Grand Canyon Trip Report – New Hance to Grandview Trails  (May 25 - 30, 1996) by Larry Walker

Attendees: Robert Buhrman, Rita Buhrman, Larry Walker

General Trip Route: New Hance Trail to Hance Rapids (25, 26 May). East along Tonto Trail toward Tanner Trail (26, 27, 29 May). West along Tonto Trail to Page (Miner's) Spring (28, 29 May). Grandview Trail out (30 May).

Day 1 (24, 25 May): Drove up last night starting at 23:00. Arrived around 03:30. Awoke around 05:00 to light snowfall. Also awoke around 08:15 to a ranger putting fire warning notice on vehicle. Got goin around 09:30. Stopped at McDonald's for coffee. Drove on to Red Canyon / New Hance trailhead and dropped stuff with Rita and Bob. Drove to Grandview Point to park vehicle. Hard finding a space at 11:30. Walked about 2.5 miles before getting ride with Japanese couple learning how to drive. Started hike about 12:30. WHAT A TRAIL! Rough and beautiful: definitely wilderness! Stopped on plateau at 17:30ish. Rita was bad out of shape so going was very slow. Need STRONG legs for this trail (going up would be mucho dificil). Kind of good she was slow. Made it more like a vacation than a marathon. Indians would have named this trail "Trial of no footholds," or "Trail of no trustworthy rocks." Ate chicken and rice: good with gravy. Must add Turkey and dressing to menu stuff. Sleep came easy at 20:30. Bob was snoring.

Day 2 (26 May): Arose 06:00. Left camp at 08:00. Got to Colorado River around 11:00. We had camped last night right near where it says "3659" (GPS coordinate) on my map. Today, like all vacation days, was a piddle day - playing at the river. We then went upstream (east) about a mile near Nevils Rapids. Found an unsoiled beach fairly big to set up camp. Nice beach: not one single footprint in the sand! Wind does its magic quick here. Saw 5 bologna boats go by just after lunch. Probably go to Nevils Rapids tomorrow. Nice bats, stars, everything. Ringtail cats are here - not in droves or too aggressive.

Day 3 (27 May): GREAT PLACE! Sand everywhere. The place where we are is basically at the end of Papago Creek. Bob and I set off to go towards Tanner Rapids. This part of the trail is a MAJOR trail. Serious huff and puff, bush whacking: route finding skills a must. We left around 09:30 went to Nevils Rapids, up Seventy-five Mile Creek (Wash) and got back around 13:30. Saw kayaks, bologna barges, and paddle rafts. No dories yet. Took full swim when we got back. Hot today, probably in 90's. In full pack, this trail would be a big deal: lots of exposure and rock scrambling. Had lunch, napped, thought about family. Will head west tomorrow. Interesting: wind covers our tracks in the sand and the water level has dropped 1 to 2 feet giving us 10 feet more beach.

Day 4 (28 May): Well, the river came back up some - cooler temperatures in Phoenix I guess. Got up about 08:00, saw a couple of raft parties go by. Night on beach was pretty bad with blowing sand. Packed out and back to Hance Rapids. Hung around there for 1.5 hours playing and watching boats. Saw some dories, kayaks, rafts - lots of travelers today. Headed out about 12:15. Trail not bad, but we were walking into the sun - not good. But the temperature was mild: 80's - 90's. Even Rita's chocolate didn't melt. We walked till about 17:00 and arrived at plateau just before Hance Creek right before Ayer Point. Incredible vistas. Ate light supper. Can see and hear river from here. Eternal hopes on Page Spring having water. Almost full moon tonight (2/3 - 3/4). Can see everything at night: looks like daylight! Not too many animals. No people! Looking out over Krishna, Sheba, and Solomon buttes is breathtaking.

Day 5 (29 May): Poor Rita has some more blisters from the sand. Started from Ayer Point plateau around 08:00. Pulled into Hance Creek around 09:30. What a mess! Been a big fire. Burned up big chuck of wash. Looks bad. Evidently, some woman was burning her toilet paper and caught the place on fire. She had to pay for the rangers and a helicopter drop. Lots of water, squirrels, and lizards at the creek though. Left Hance Creek around 11:00. Saw another party of 4 near Ayer Point. Didn't contact anyone else yet thank Heavens. Got to Page / Miner's Spring around 13:00. Plenty of water there too. Walked up to mine to camp for the night. Awesome mine with lots of historic trash all about. Will do more exploring later. Trail to end of Horseshoe Mesa plateau not easy to see on way up. Saw fork in trail, but not sure of route. Rita was in no shape to go around anyway. Probably will just walk out in the morning without visiting Cave of the Domes. Party of 4 passed us around 17:30 at mine. Nice group from Fort Worth. One old guy (57) very worn. They are doing in 3 days what we leisurely did / are doing in 6. They had a designated site at Horseshoe Mesa for the night. They visited the mine and then moved on up to the top. The mine was great. Looks like a copper mine. Big operation: mine cards, pumps, winches, deep mine shafts, the works: excellent place to camp. Rewarded myself with beef stew tonight. Everyone's ready for the walk out tomorrow. Rita is definitely in better shape (mentally and physically) now.

Day 6 (30 May): Easy walk out. Takes about 20 minutes to go from mine to mesa. We left camp around 07:30 and all got out around 11:15. I was about 45 minutes ahead of the Buhrmans. Great trip. Great vacation. Very restful. Once on top, we did our normal post hike routine: showers, food, shop, and be disgusted at tourists and syphilization. I got back to my house around 22:00.

Looks like we might be going again this October: hope so. One note, when reading other trip reports don't get psyched out like Rita did. This is not an easy trail. Nothing in Grand Canyon is easy. If it were easy, everyone would be there too! Caution is always in order. There were some areas of exposure on this trail, but they were few and manageable. This is vacation, not the Olympics… Enjoy the Canyon, but if you die, what better way or place to go?