Agave Up

On my 2017 trip Out West, I’m now up to blogging June 3. (I’m also back home now and have the ability to edit pictures and stuff much more easily.) I had arrived at the Grand Canyon on the previous afternoon.

On the 3rd I descended the Tanner Trail (one you probably haven’t heard of). I had great intentions of going a long ways down and then back up, but discretion is the better part of valor.

The Tanner Trail starts at Lipan Point, which is way off to the east side of Grand Canyon National Park. As you come in from Desert View, there’s the Desert View overlook, the Navajo Point overlook, and then Lipan Point. The trail itself is considered “unmaintained” and it is much steeper than the corridor trails.

Here’s a topo map of the trail with approximate distances along it.

Tanner Trail Topo

My plan was to try to make it to what’s called the “75 Saddle”, which, on my map, is at the 1½ mile mark. I should note that on my map, the distances are from tracing along the Google Maps satellite view. Another online map about the Tanner Trail that I found says that this is 1.8 miles. And the sign at the Tanner Trail trailhead says that 75 Saddle is 2.5 miles down. I have no idea which is actually correct, but for now we’ll just go with my map, realizing that my distances may be grossly underestimated.

On the other hand, we can try to compare the steepness of the trail with the Bright Angel Trail (down to the 1½ Mile Resthouse) and the South Kaibab Trail (down to the Cedar Ridge Restrooms).

Down Bright Angel is about a 1120 foot drop over 1.6 miles, for an angle of 7.6°. Down the South Kaibab is about a 1200 foot drop over 1.3 miles, for an angle of 9.9°. If you use the Tanner trailhead sign numbers (1700 feet over 2.5 miles) that gives an angle of 7.3°.

There is NO WAY the top end of the Tanner Trail is less steep than the Bright Angel Trail (which is really pretty easy, all things considered). Heck, if you use the 1.8 mile number, that gives an angle of 10.1° (about that of the South Kaibab). I don’t believe that either—the Tanner Trail sure felt really steep. So maybe my number isn’t too far off . . .

Anyways, on to describing the hike itself.

There’s a short approach to the edge, and then this is what you see.

Near the Start

[On almost all of these pictures, you can click on them to get much larger, and spectacular, versions.]

You can see a little bit of the trail right at the bottom of the picture, but it sure doesn’t look like there is room for a trail all the way down. And you can also see Lipan Point a bit in the distance.

I managed to get a shot with me in it a bit farther down.

On My Way Down

And here’s the greater view from about the same spot.

Scenery

(Doesn’t it look like the trail just drops off into nothingness there?)

Lipan Point is definitely above me at this point (about 20 minutes in).

Lipan Point from Below

10 minutes later there was a good view of the 75 Saddle, just in front of that red butte (you can see the opening for the saddle heading off to the left).

A Distant 75 Saddle

After about an hour of hiking, I’d gotten a blister.

Now I know what you’re thinking. You saw that earlier picture and saw that I was hiking barefoot and you’re saying to yourself, “Of course that idiot got a blister.” Well, let me show you the blister.

Blister

You see, I hike barefoot all the time. I’ve never gotten a blister from that. But did I mention that the Tanner Trail is steep? I have a bum knee (and hiking barefoot really, really helps it out). But I need my hiking stick when going downhill to help support my knee as I climb down a steep trail. And I was really using that stick a lot more that usual, and it was extended much farther than usual (that steepness again) and supported by the palm of my hand. So it was my hand that suffered.

I kept going, and here’s the view a bit farther on.

Still Descending

By the way, one thing I loved about this hike was that it presented to me a bunch of new views. In the past I’d mainly done the corridor trails; it was great to see a different aspect of the Canyon.

The sign at the trailhead starts out by saying, “The Tanner Trail is steep, requires some route finding, and is rarely maintained, with many boulders to navigate in the upper two miles.” I think I see some of those boulders ahead.

The Boulder Field

Here’s the broader view of the descent at this point.

What’s Above the Boulder Field

It took me about another 15 minutes to actually reach those boulders. But here I am.

