anything"
    Robinson Jeffers, from Red Mountain


I have not backpacked much over the last few years, ummm actually turns out a bit more than a decade.  I had been seduced by cycling, both road and mountain, which has occupied much of my time. However a series of bike accidents to myself and good friends has tempered my enthusiasm.  This spring a backpack trip into the Keet Seel ruin in Navajo National Monument whetted my appetite for backcountry travel again.  That trip, Keet Seel, was a good reintroduction to travelling in the desert backcountry, however it revealed that some of my cycling caused injuries, notably a badly fractured collarbone, surgically reinforced with screws and metal plates, were going to require lighter gear and a new pack to keep me from whimpering after two hours of walking.  I have never been to the Grand Canyon, I didn't want my first visit to be a 'drive-by' visit to the overlooks on the South Rim, as nice as they are, but wanted to hike into the canyon to really experience it up close, to be enveloped by it. The years passed and I never found time to organize a backcountry trip to GCNP.  Given that I now qualify for "Silver Sneakers" discounts and that a body part or two have been replaced, I decided it was time to do something about it.  I consulted two Grand Junction friends who have hiked almost every trail in the canyon accessible from the South Rim.  As I type, my buddy Gordon is backpacking the last section of trail he hasn't yet hiked, so that 'almost' will be deleted soon.

 For many of the same reasons I didn't want to do the 'drive-by' Grand Canyon tour, I also didn't want to hike either of the two insanely popular trails into the canyon (Bright Angel and South Kaibab). After talking to Walt and Gordon (70-something and 60-something respectively) I settled on the Tanner Trail.  My plan was to hike to the river camp near Tanner Rapids then head west to the Lava Falls area with the intention of spending two nights there and hiking to the confluence of the Little Colorado River. We'd hike back to the Tanner Beach area, spend the night and hike out of the canyon. So 5 days and four nights in the canyon.

Crowds on the South Rim

The Tanner Trail is described as:  "This unmaintained trail, recommended only for seasoned Grand Canyon hikers, is relentlessly steep, rocky, shadeless, and waterless until you reach the Colorado River." (Hiking Grand Canyon National Park 3rd Ed., Ben Adkison; Globe Pequot Press (2011)).  I plead guilty to hubris.  In spite of not having done any serious backpacking in 12 years somehow this seemed like the trail for me.  My companion for this trip, and someone who has done a little more backpacking recently than I, was Mark Johnston, Ph.D., ESB, IPA, USGA. After the trip I awarded him more letters to put after his name (GCBA, Grand Canyon Bad Ass). Mark and I have known each other since the late '70s when he and my wife were grad students in the same lab. Despite our common outdoor interests, in all that time, this was to be our first joint backpack trip. He's a great hiking companion who, given a really full professional schedule with little time to train, manages to stay in good hiking condition. I felt like I had trained well for this hike. Some hiking, a lot of biking with 3-4 hour rides every week along with shorter daily rides in the 20-30 mile range. I also hike about 240 miles every year in two, two-week blocks for my volunteer job at Canyonlands National Park.

I wanted to go with a light pack, which I defined as around 35# or less for 5 days, including 2.5 liters of water.  I'll get back to this later when I discuss the weight of Gordon and Walt's packs for a similar Grand Canyon hike.

Mark at the Wolfman Panel

The drive to the South Rim is about 8 hours from Junction, but we made a few stops along the way. The burgers at Comb Ridge Bistro in Bluff, Utah were great. Who knew? Bistro's in Bluff? Anyone who's spent time in southern Utah will know how weird that is. Stranger still was the good beer and vegetarian offerings.

We arrived at the South Rim just before sunset and stopped at a few viewpoints on the drive to our hotel.

Sunset from South Rim

We fortified ourselves with too much food and just the right amount of good beer.  We had a good night's sleep and then breakfast, which had a very strange ordering process (you used kiosks and credit cards as you entered the restaurant to place your order).  Very efficient.

Our Destination

Our first night's destination was that little bit of river seen in the photo above.  It is roughly 5000 ft below the rim.  This viewpoint made all four of our hands sweaty.

The guide book distance said 7.5 miles to our first camp, the map said closer to 10 and some signs said 8.5.  A little disturbing but we thought it might have to do with full/new moons, tidal forces and tectonic plates.  Given that our usual hiking speed is about 2 miles/hr we didn't think an early start was really required, the weather was cool 50-60F at the top. I was figuring 4-5 hours maximum for the hike in.

Our Destination from Lipan Pt.

The hike starts at Lipan Point and Tanner Beach/Rapids, our destination is the sandy beach near the center of the photo. This view made our brains hurt. By the time the day was over they still hurt.

