• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
Hit the Trail

Hit the Trail

Phantom Ranch, Grand Canyon, Sedona, & the Southwest

  • Home
  • Hikers Guide
    • Equipment
      • Backcountry Food
      • Backcountry Kitchen Gear
      • Backpacking Stoves
      • Backpacks
      • Boots & Footwear
      • Clothing
      • Equipment Guide
      • Equipment Rentals/Purchase
      • Flashlights and Lanterns
      • Seat Pads
      • Sleeping Bags
      • Sleeping Pads
      • Socks
      • Tents
      • The Wonder Bucket
      • Walking Sticks
      • Water Purification
    • Trails & Campgrounds
      • Bright Angel Campground
      • Cottonwood Camp
      • Desert View
      • Grand Canyon’s Corridor Trails
      • Grand Canyon Trail Descriptions
      • Havasu and Mooney Falls
      • Indian Garden Campground
      • North Rim Campgrounds
      • North Rim Day Hikes
      • North Rim Yurt
      • Pack Hauling Service
      • Phantom Ranch/BA Day Hikes
      • Phantom Ranch Area Map
      • Phantom Ranch FAQs
      • Phantom Ranch Lodging/Dining
      • South Rim Campgrounds
      • South Rim Day Hikes
      • Sedona/Verde Valley Trails
      • Toroweap & Tuweep
      • Trip Reports and Resources
      • Trip Reports – Baja
    • Safety, Resources & Training
      • Acrophobia/Fear of Heights
      • Arizona Hiking Clubs
      • Backcountry 911
      • Backcountry Etiquette
      • Backcountry Permits
      • Bubonic Plague
      • Heat Strain
      • Hiker FAQs
      • Hiker’s Links/Resources
      • Lightning Strikes/Safety Tips
      • Monsoon Facts
      • Rabies
      • Training/Physical Fitness
    • Tips & Tricks
      • Author’s Tips & Tricks
      • Boot Lacing Technique
      • Phantom Ranch Tips & Tricks
      • Readers’ Tips & Tricks
      • Rest Step for Uphill Hiking
      • Summertime Hiking Tips
      • Winter Hiking Tips
      • Women’s Tips & Tricks
  • Visitors Guide
    • General Information
      • Entrance Fees/Park Brochures
      • Events Calendar
      • Fishing Regulations
      • Fires/Smoke in Park
      • Fishing Regulations
      • Grand Canyon Distances
      • Grand Canyon Park Links
      • Grand Canyon Trivia/Facts
      • Grand Canyon Weather
      • Havasu and Mooney Falls
      • Hiking Guides
      • Indian Reservations
      • Photo Galleries
      • Ranger Programs
    • South Rim
      • Desert View
      • Havasu and Mooney Falls
      • South Rim Campgrounds
      • South Rim Day Hikes
      • South Rim Lodging
      • South Rim Mule Rides
      • South Rim Restaurants/Cafés
      • South Rim Services
      • South Rim Transportation
    • Phantom Ranch
      • Pack Hauling/Duffel Service
      • Phantom Ranch Area Map
      • Phantom Ranch/BA Day Hikes
      • Phantom Ranch FAQs
      • Phantom Ranch Human History
      • Phantom Ranch Lodging/Dining
      • Phantom Mule Ride Gallery
      • Phantom Ranch Mule Rides
      • Phantom Ranch Tips & Tricks
    • North Rim
      • North Rim Campgrounds
      • North Rim Day Hikes
      • North Rim Dining/Food Service
      • North Rim Lodging
      • North Rim Mule Rides
      • North Rim Services
      • North Rim Yurt
      • Toroweap & Tuweep
    • Sedona
      • Permitted Guide Services
      • Red Rock Pass
      • Sedona Geology
      • Sedona Information
      • Sedona Photography
      • Sedona/Verde Valley Area Trails
      • Visitor Centers
  • Mules, Guides & River Trips
    • Commercial River Trips
    • Hiking Guides
    • Horseback Rides
    • Mule Ride Gallery
    • North Rim Mule Rides
    • Pack Hauling/Duffel Service
    • Phantom Ranch Mule Rides
    • Private River Trips
    • River Trip Safety
    • South Rim Mule Rides
  • Explore
    • Natural History
      • Bats
      • Canyon Treefrogs
      • Condors at Grand Canyon
      • Ravens
      • Scorpions
      • Snakes
      • Squirrels & Rodents
      • Tarantulas/Other Spiders
    • Human History
      • Civilian Conservation Corps
      • Phantom Ranch History
      • Pre-Park Era
      • NPS Era
    • Grand Canyon Geology
      • Intro to Grand Canyon Geology
      • Kaibab Limestone to Supai Formation
      • Redwall Limestone to Tapeats Sandstone
      • The Supergroup
      • The Inner Gorge
    • Lake Powell Geology
      • Introduction
      • The Back Story
      • Rock Layers
      • Monoclines
      • Prominent Rock Units
      • Striking Landscape
      • Laccoliths
      • Future of Lake Powell
    • Sedona Geology
      • Introduction
      • Prelude to the Red Rocks
      • Sedona’s Red Rocks, Part 1
      • Sedona’s Red Rocks, Part 2
      • Deposition, Uplift, and Erosion
      • House Mountain Volcano
      • Verde Valley and Verde Lake
      • Carving Oak Creek Canyon
  • Books & Videos
    • Hiking Guides
      • Apps, Maps & Hiking DVDs
      • Arizona Hiking
      • Canyon Country Hiking
      • Grand Canyon Hiking
      • Utah Hiking
    • Hiker Safety/Skills
      • Backcountry Skills
      • Camper’s Cookbooks
      • Search and Rescue
      • Wilderness First Aid
    • Natural/Human History
      • Grand Canyon Human History
      • Grand Canyon Legends
      • Natural History & Geology Guides
    • Colorado Plateau
      • Exploring Arizona
      • Exploring Utah
      • Regional Guides
      • Scenic Photography Books
  • Blog
    • Canyon Posts
    • Canyon Archives
    • Trip Reports
    • Baja Trip Archive – Baja
    • Site Contributors
Home/Trip Reports/Mike Buchheit/GCFI Heads for the Falls

