Grandpa Does the Arizona Trail: Passage 36

The rim of the Painted Desert

As of October 4, 2023, the passage has not been fully hiked or biked. In September 2023, parts of this passage were mountain biked:

September 18, 2023: After a long day completing Passage 37 from the South Rim of the Grand Canyon the day before, we drove to the Grandview Fire Tower to explore south on Passage 36, doing a 3-mile out and back route (6 miles total) on the trail. Before we hit the trailhead, we visited the Kaibab National Forest Ranger Station in Tusayan. While we were there, a Navajo (Dine') couple, one a hosteen (elder), the other, his wife or daughter. As she filled out their permits to gather firewood, he pointed out various dangerous creatures on the posters: the coral snake (tł'iish) and Gila Monster (tiníle'í). I wanted to say axhe'he'e' (thank you), but I didn't know the word at the time. 

The day was clear, with temperatures in the mid-70s; the ponderosa forest was open and clear, with the trails sometimes rocky and slopes with water bars. The trail would have been moderately easy, except that I had destroyed my shoes the day before on Passage 37. With duct tape they were barely usable, and did not unclip easily (3 falls for that reason alone). There were plenty of wildflowers, and good views of the Painted Desert Rim above Marble Canyon. 

Shoes and duct tape

On our arrival back at the Grandview Fire Tower, we met three through-trail riders on hybrid gravel bikes, fully loaded, who had been traversing the Great Western Trail, which winds through western U.S. states from North to South. This trail accommodates motorized as well as foot traffic, and parallels the Arizona Trail at this point, on nearby dirt roads. One of these riders had also hiked the Arizona Trail, and said that he would hike, rather than ride, the Arizona Trail.

Lunch stop

The link for the triplog of the North section bicycled: https://hikearizona.com/dex2/profile.php?u=146&ID=46#T__209816_______1

Well at Moqui

A ruined Wall

Moqui signage

On September 19, we drove to Moqui Stage Station, the access point to Passages 36 (S) and 35 (N). It's approximately 11 relatively easy miles on a gravel road from Highway 64. Because of the shoe issues, we had determined to hike, rather than mountain bike, the southern section of Passage 36. This was a shame, because after traversing the spur trail from Moqui, the trail followed two-track roads for as far as we went (2 miles out and back, for a total of 4 miles). The AZT bicycling guide had rated the section from Russell Tank to here as rougher mountain biking than the sections we had done, but the section we hiked did not seem to be so. Again, clear weather, temperatures in the high 70s to low 80s, wildflowers abounded. From the southern end of Passage 36, I did hike 1/4 mile farther down the beginning of passage 35.

Quite an anthill!

The link for the trip log of the South section hiked: https://hikearizona.com/x.php?x=209819

Grandpa Does the Arizona Trail: Passage 4

Well, I finally hiked the section of Passage 4 from Patagonia to the Temporal Gulch Trailhead (about half of the passage) on October 29, 2022 (my birthday present). We dayhiked from the Temporal Gulch Trailhead, where we were dropped off by Ken of Ken's Shuttle Service (a very nice person). We got the information from Ken that this portion of the trail is in the process of a reroute, to avoid the dirt roads it is currently following, and to avoid the Mount Wrightson wilderness. In the process, it will also avoid going directly through Patagonia. In my opinion it would be a loss to stay out of the wilderness area, and Patagonia is a very nice town.

At the Temporal Gulch Trailhead, they've installed a number of informational signs--

you can see from the picture that there's a triptych of information about the trail itself, then to the right of the picture is a standalone sign commemorating the Native American heritage of the area; in this case, these are the ancestral lands of the Tohono O'odham people. What was interesting was that this sign was in Spanish, with some O'odham words. I looked around for an English translation, but didn't find one (I didn't look at the other side of the sign). I've been told that there should be both a Spanish and English version there, but I did find it odd that one colonial language should be represented, and not the other. Again, maybe I just missed the English side.

This section, as currently routed, is all on Forest Road 72, which becomes 1st Avenue going into Patagonia. The day was perfectly clear, around 65 degrees, with sweeping landscapes and great bits of small nature. About half way through the hike, we could see the town of Patagonia in the distance. To the north is Mount Wrightson. Though it's not wilderness, we did have a day in which we saw few other people before re-entering town. It's clear, as well, that the people of Patagonia appreciate hikers on the AZT. The town is a great mix of cowboy and mining history, with plenty of young families and (apparently) a growing gravel bike scene. Also, some great food and coffee.

