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3 South Bass Trail to Hermit Trail

MAPS Havasupai Point, Shiva Temple, Grand Canyon, Piute Point U.S.G.S.

SEASON Mid September–May.

BEST October–November, March–April.

WATER Serpentine Canyon, Turquoise Canyon, Slate Creek, Boucher Creek, and Hermit Creek.

PERMITS Required for camping within Grand Canyon National Park.

RULES Campfires are not allowed in the national park backcountry. Pets are not allowed on trails or in the backcountry in the national park.

CONTACT Grand Canyon National Park, P.O. Box 129, Grand Canyon, Arizona 86023, (928) 638-7888, www.nps.gov/grca.

HIGHLIGHTS The Tonto Trail winds for over 70 miles along the Tonto Plateau through the eastern Grand Canyon. This hike covers the remote western half of this scenic trail. Starting from the South Bass Trail, the hike passes near the Grand Scenic Divide, where Grand Canyon geology changes dramatically. West of the Grand Scenic Divide, a red sandstone plateau called the Esplanade forms a major terrace about 1700 feet below the canyon rim. The Esplanade abruptly ends at the Grand Scenic Divide, and the Tonto Plateau takes over as the Grand Canyon’s major mid-canyon terrace. This bench is about 3500 feet below the rim and reflects the gray-green color of its underlying shale rocks. Several side canyons allow side trips to the Colorado River and some of its major rapids, as well as exploration upstream.

PROBLEMS None of the trails are maintained and you will encounter trail damage and washouts. Your rate of progress will be slower than you expect. Water sources are far apart, and each hiker should have sufficient containers to carry water for an overnight dry camp.

Warning: Map miles do not accurately reflect hiking distances in the Grand Canyon because of the rough terrain. This hike is dangerous during the summer. Do not attempt it from May through mid-September, when temperatures commonly exceed 100˚F.

HOW TO GET THERE To reach the end trailhead from Grand Canyon Village on the South Rim, drive to the end of the West Rim Drive, and park at the Hermit Trailhead. During the summer season the West Rim Drive is closed to private vehicles. A free shuttle service is provided from Grand Canyon Village, so you will need to leave a vehicle there. The Bright Angel Trailhead at the west end of the village is a logical place to leave your vehicle because there is a shuttle bus stop there. To reach the starting trailhead, drive the Rowe Well Road west from the Bright Angel Trailhead. The road soon becomes graded dirt. Turn right 4.9 miles from the village. Drive 18.1 miles, and then turn right on the Pasture Wash Road. This road is not maintained and may be impassable during and after a wet winter because of deep mud. Continue 7.0 miles to the end of the road at the South Bass Trailhead.

DESCRIPTION The South Bass Trail descends to the east through open pinyon pine and juniper forest and switchbacks down to cross the head of Garnet Canyon. Eroded, short switchbacks take you through the Coconino sandstone.

Eventually the trail comes out onto the Esplanade, a broad terrace formed in the soft, red Hermit shale. The South Bass Trail can’t descend the head of Bass Canyon because of the Esplanade sandstone cliff. Instead, it heads north along the west rim of the canyon for nearly a mile before finding such a fault break and descending. Once below the Esplanade sandstone, the trail rounds a point and doubles back toward the head of the canyon, exploiting breaks in the Supai sandstone layers as it finds them. It descends the Redwall limestone down to the bed of the canyon. Routes through the Redwall limestone are scarce because of the highly resistant nature of the limestone, and its constant thickness of more than 500 feet throughout the Grand Canyon. Only about 200 known routes have been discovered through the hundreds of miles of Redwall cliff exposed in the canyon. William Bass built his trail through one of these breaks, following an old Native American route.

Rock Faults

Most of the trails and routes within the Grand Canyon take advantage of faults to descend through cliff-forming layers of rock such as the Esplanade sandstone. Faults are commonly formed when rock layers are pushed up or down and the rock fractures to allow the movement. The shattered rock erodes into ravines and slopes, creating routes through otherwise vertical cliffs.