At the Boulders

How about a little wildlife shot?

Say Hello to my Little Friend

That little guy kept scooting around rocks, but eventually he felt comfortable enough to pose for me.

I just kept descending and descending. It was nice that occasionally there were trees large enough for a bit of shade. The temperature at the rim was about 82° so I’m sure it was hotter as I descended.

A Lower View

How about another picture of the view ahead?

More View

You may have noticed on the first picture of me that I wear a fanny pack (my back really appreciates that!) with my camera case hanging off the belt in front. I used to carry the camera in the pack, but it was such a bother getting the camera out that I rarely took pictures. But with it right in front, maybe I now take too many pictures.

A bit farther down I seemed to hit the agave microclimate. Here’s one that looked past its prime.

Agave 1

And here’s one that was standing up boldly.

Agave 2

It was at about this point that I decided it was time for me to seriously think about heading back it. I was approaching 2 hours (about 10:00am), things were heating up, I’d been working my way through my water pretty steadily (I started with 3 liters), and as we are always told, it can take twice as long to come up as go down.

You can say I gave up (Agave Up!), but I was hiking alone along a rarely used trail. I do try not to be too stupid.

I went down just a bit further, hitting the 2 hour mark exactly. Here’s the view from there.

Turnaround View

So no, I did not make it to 75 Saddle. I think I made it to the 1 1/8 mile mark (as per my map—YMMV). I know I didn’t make it to the 1¼ mile mark, since I hadn’t hit that switchback there.

You know, I rarely have pictures of my ascents. I’m concentrating just on climbing and breathing, and there is a clear goal to reach. So I never pull out my camera. Well, this time I have pictures of the view heading up. (But I’ve cheated: on my way down I just made sure to turn around often enough and shoot behind me. So they’ll look like I took them coming up—unless you carefully check the sun angle and shadows.)

So, that said, from where I turned around, this is what I had to ascend.

Now Just Reverse It

If you look carefully, a bit to the right, you can see the rocks of Lipan Point.

Here’s the view when I was still below the rock jumble.

Approaching the Boulder Jumble

After a while, these all start to look the same, just with better detail as I get closer to the top.

Closer

Here’s one with about half an hour to go.

Almost There

Again, the occasional shady tree was well-appreciated.

Remember how coming up is supposed to take a lot longer than going down? It took me about 1:25 to climb back up (took 2:00 going down). I think that’s because of my knee. Going down I really have to baby it, and that makes me slow. It’s not a muscle thing but a joint thing, and I have to place my foot carefully so that I don’t jolt the joint.

But on the way up I can rely almost exclusively on my muscles. There’s no jolting. So I can charge ahead as much as my lungs allow.

I was actually surprised when I hit the top. I was expected to see yet another obscured peak ahead of me. (See False Promontory Syndrome.) It’s nice when it happens the way it did.

One thing I learned last year was that it is kind of fun to, after the fact, see if I can see where I was. So, after I made it to the top, I headed over to Navajo Point to see how much of my route I could spot from there.

As a reminder, Navajo Point is the next point east of Lipan Point (and you can see it marked as “Overlook” on the topo map).

The lower part of Tanner Trail heading to 75 Saddle shows up quite clearly if you know what to look for.

Tanner Trail from Navajo Point

[Again, click for a larger version.]

You can see the switchback (1¼ mile mark) that I did not make it to, but I’m pretty sure I made it to at least some point on the left that is visible.

If you are having trouble seeing the trail, here’s an animated gif that highlights it.

Highlighted Trail

Cool, eh?

One of the things I’d wanted to do on this hike was to try to see the Desert View Tower from along it. On a later day, I took a picture from Desert View to see how much of the Tanner Trail I could see. Here’s that picture.

Tanner Trail from Desert View

You should be able to see where the Tanner Trail is (the second red ridge back). I can even see part of the trail and the switchback. From this picture, I conclude that, from where I stopped, I ought to have been able to see the Desert View Tower.

But I forgot to look!

I was so concerned about time and water, etc., that I turned around without looking in the correct direction.

Oh well, maybe next time.