Mount Wrightson

The town of Patagonia in the distance

Some small nature . . .

Signs of history . . .

Interesting mesquite . . .

Vista

\

Nice charity from townspeople . . .

"Downtown" Patagonia, across from the Stage Stop Inn.

Here's the passage map:  https://aztrail.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/04_TemporalGulch.pdf

Grandpa Does the Arizona Trail: Passage 1

And so it begins . . . Again. This iteration of my writing about my experience of the Arizona Trail starts, appropriately enough, on my 67^th birthday, and with two grandchildren. So, it’s now “Grandpa does the Arizona Trail;” this is a far cry, and 23 years, from my first hike on the trail (Passages 23 and 24) in 1999, with Richard Duerden. It’s taken until retirement for me to redefine my basic goal of hiking the entire trail; I’d originally conceived this as something that I’d do in passage order, all the way through. Wiser heads have convinced me that Gramps is probably not up for that, and that I ought to, instead, fill in the gaps that are left from my 23 years of travel on it so far. I will still probably retrace some steps, as well as filling in the gaps, and I may not walk all the way, since some of these passages are bikeable.

I’ve got other goals as well this time around. First, I want to give back something—I plan to participate in trail management and restoration activities as I have the opportunity. Second, I want to acknowledge: the Arizona Trail Association has begun to highlight the fact that we walk on Native lands, and I want to learn about the Indigenous perspectives about the land, as well as meditating on what has been my academic specialty for the past forty years or so—non-fictional European travel narratives of the Early Modern Period (approximately 1500-1700). Though my focus has been on British narratives and collections, I’ve also examined the Iberian exploration and conquest narratives that dominate this region. I’ve looked at the ways that the Spanish and British conceived of their colonial projects, and considered their perspectives on new landscapes.

It’s no surprise that my academic specialty has become politically incorrect, but that’s the problem with history—it often fails to correspond to ideals of historical progress. It’s also the case that, for better or for worse, there is a syncretism between various perspectives on the land and its meaning. We do need to deal with what is, rather than recast history into what we would ideally like it to be. I would like to think more deeply about this troubled relationship.

Wow. That was philosophical/pedantic. To get back to goals—I’ve gotten interested once again in photography. In its digital incarnation, photography has become much more versatile, and I’d like to document my travel in photographs and video, as well as words. With new digital equipment, I can do that now. I can also be more connected, using social media. Let’s see how much all this purpose modifies itself as I go.

So, here we go, with Passage 1. In September 2013, in the course of another trip, Chris and I had driven to the Montezuma Pass Trailhead, which is the nearest vehicle approach one can make to the Mexican border (unless, of course, one is a contractor working on the Trump-era border fence). I began to hike down the trail from the roadside overlook, toward the Coronado Monument on the border. I was smart enough to notice that it would take too much time to get there.

 On October 28 of 2022, just as before, Chris and I had planned a trip to southern Arizona wine country, this time staying in Patagonia. On our way there, we stopped, as planned, at the pass, intending to hike to the border and back, a total distance of just under 4 miles (thus, the two initial miles of the trail).

 The day itself was perfect (as the panorama above shows). A temperature in the high 60s made hiking bearable; the trail was just rough and vertical enough to be moderately difficult. The crystalline beauty of the sky and the brightness of the sun obscured the fact that it was quite chilly in the shade. The desert scrub plant community characteristic of this this altitude featured piñons, scrub oak, yucca and cholla, as well as desert grasses (some of which may have been introduced or invasive). The cholla had either yellow tips or yellow fruits. A few wildflowers remained in bloom.

We saw a total of two groups, both at the trailhead parking area. The rest of the trip, we were alone. The trail winds down to the border, losing just under 1000 feet in altitude, providing panoramic views all the way to the end. Surprisingly, the trail (which may have been rerouted by fence construction) approaches the border from the northeast, so that many of the loops of the descent give a view of a broad swath of Mexico. Some small buildings seen from above are actually on the Mexican side of the border. In the absence of the high border fence, the border is essentially invisible. At the small obelisk monument that anchors the southern end of the trail, the ironies of the border become most apparent. The border fence has been built from what looks like the memorial boundary to just west of the small monument itself. The area immediately north of the border seems to have been graded (strangely, there is a bench at the top of a grade cut opposite the actual obelisk, suggesting that at one time there was a 30-foot or so descent by the trail from the viewpoint bench.) Now it is about a 15-foot bank.