The First Big Descent and Last Big Ascent

The trail starts at the highest point (Lipan Point) in the photo and simply plunges down the rocky, wooded slope on the left. This is only the first 1500 ft of the 5000 ft descent. The hike in was nasty. It was as hard as any descent I've done (on purpose) with a backpack on. By the time we reached the 2/3rds point every step was painful (IT-bands, quads, achilles, you name it).  It felt like we'd been doing gym lunges for 7 hours,  in addition to real, honest-to-god pain, our legs were so wobbly that it was difficult to take a step without them refusing to support us.

Mark nearing our first night's camp.

We made it down and found a good campsite about 100 yards from the river.  Because I had really underestimated the time for the hike down we were both out of water.  Replenishing our water became our first priority.  But....

Like Water for Chocolate

Ordinarily the river is relatively clear in the canyon.  Lake Phowell and the Glen Canyon Damn cause silt to settle out so the water released from the lake is clear.  However, major rainstorms the previous few days resulted in very muddy, unfilterable water,  probably about like the water Powell's expedition had to use.  I was relying on chemical water purification (Aquamira, which I highly recommend) and Mark had brought a water filter.  For either to work, however, we had to let the silt settle before treating it and that took 2+ hours or better yet overnight.  We were pretty tired, but between handfuls of ibuprofen, eaten like M&Ms, we collected water in the containers we had and let it settle and then pumped or treated until we had enough for dinner and a half liter each for the night. We had a late dinner, under an outstanding night sky after a stunning sunset.  The Milky Way was beautifully framed by the canyon walls. Sleeping was difficult for me because my IT bands were so painful that I couldn't sleep on my side (I whine).

 On the down we met 3 hikers who quizzed us on our water purification methods, I told them we had both a filter and water purification chemicals.  They informed us that they had brought the latest, greatest filter system from MSR (the MSR Guardian).  We were told that it had been developed to filter water for the military and disaster relief teams and would filter any water, no matter how silty. Having had some industrial scale experience with filtration systems I was skeptical and said so. However the next morning they were raving about how fast they had been able to pump water directly from the river above.  If we had cell reception I would have ordered one immediately and hoped for a drone delivery.

Mark, a Happy Camper

When you are in a place as special as this, nothing can spoil it, as evidence look at the picture above.

In the morning Mark cleaned his filter as best as he could and we set out more containers to settle the silt.  We tried experimenting with pre-filters, using 4 layers of a cotton handkerchief, a pack towel and one of Mark's shirts.  The crud was too fine, the 4 layers of cotton did nothing at all. We had planned an early start to Lava Falls but that wasn't happening.  In fact, we needed the morning to recover anyway before starting out for Lava Falls , so we settled silt, pumped and treated until we had 2-3 liters apiece for the 3.5 mile hike.

The Beamer Trail

There is nothing in the guide book that says that you could kill yourself on the Beamer Trail (named after a miner, not the car).  They should mention that.  I have a reasonable amount of experience on sketchy, exposed terrain.  If you made a misstep on parts of this trail you would fall 70-90 feet into the Colorado River, after hitting a few ledges or rolling down a steep slope.  There is one point that most people would appreciate a handline on.  It requires 4 points of contact to make a couple moves from one shelf to the next. A fall here, although unlikely, would ruin your whole day for the rest of your life.  Looking at the map, I notice that this spot is marked with two black diamonds. Now I know what that means for a hiking trail. It should have been marked 5.1, a climbing grade that would indicate most people would like a rope.

The Easy Part of the Beamer Trail

As you can see from the photo, the rock is loose, the trail relatively narrow and downsloping, with nasty ledges below.  I didn't take photos of the worst sections as we were both involved with watching our footing on the trail.

Lava Falls Beach Campsite

The Lava Falls camp was on a large beach that would have looked good on a tropical island.   I was really psyched because there was a clear water spring flowing near our camp. I filled every container we had and treated the nice, clear water.  When it was ready Mark took a drink, which he spit out.  "It's salty!" And indeed it was. I'd say about 1/2 as salty as the Atlantic Ocean.  So it was back to letting water settle and treating it.  Because the canyon is notorious for bandit rodents, Mark brought his bear cannister.  A bit of overkill for mice, but perfect for letting a couple gallons of water settle at a time. This improved the situation enormously, but was still time consuming.

We saw the group with the MSR filter and they continued to rave about its performance. I forced a happy face and pretended to be happy for them.  However, it was another great night. New moon and a Milky Way as bright as any I've seen. The hike to Lava Falls, although sketchy, was beautiful with full-on magenta rock colors and essentially every other color visible to human eyes.

