Royal Arch Loop Grand Canyon 5 Day Backpack

in #hiking7 years ago (edited)

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We drove up to the Grand Canyon the day before we started our adventure. This backpack starts at the South Bass trail head which is a 30 mile drive on dirt road a high clearance a must and four wheel a plus. We camped at the trail head on the rim with great view of the Grand Canyon. The next morning the canyon was fill with smoke from a prescribed burn somewhere on the rim and interfered with the great views, which bummed me out. We started down S. Bass trail for about one and a half miles to a large cairn at the esplanade (no sign). This was our turn for the Royal Arch trail. We wondered along the esplanade for 5-6 miles, some places were slow going working around rocks. Then we turned down a canyon and worked our way down, past some large water pot holes. At some spots we had to work our way around spillways on ledges and steep loose rock. We did get off trail for about half mile and had to re-track back which took about an hour more of our already long day. The canyon took another turn more north and became much harder navigating up-over-around and through large bus size boulders. I did a lot of sliding on my butt down the rocks with my backpack on. After 11 hours and 13 miles we arrived at the Royal Arch in the dark with head limps. Very cool place to camp under the arch on some ledges with a nice small stream.


Early morning view coming into the canyon, you can see the smoke in the air.

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Looking at the trail

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A large Cairn

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a small spillway

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A water pothole

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working our way on a ledge


Camp under the Royal Arch


The Royal Arch

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Selfie

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The monument next to the arch

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One of the pools on our way back up canyon

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some ledge work

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The next day we had to work our way back up the canyon up-over and through the large boulders. We had to help each other a time or two getting up the boulders. Then we had to climb up a loose rock trail to the plateau where the trail stayed on the plateau for a few miles. Then shortly after we started a decent we came to a place we had a 20 foot rappel. The rappel turned out to be the easiest challenge of the trip. After the rappel we continued down to the Colorado river at Toltec beach. We dropped our packs and made way to Elves Chasm. The trail to Elves Chasm turned to be a hard rough rocky trail and took one and a half hours. Elves Chasm is beautiful and we all took a swim before we headed back to make camp. I would have liked to have had the whole afternoon to spend there.

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The rappel

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Elves Chasm

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Elves Chasm

Day 3
We had planned to take two days to get to South Bass beach, but there wasn't any water along this whole stretch. So we decided to just carry extra water and make it in one day. The first two miles was rough rock hopping. Then we turned up a canyon and climb sandstone ledges to the Tonto Plateau. Hiked along the plateau, along cliffs looking down at the river for miles, maybe 10 or so. Then we turned down a steep rocky slippery trail to a canyon that lead to S. Bass beach. Another long day about 10 hours, Arrived at S. Bass beach right before dark enough time to make camp .

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Getting ready to climb up the canyon

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Looking down what we just came up

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Looking down off the Tonto Plateau at some river rafters

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Me with a Big Horn Sheep horn

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At the Colorado River S. Bass beach

Day 4
We were all beat up and sore from the last 3 day of hiking, so we were taking a rest day at S. Bass Beach

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The Mr. Bass boat

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Me at the boat

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Beach camp

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The last day we climbed up S. Bass trail back to my truck. About 8 miles and 4,500' feet elevation gain

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Hope you enjoyed my Grand Canyon adventure
!steemitworldmap 36.182643 lat -112.376312 long 'South Bass Trailhead' D3SCR

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Wow, you are amazing! You can add me to your fan base as well. :-)

What a great hike. I loved especially the Royal Arch camp site and the view down the sandstone ledges where you walked/scrabled up to Tonto Plateau!

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Thanks, I think this is a good place for me

Good stuff mom! That elves chasm looks super cool. The whole hike looked super cool! I can't believe that boat is still there. What a trip. Adding some links with the relevant history info can be a good thing to include in a post. Also, I'm gonna have to show you how to use Steemitworldmap so you can start pinning your posts on the map. You'll figure this crazy Steemit place out after a little bit messing around here. I'm so stoked, your a Steemian now! images.duckduckgo.jpg images.duckduckgo.png images.duckduckgo-2.jpg

Awesome post @doverland! You have number 2 big fan after your son 😉.

Thanks for checking out my adventures

Hellyea! Elves Chasm is the most beautiful site I think I've seen since the canyon in Page, AZ

Thats what I'm sayin'. That Elves Chasm is going on my list. I gotta check that spot out!

Great pictures and awesome adventure. Did you pack all your food for the entire trip?

Yes, we had to pack all our food for 5 days. I dehydrate and make my own meals.

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Wow. This looks like quite the adventure. Such nice scenery.

It was hard but a great adventure

Heya, just swinging by to let you know you're being featured in our Daily Travel Digest!

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