The segment of fence lends a surreal air to the landscape. The wind hums through the bars of the fence, and the scale of the construction suggests a scene from “2001: a Space Odyssey.” This surreal air is not dissipated by the sight, about a mile to the west, outside the memorial boundary, of the interim double-high “wall of containers” currently being built by the state of Arizona. But the whole situation is incongruous. One warning sign at the entrance to the memorial warns individuals: “Do Not Flee from Law Enforcement.” A volunteer at the memorial office said that travel in the memorial was “very safe in the daylight.” The volunteer also mentioned that the Arizona Trail is at this point relatively highly monitored by state authorities and the Border Patrol. (I’m not sure what I think of hiking under surveillance when I do the rest of the passage.)

As I explore more fully, I'll enter more.

Here's the map of the hike from that day: https://hikearizona.com/dex2/profile.php?I=3&u=146&ID=46&start=15&MI=T200563#T__200563_______1

10.30.2023

View from Parker Canyon Trailhead, Looking east.

 Another birthday trip, this time southbound from the Parker Canyon Lake trailhead toward the border. The trip itself was about 3.2 trail miles total (so, 6.4 out and back). We went southbound from the Parker Canyon Lake Trailhead. The trailhead is one of the most scenic I've been to (outside of places like Yaki Point at the end of the South Kaibab trail through the Grand Canyon). It was great hiking for about 2 miles south (clear skies and temps in the low 70s), but about .84 miles southbound from the Scotia Canyon Trailhead, the trail is torn up (they seem to be decommissioning a two-track road with some small bulldozer), and sections are obstructed by deep ravines and downed timber. It is clear that there's construction going on, because the new AZT gates and construction concrete are cached at two spots where there are currently crude gates through barbed wire fences.

Past these fences we began to see bear sign/scat on the trail. As we walked the scat became more and more common and fresher. There was a significant crosswind and a fair amount of brush; we did have bear spray, but still felt a little exposed, as we wouldn't have in a larger party. So, at mile 3.2, still seeing scat, we turned around.

There is a windmill with solar panels, shown but not labeled on the Route Scout map. However, the official Arizona Trail map (the 2023 official PDF mapbook) places the windmill at Mile 17.1, about 3 miles from the Parker Canyon Lake Trailhead. It is actually at mile 18.1 (about 2 miles from the trailhead), if one is using the miles marked on the official trail map.

The trail itself winds from some Sonoran grassland upland that looks somewhat like California, down through a set of canyons, climbing up toward Miller Peak and the Miller Peak Wilderness north of the Coronado National Memorial. The land around the trail from Parker Canyon Lake looks a lot like historic ranch country, given the grasslands and the water-bearing canyons that bisect it. The cow skull we saw, carefully set on a cut stump, indicates that cattle have been run here in the recent past, and the bear sign suggests wildness. The piñons, junipers, and live oak woods in the canyon bottoms parallel the creek, and the trail is bisected by downed timber and washouts. The windmill, an mixture of old (the windmill) and new (solar panels, which now apparently run the water pump for the tank), make it feel as though the 19^th century has met and married the 21^st.

 Here’s the Route Scout map and triplog from that day: https://hikearizona.com/map.php?TL=210578

 As of October 30, 2023, I’ve now done approximately 5 miles of this 20-mile passage.

N. Scott Momaday, quoted by Barry Lopez (Arctic Dreams) on Place

 "Once in his life, a man  ought to concentrate his mind upon the remembered earth. He ought to give himself up to a particular landscape in his experience; to look at it from as many angles as he can, to wonder upon it, to dwell upon it.

                                                             ________________

He ought to imagine that he touches it with his hands at every season and listens to the sounds that are made upon it.

                                                           _________________

He ought to imagine all the creatures there and all the faintest motions of the wind. He ought to recollect the glare of the moon, and the colors of the dawn and dusk."