Our plan for the next day was to hike to the confluence with the Little Colorado River.  I was interested in this hike because the confluence is a place of great importance to the Hopi people and the site of several ancient Native American salt mines, which might explain the salty spring water.  The hike is 12 miles (round trip) out and back.  However, we were worried about the amount of time it was taking to make potable water.  The hike to the Little Colorado and back would take the full day, and to be safe we would have to carry all of our water for the day, roughly a 3-4 liters given the 85 F temperatures in the canyon bottom and the difficult hiking.  In addition we had not fully rehydrated from the hike in.  Mark thought it would be better to hike back to Tanner Beach and spend the next day prepping water for the hike out. I agreed. This would give us time for our legs to recover and we could still do a day hike down river along the Escalante Trail. Having been surprised by the difficulty of the hike in I wanted enough time and water for the hike out.  All along, I thought that the hike in would be more difficult than the hike out, but still didn't want to take unnecessary chances.

So after a windy but warm night at the Lava Falls beach we hiked back to Tanner Rapids.  The downclimb between ledge systems seemed a bit more hair-raising than before because you were forced to directly confront the consequences of a misstep. No missteps were made.

We settled in at a nice campsite, close to the river and near Tanner Rapids, and prepped water.

Mark Pumping Water from his Bear Cannister

We had another beautiful night, great stars and falling temperatures.  The cooler temperatures were welcome as it was too warm at night to be comfortable in my summer weight sleeping bag and it would make the hike out less water intensive.

The next day we hiked the Escalante Trail to Cardenas Point, below Cardenas Butte.  Cardenas Butte was visited in the 16th century by a Spanish expedition looking for a river route back south. Bummer for them.

Panorama From Escalante Trail

We returned to camp and began the time-intensive water prep for the night and the next day's hike out of the canyon.

Flowers in October

Flowers along the Escalante Trail

The issue with water really changed the nature of the trip, without Mark's large container it would have taken virtually all of our time to keep up with water prep.  Problem is, you need settling vessels and clean containers to take the decanted or pumped water.  Without the bear cannister we would have only had 3.5 liters of settling capacity at a time.  Although we did start to enlist used food containers as well as pots.  If I had brought some alum (potassium aluminum sulfate) which is sold in most grocery stores we could have added it to the water to greatly speed up the process.  The water would still require filtration or chemical purification. If you are interested, this link will take you to a video showing one method to clarify dirty water using alum:  Alum induced silt flocculation.

While we were working on water for the next day the 3 hikers with the MSR-Guardian filter showed up looking very dehydrated and not at all  happy.  Their filter had clogged and was unusable.  They didn't bring a backup system (water purification tablets or Aquamira solutions) so they had no way to purify water even after letting the silt settle out. Boiling would have worked for most things, except for some kinds of spores and cysts, but they didn't really have enough fuel for that. Luckily I had an unopened bottle of iodine tablets in my emergency kit that I gave them.  They headed downriver hoping to meet up with some boaters that might be willing to share water.  Don't know how things worked out for them.  I suspect, given the great equipment MSR usually makes, that there is a field method for cleaning and restoring the filter.  There certainly should be given the $300+ price tag for the filtration system.

The last evening we were treated to a wonderful sunset (actually they were pretty nice every evening).

Navajo Point Sunset

Navajo Point from Tanner Rapids

That evening we ate and drank as much as we could, filled water containers so that we had enough water for breakfast and at least 3-4 liters for the hike out.  This is more water than I would usually carry but I had no idea how my legs would feel on the hike out and wanted  extra in case we needed to stop for the night or took a really long time to get out.  I was reasonably confident that we could do it in one push, but we have many body parts that are way past their warranty period.

In the event, the hike out was hard, but a lot easier than the hike into the canyon, we got away before the sun rose over Navajo Point and were back at the hotel by cocktail time.  This was a great introduction to the Grand Canyon and for me, a great reintroduction to the pleasures of backpacking. The hiking in this part of the canyon is primitive by National Park standards.  There are no trail signs (at all) and the trails are poorly maintained and can be a little confusing in places where there has been a lot of runoff induced erosion.  I highly recommend the Sky Terrain Grand Canyon National Park Map as well as the CalTopo site for organizing your trip.

MJ after 9 miles and 5000 feet

When we got back to Grand Junction I called Gordon to let him know about the water conditions.  I proudly told him that my pack weighed only 35 pounds.  He was silent for a moment and then said: "Ummm, mine's 17". I said kilos? Nope, pounds.  So when Gordon gets back I'll bribe him with a nice bottle of wine and get the details.

