early morning in Deer Creek

The second day of this hike dawned bright and warm, as a you’d expect of an August morning at the bottom the Grand Canyon. On this day we’d follow the Colorado River route from Deer Creek to the mouth of Tapeats Creek, continue up Thunder River to Surprise Valley, and go on to spend the night at the top of the Redwall break on the Esplanade.

Dave works his away over a tricky spot on the trail through Deer Creek.

The route away from Deer Creek to the mouth of Tapeats Creek begins near to the first break in the cliffs on the east side of the Deer Creek, up a high rounded sloping hill. If you ford the creek in the correct spot, the “route” should be an obviously well-beaten footpath with switchbacks up the hill. The above photo looks east on Deer Creek from the beginning of the route.

Charles and Dave lead the way east in front of me. Much of this route is similar to the Tonto Trail.

looking back west

The Barrel Cactus are plentiful though here.

The route eventually winds its way down to the river. By mid-morning the conditions were already blazing hot.

The others were about to march on past this easy access to the river when I called for a break, submerging myself and all my clothes in the shockingly cold Colorado. Gotta hike smart in August. My favorite feature of Thunder River is… the water!

This is the mouth of Bonita Creek.

Bryce Gillies waited out the last moments of his life only about a half mile upstream of this place, three weeks prior to the time our passing through.

On the east side of the mouth of Bonita Creek lies the trickiest part of this route, a hand and toe sort of climb that’s similar to the climb at Papago Creek on the Escalante Route, though not as vertical. The above photo looks down from a point above the top of the climb.

The remainder of the route primarily consists of walking along the beach. In this photo Charles heads up toward Tapeats Creek at its mouth.

Rather than continue on the proper trail, we though it’d be a bright idea to hike directly up the creek bed. The water was deep, the current was strong, and progress was slow. We soon turned around, but it sure was fun!

photo by Dave

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