GCFI Heads for the Falls

Clear Creek Campsite
Clear Creek Campsite

As the Grand Canyon Field Institute’s 1995 season marched along, director John Frazier suggested I accompany our late-May class on a trip to the North Rim’s Clear Creek and it’s tributary Cheyava Falls. It was an easy sell. I had been admiring the seasonal falls for months from various points along the South Rim. So with great anticipation I greeted the students with whom I would share this adventure.

A brief orientation and equipment check took place on the second floor of the newly restored Kolb Studio. This historic building, perched on the edge of the South Rim, once doubled as the home of the late Emery and Ellsworth Kolb; two prominent explorers and photographers who arrived at Grand Canyon in 1901 and 1902, respectively. Although Ellsworth eventually moved to California, Emery called the studio home until his death in 1976. It was a fitting venue from which to launch this particular class as Cheyava Falls was first visited in modern times by Ellsworth Kolb and Israel Chamberlain in 1908.

The class consisted of five students and two instructors; myself, and Stewart Aitchison, a writer and naturalist with extensive experience in Grand Canyon and the Colorado Plateau region. The students came from varied backgrounds: a photojournalist from Oregon; a civil engineer from Arkansas; a high school counselor from California; a German-born Floridian in the shipping industry; and an East Indian-born engineer from South Carolina. Their experience at Grand Canyon ranged from a first-time visitor to a seasoned Colorado River rafter. Most had gotten acquainted the previous evening while camping in the designated Field Institute sites at Mather Campground. After a quick primer and introduction, we set off on our adventure.

Descending the South Kaibab Trail en route to Bright Angel Campground, Stewart fielded questions about the flora and fauna we encountered along the way. The story of the formation of the Canyon was slowly revealed as we passed through ever more ancient layers of rock. Soon we had reached the final chapter at the Colorado River in the form of the 1.7-billion year-old Vishnu schist, some of the oldest exposed rock on the planet.

We made camp alongside Bright Angel Creek and after dinner Stewart gave an informal lecture about the impact of Glen Canyon Dam on Grand Canyon beaches and other riparian ecosystems. For an encore, we trudged up to Phantom Ranch and bonded with the other hikers over iced lemonade and cold Budweiser.

Day two took us across the 9-mile Clear Creek Trail built by the Civilian Conservation Corps in 1933. There was no shortage of topics as we slowly made our way around the multiple fins that support breathtaking Zoroaster Temple. We studied lizards, cactus, century plants and many other features of our pristine desert surroundings. This time it was alongside the gushing Clear Creek that we pitched our tents. The hustle and bustle of the “corridor” was far behind us. Besides another small group of backpackers, our only companions were the rustling cottonwood trees and a nosy banded king snake. The evening’s discussion was a brief history of human occupation at Grand Canyon. From the mysterious peoples who left their split-twig figurines in isolated caves around 2000 BC, to the prospectors and entrepreneurs of modern days, we shared tales of man’s interaction with the Canyon.