Below the Redwall limestone gorge, Bass Canyon gradually opens up as the trail descends into the green and purple Bright Angel shale. Here, the trail stays mostly east of the bed. When the trail meets the brown, coarse Tapeats sandstone, it crosses the Tonto Trail. Turn right (east) on the Tonto Trail.

The South Bass Trail continues to the Colorado River, and is a worthwhile side trip. Of course, you can also go to the Colorado River for water.

Tip: You may find seasonal water at Bass Tanks, where the 7.5 minute topographic map shows a spring, about 0.7 mile north on the South Bass Trail.

Heading east on the Tonto Trail, you’ll quickly find that the Tonto Plateau is not as level as it appears from the South Rim. In fact, it is remarkably rough. The trail dips into shallow ravines and winds around low ridges. The Tonto Trail also frequently climbs or descends to avoid obstacles. As compensation, the route alternates between spectacular points overlooking the Granite Gorge and the Colorado River, and the towering walls of side canyons. The trail eventually rounds the northeast end of the Grand Scenic Divide and heads southwest into Serpentine Canyon, the first of many named and unnamed side canyons. Serpentine Canyon usually has water where the Tonto Trail crosses it, and if not, it’s an easy walk down the bed to the Colorado River. Serpentine Canyon, 8.4 miles from the South Bass Trailhead, makes a good first night’s camping spot for small groups.

Granite Gorge from Tonto Trail

Cliff and Terrace

In the canyon, the horizontal, sedimentary rock layers erode according to their hardness. Hard rocks such as limestone and sandstone form cliffs, while soft rocks such as shale and siltstone form slopes. Since these types of rocks tend to alternate in the cross section, the Grand Canyon has a staircase appearance of alternating cliffs and slopes. Terraces form where the soft layers are especially thick, so that the cliffs above retreat back and expose large, relatively level expanses of the lower cliff-forming layer. In the case of the Esplanade terrace along the upper South Bass Trail eastward, the surface of the terrace is formed on the upper sandstone member of the Supai formation (sometimes called the Esplanade sandstone), which tends to form a cliff about 200 feet high. In the central Grand Canyon, from the South Bass Trail westward, the Hermit shale thickens and causes the overlying Coconino sandstone to retreat back from the Esplanade Rim. Such terraces are vital for foot travel through the canyon. West of this point, the Esplanade forms the major route of travel. To the east, the Esplanade fades away because the Hermit shale is thinner. At the same time, the Bright Angel shale becomes thicker, forming a new terrace, the Tonto Plateau, on top of the resistant Tapeats sandstone. As you hike along the ridge at the head of Bass Canyon, you can look out at the Esplanade to the west, and down Bass Canyon at the Tonto Plateau to the north.

As the Tonto Trail continues southeast, it winds around three unnamed side canyons before reaching Ruby Canyon. Although you’ve hiked 4.6 miles on the Tonto Trail, you’ve come only 1.8 miles in a straight line from Serpentine Canyon. You may find seasonal water in Ruby Canyon, and it offers small camp sites. After the Tonto Trail rounds the point east of Ruby Canyon, it swings into and heads two more unnamed canyons before heading into Turquoise Canyon, 9.9 miles from Serpentine Canyon. You will probably find seasonal water in Turquoise Canyon, which has good campsites. Beyond Turquoise Canyon, the Tonto Trail continues east, following the general trend of the Grand Canyon itself. The trail winds nearly four miles rounding Sapphire and Agate Canyons. North of Agate, the Tonto Trail comes to the very edge of the Tonto Plateau and offers fine views of the Colorado River entrenched deep in Granite Gorge.

The trail works its way across gullies emanating from the base of Geikie Peak, and then rounds Scylla Butte to head into Slate Creek. You’ll find plentiful campsites at this popular spot, and there is almost always water below the point where the trail crosses the bed. A side hike down Slate Creek to the Colorado River is an option here.

Granite Gorge