Epilogue

"...But look how noble the world is,
The lonely flowing waters, the secret-
Keeping stones, the flowing sky" ( R. Jeffers, Life from the Lifeless.)

My snobbery about crowds is really unwarranted.  Places like the Grand Canyon, Yosemite and Yellowstone will always attract crowds because of their magnificence and uniqueness.  If they don't we will have lost our way as humans.  The more people who see these places, the more likely they will be to protect them.  I can still hike away from them if I wish to and will do so for as long as I can. The views from the South Rim are a view of the earth's history, from the very beginning.  The geological processes that ultimately led to the formation of this canyon began before the continents separated.  Many southwestern indian tribes believe that they emerged from the Grand Canyon and in a sense they did. The beauty of the canyon and its vistas are anything but subtle from the the top.  It is within the canyon that the subtly emerges, the color palate is unlike anything I've ever seen.  All the colors of the world are here, in one place.  I cannot comprehend the Grand Canyon anymore than I can comprehend the universe.  I like it that way.

Thanks for reading.

Keet Seel

On June 18th and 19th, 2016 I finally did the backpack to visit the Keet Seel Ruin in Navajo National Monument. NNM is located within the Navajo Nation and contains two very large ruins, Betatakin and Keet Seel. Ironically, these two ruins are ancestral to the Hopi and probably other Pueblo tribes who have been largely displaced by the Navajo.  The pueblo ancestors who lived in these ruins, and in places like Mesa Verde and Chaco, predate the Navajo by at least 500 years and possibly more. There are still some bad feelings between the two groups as the Navajo were quite a bit more successful at negotiating the borders of their reservation than were the Pueblo groups.  It doesn't help that the Hopi reservation is entirely contained within the Navajo reservation, a consequence of persistent Navajo encroachment on their lands.

Keet Seel is only  accessible to the public by way of a round trip hike of about 19 miles (according to my GPS).  Some folks opt to do it in a single day, but there is a nice campsite in a grove of oak trees about 1/2 mile or so from the Keet Seel ruin. As a consequence, I decided to do it as a backpack.  In order to visit the ruin you need advanced reservations and to attend an orientation given by a park ranger. We were told to carry our own water, even though there are perennial streams that flow through Long and Keet Seel canyons.  There is active livestock grazing in most of this area by the Navajo people and ample evidence in the streams of it too.

View of Long Canyon

The hike in begins along an old road and then drops quickly to the canyon bottom, from about 7800 ft to 6600 ft or so.  The trail is well marked, except at the junction for the Betatakin ruin, where you should take the left fork (there is no sign for either site).  The trail is a mix of switchbacks and deep sand, I was happy to have high top boots on, otherwise I'd have been pouring sand out of my shoes every few hundred yards.  Keet Seel Canyon is a box canyon, with a spring fed stream, that intersects Long Canyon both are part of the Tsegi Canyon complex.

Keet Seel Canyon

The hike up the canyon takes requires many stream crossings, seldom more than an inch or two deep, but if you don't watch your step you could step into deeper pockets along the bank.  After a storm or during one, it would be an interesting adventure, complete with quicksand pockets.

Waterfall in the desert

I was really surprised by how much water there was in the canyon, but the overlying rock is Navajo sandstone on top of Kayenta sandstone, the porous Navajo formation allows water to seep through it and the harder Kayenta acts as an aquitard creating many springs.

Another surprise

Approaching Keet Seel Alcove

Unlike most of the wet canyons I am familiar with on the Colorado Plateau, The Tsegi Canyon complex seems to have a species of oak (Gambels Oak, Q. gambelli) in place of cottonwoods. Unfortunately the main grass in the above photo is Cheatgrass (Bromus tectorum) a highly prolific invasive grass that can quickly crowd out native species and also generate a great deal of fuel in the event of fires in the area.  My general impression of the canyon bottom is of a highly overgrazed and poorly managed landscape. The Navajo Nation may be working to address these issues, but the invasive weeds are so prevalent that it may be difficult to manage them at this point. In spite of this, the combination of water, high sandstone cliffs and plentiful birds makes for a great hike.

I felt pretty worked by the time I got to the campsite, surprisingly so, I thought.  After a lot of carrying on in my head about what a wimpy backpacker I had become, I was stunned to realize that it had been about 11 years since Tony and I were on a climbing trip to the Tetons, which was the last time I had a backpack on.  How time flies when you're getting old!  I was definitely feeling sorry for myself by the time I took off my pack, and was cursing myself for dragging in 16 pounds of water. I had been warned to not drink the water in the canyon because of the presence of livestock, but I think filtering and treating the water with iodine would have done the trick.

