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The
climb to the saddle was steep and loose. We picked our
way up slowly trying to avoid the steepest and loosest
sections. I'm not sure how long it took us, but my
guess is somewhere between 90 minutes and 2 hours. The
above photos show the views down to the River as well as
down into Grapevine. In the picture on the right, you
can see the tiny beach at the mouth of Vishnu Canyon.
The drop
into Grapevine was also steep and loose, but only about half
the distance as the climb up. Once we got down, we
dropped our packs and headed down the canyon, just to see
what was there.
There
was a significant amount of water flowing in Grapevine Creek
-- more than I remembered the last time I was here. It
is a little over two miles to the Tonto, and it took us
several hours. There were many small obstacles and
pools to deal with. One pool in particular was very
difficult for me. Ben managed to climb above and
around the pool, but I thought he had taken an extreme risk.
I would never have even considered it. So I had to
attempt to get by the pool by wading through it. It
was chest deep. I carried my pack over my head and
managed, with my dysfunctional shoulders, to get my pack up
past a small waterfall to a place where Ben could retrieve
it. I tried several times to climb out of the pool
and up the small waterfall. I could not do it.
Finally I suggested that Ben throw me one end of the
webbing, which I wrapped around my waist, and had Ben pull
as hard as he could. As Ben pulled, I squirmed
my way, a little like a slug, up the waterfall.
Eventually we did get to the Tonto Platform and the Tonto
Trail. Surprisingly, there was no water at the trail
crossing. However, we did find water a couple of
hundred yards up-canyon.
As a
side note, the route to the river via the Grandview Trail
extension is shown in purple in the above map. There
is a large cairn marking the top. It is a little steep
and hard to follow in places, but it gets you down to the
river without much difficulty. This route is mentioned
in several guide books, but the best description is probably
in Bob Audretsch's book, Selected Grand Canyon Area
Hiking Routes.
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