Of particular interest was the story of Major John Wesley Powell’s groundbreaking expedition down the previously uncharted Colorado River in 1869. Hovering high above our campground were Howlands and Dunn buttes, their namesakes having been the three men who chose to abandon Powell’s expedition prematurely, unaware that the worst of the river was behind them. Stewart sealed the legend with a fascinating alternate theory to the widely-held belief that the trio were killed by Paiute Indians in a case of mistaken identity.

Day three found the class hugging the banks of Clear Creek as we made our way up the lush drainage. Toward the end of our five-mile day hike we passed below a number of granaries clinging to an inaccessible ledge high on the Canyon wall. The builders had vanished some 800 years earlier but the dark rectangular openings were still as mysterious as the men and women who fashioned them. Another half mile and we had reached our goal. Cheyava, a Paiute word for “intermittent water,” is the name of the highest waterfall in Grand Canyon. The 800-foot seasonal falls originate underground and blast out of a large cave like opening in the Redwall layer of the Canyon’s North Rim.

With 22 hard miles behind us, a feeling of accomplishment was contagious as we watched the wind peel off curtains of spray from the pummeling water. We scrambled up the Muav Limestone to reach a basin which captured the final 70-foot drop of the terraced falls. The brave stood below the cascading ice-cold water just long enough to have their photo taken.

On our return to camp we inspected a series of ruins at the base of the Tapeats Sandstone overlooking a grassy meadow. Among the amazingly-intact artifacts were a pair of metates (concave stones used for food preparation) which still cradled their smooth grinding stones. The Anasazi’s migration in the 12th century was made even more poignant by our own reluctant departure from this tiny paradise.

Day four was spent hiking back to Bright Angel Campground for our last night in the Canyon. As thoughts followed feet back toward civilization we inadvertently roused a sleeping rattlesnake beside the trail. His ominous rattling was a stark reminder that although our minds were straying to hot showers and room service, our boots were still in a wilderness as harsh as it is beautiful. On our final night beneath an endless canopy of stars, we retired early in anticipation of a pre-dawn rise and a grueling hike out.

Our last sunrise below the Rim found us snaking up the Bright Angel Trail. This slow exodus included a stop at Indian Garden, a postcard setting which was home to the Havasupai Indians for hundreds of years until Grand Canyon became a national park in 1919. The final treasure on our trek was a stone’s throw from the top where a well-preserved collection of pictographs awaits those with a keen eye (or a capable guide).

With our weary steps bringing us full circle, we gathered at Kolb Studio and celebrated our achievement with a round of high fives. Realizing that our journey deserved a more dignified closure, we shared a late afternoon lunch at the El Tovar while making plans to meet again.

Park Trail Descriptions

  • South Kaibab Trail Description (37kb – PDF)
  • Clear Creek Trail Description (37kb – PDF)
  • Bright Angel Trail Description (38kb – PDF)

Published on: September 20, 1995

Categories: Mike Buchheit, Trip ReportsTags: Cheyava Falls, Grand Canyon hikes, trails, trip reports

About Mike Buchheit

Mike Buchheit was the director of the Grand Canyon Conservancy Field Institute for over 25 years, a professional landscape photographer and instructor, a freelance travel writer, and a popular lecturer on a wide variety of Grand Canyon-related topics. As a long-time resident, 3,000-mile hiker, and frequent river runner, the Iowa native has gained an intimate knowledge of the park that he called home.

As a long-time resident, 3,000-mile hiker, and frequent river runner, the Iowa native has gained an intimate knowledge of the park that he calls home. You can see some of his beautiful work on his Grand Canyon Prints website.

Primary Sidebar

Search

Recent News

Havasu Creek | Photo by Mike Buchheit

Important Updates – and Fascinating Stuff Too!

Fire Restrictions Going Into Effect Friday, May 14 The Kaibab National Forest (the national …

Continue Reading about Important Updates – and Fascinating Stuff Too!

Important Inner Canyon Closures and East Entrance Opening

Temporary Closures Along the Silver Bridge and Bright Angel Trail The Grand Canyon announced …

Continue Reading about Important Inner Canyon Closures and East Entrance Opening

Archives

  • Hit the Trail Returns with New Partnership
  • Hit the Trail Resumes with Limited Updates
  • Important Updates for Park

Newsletter

Sign up for email updates. You can stop at any time and your information will never be shared.

Footer

Copyright © 1998–2023 · Hit the Trail: Phantom Ranch, Grand Canyon, Sedona and the Southwest

All Rights Reserved · All photos credit NPS unless stated otherwise

Newsletter

Sign up for email updates. You can stop at any time and your information will never be shared.

  • Contact
  • About
  • Sitemap
  • Affiliate Disclaimer