Keet Seel Ruin

Keet Seel and its alcove are impressive.  The cliff-villa contains about 150 rooms, kivas and storage rooms.  Unlike many ruins which have been extensively rebuilt, Keet Seel is about 90% unrestored and is in remarkable condition.  The villa was built and occupied from about 1250-1300 CE, a relatively short period of occupation, and may have had a population of up to 150.

After dropping my pack off at the campsite, I hiked up to meet the ranger who would guide me through the ruin.  As you approach the ruin you will find the ground covered with pottery shards.

Black on white, corrugated and polychrome pieces.

Detail of a spiral motif

More polychrome, black and white, corrugated

An intact handle

Entrance

The wooden ladder that is used to enter the ruin is placed over some carved foot and handholds that were originally used to get in and out, although ladders were also likely to have been used.  The hand and footholds are similar to the ones in the following photo that travel up the face to the left of the ruin and give access to the mesa top. The large log across the top is a white pine log that was dated to about the time of the last occupancy (1300 CE).  The Hopi, whose ancestors occupied Keet Seel, claim that the log was placed to indicate that the villa was closed, but might be reoccupied at a later date. The log is massive and it must have required a great effort to transport it to the site and to get it up the sandstone face.

Carved steps 

Three ledge systems to the left of the main dwelling are connected by sets of carved steps.  The steps and ledges lead to the mesa top giving access to pinyon-juniper forest and other canyons in the Tsegi complex.  I estimated the vertical gain to be about 750 feet.  It looked to me like the ancestral pueblo people were comfortable climbing up to modern 5.6 without ropes (presumably) or steps because as the angle eases off the steps disappear and natural features must have been used to climb.  Due to foreshortening the angle in the photo appears to be much less steep than it actually is, there were clearly sections that were greater than 70 degrees in places. I was really itching to explore these a bit more, but they were definitely off limits.

Inside the Villa

Keet Seel Pottery

Keet Seel was originally excavated (some would say looted) by Richard Wetherill and family. The Wetherills collected, sold and exhibited countless artifacts, including human remains, recovered from these sites, but this was probably not out of line with the practices of others at the time.  Wetherill is credited with the discovery of the Chaco Ruins and Cliff Palace in Mesa Verde.  He was killed near Pueblo Bonito in Chaco Canyon, most likely by a Navajo rancher.  There are, of course, several versions of the reason for his shooting, one is that a Navajo debtor shot him in a dispute over debts owed, the other suggests that he was a bit of a cattle rustler and was shot when the rightful owner of the cattle caught up with him.  That said, Wetherill did propose that Mesa Verde, Chaco Canyon and other ruins in the southwest be protected as National Parks. Wetherill and his wife are buried in Chaco Canyon not far from Pueblo Bonito.

As the photos show, the ruins are in spectacularly good condition.  Interestingly, they contain several different building styles, the majority is a type that is similar to that used in Mesa Verde. But there also other styles, such as pit house, circular towers and walls constructed of willow branches covered in adobe.

Pit House Style Construction

Atypical Construction Style for Cliff Dwellings

My guide said that the different styles suggest that people from different cultures may have been accepted into the Keet Seel community and built in a style that they were most familiar with.

750 Year Old Corn Cobs in Rock Bins

The vertical poles in the picture above may have been used to tether birds to.  Macaws, falcon and Red Tail hawk remains were found in the ruin. Birds were evidently a common feature in ancestral pueblo culture.  Elaborate blankets woven of turkey feathers and other birds have been found at several sites, often in association with burials and funeral artifacts. These finds are distributed throughout North America with each region having distinctive weaving styles and feather composition.

Blue Handprint (illuminated by flashlight)

It was common to decorate the inside of dwellings and especially kiva's. Keet Seel was remarkably free of rock art, which I found surprising.  There was certainly some, but not a lot.

Keet Seel Rock Art

 Keet Seel is probably only second to Cliff Palace at Mesa Verde in terms of size and complexity.  Given the long approach, there are few people who visit, unlike Mesa Verde.  In fact, I was the only person during my guided tour of the ruin, although several other folks had been there that day.  The hike is very pretty and surprisingly wet. The hike out is a bit of a grunt over the last 3 miles as it climbs out of the canyon.  It is best to do it early in the day before it gets too hot.  I left my campsite at about 6:00 AM and was back to the car at 10:00 and most of the walk was quite comfortable (other than the pack, that is).  https://www.nps.gov/nava/index.htm