M. Scott Momaday

Arizona Trail: Passage 40

Kaibab Plateau--South

We hiked this passage in two trips: on June 7-8, 2008, with Richard and my nephew Brandon, from Telegraph Hill to Dog Lake/East Rim Overlook, and on May 19, 2012, with Richard, and Brandon's brother Justin.  Here are the notes from the two trips:

6-7-08

Off at 9:30 [from Telegraph Hill], walked through burn for the first hour.  After the burn area, it was a lovely spruce/Ponderosa/Aspen forest, with great meadows and lakes.  At 12:15, the temperature was about 70 degrees.  There was still snow on the ground (see above).  At the 6/7 camp, there are seep tanks circa 1/8 mile west of the trail, with better water than the "cloudy pond" mentioned in the trail description.  Night temperatures below 50 degrees (estimated), with little wind.

6-8

After camping for the night near a seep (panorama above), we continued through the evergreen forest, with a highest elevation reached of 8860 feet.  The evergreen forest was interspersed with stands of aspen. The trail has relatively little elevation change, but the altitude (from Phoenix at 1000 feet) makes the hiking harder.  There are beautiful meadows with tanks and lakes, though at inconvenient intervals for backpacking camps.  The view of the northeastern side canyon of the Grand Canyon is spectacular.

We left the Arizona Trail at Crystal Spring to deal with Brandon's severe blisters.

June 18-19, 2012

We got into the East Rim Viewpoint camp (Forest Road 611) about 6:30 p.m.on a windy, cool day.  Made camp (it looks legal) near the AZT, a mile and a half or two from where we had to bug out with Brandon.

We'd had a good trip up, with a stop at Navajo Bridge.  We had a great dinner at Jacob Lake, and pulled in at about 6:15. . . . My night seemed OK, but I woke up nauseous. . . . I decided to hike anyway, actually starting from the National Park entrance ranger station, where we left the red truck. It was a great hike, first going to a fire tower, then down into parks and forests.  Interestingly, the forests are kind of messy, even after an old burn. It looks as though people have spent a fair amount of chainsaw time logging the burnt forest.

But the parks (meadows) are great--and it's deceptive how big they are.  You can go for 1/2-3/4 of a mile through just one park. . . . [problems with nausea, here and later in camp]

But our campsite is great, right next to the AZT, maybe 30 yards from the rim, with morning light.  You can see into Marble Canyon.

Here's the passage map:  https://aztrail.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/40_KaibabPlateauSouth.pdf

Arizona Trail: Passage 39

Grand Canyon North Rim Passage
May 20, 2012
Richard and Justin

Sunday, we had a great day--started from the North Kaibab Trailhead.  We left Richard's truck there at 9:15.  Today's hike didn't have so many (that is, any) meadows, since the trail followed a utility right-of-way out of the park. The wildflowers are coming out, and the trail has been improved with switchbacks on the steep sections.  It's generally uphill, but not too bad. We got back to the ranger station at the park entrance (where they'd joked about selling the red truck for $100) by 1:30 p.m.

We got back so early that we went out to Point Imperial before going back to the park for a shower. After the shower, back to the North Rim Lodge to shop (I bought a bandanna and earrings, Justin bought a jacket). Beers and a Coke on the patio, then dinner (prime rib, sirloin steaks) in the Lodge dining room, with time to see the eclipse.

Now we're back in camp with a fire and more beer.  Here's the passage map: https://aztrail.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/39_GrandCanyonNorthRim.pdf

Arizona Trail: Passage 38

Grand Canyon--Inner Gorge

In May of 1993, I did a Rim-to-Rim hike with a group that included Steve Thomas.  We started around 6 a.m., and I reached the North Kaibab Trailhead on the North Rim at about 5 p.m. (second-to-last of the group).  I remember it as a tough trip (I was barely mobile the next morning), but it was memorable to see Phantom Ranch in person for the first time, take a short side hike to Ribbon Falls, stop for water at the Cottonwood Campground, and see Roaring Springs.  A highlight of the trip that has conditioned my subsequent trips to the North Rim was watching the sunset, with a beverage, sitting on the open deck of the North Rim Lodge.

I do not have any photos of that trip.  What appear here are photos taken from a trip November 9-12, 2007; Chris and I hiked down the South Kaibab Trail to Phantom Ranch, stayed the night, and hiked back to the South Rim on the Bright Angel Trail.  The final photo, though taken from the bridge to the Bright Angel Trail from Phantom Ranch, encapsulates the grandeur of the canyon.  

Here is the passage map:  https://aztrail.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/38_GrandCanyonInnerGorge.pdf