Tanner Trail Area - Various Trips

Tanner Trail Area
The mini-blogs

Various Short Trip Reports

by Dennis Foster

The Watchtower dominates the view along the Tanner trail.

Click on any picture to see a larger image.

Writing up a full-fledged trip report for every hike I have done in the Grand Canyon would suffer from at least two problems. One, there are plenty of trips where not much happened. This was especially the case for day trips that I took mostly for the purpose of hiking down and back as fast as I could. Second, it would get repetitive. How many trip reports do you need to read on hiking to Plateau Point? Well, just one really. But, there are usually some interesting features to remark on for every hike, and some unique photos. So, I will endeavor to fill in this page (and, others) with these short stories and photos. They are arranged, from top to bottom, in chronological order and linked to the list below.

2009/11/07 - Atop the Redwall on Tanner

Atop the Redwall on Tanner
Saturday, November 7, 2009

     With just a few exceptions over the years, a faculty hike is organized that I put together. All are colleagues of mine (and family/friends) from the business college at NAU. This year we did the Tanner trail, down to the top of the Redwall. We had lunch there and then returned.
     In attendance for this year's hike (see the photo below, listed from left to right) were Megan & John Eastwood, Cara Lynn Foster, John Haney, TS Amer, Tim Clark, Bev Amer and Jennie Mitchell. We met up in Flagstaff and car pooled to the canyon by way of Desert View. While passing through there we were treated to the sight of an elk, with an enormous rack, crossing the street (shown below). Of course, we had to stop and take pictures! The trailhead is located at Lipan Point which is just a couple of miles down the road from Desert View.
     The trail is easy to follow, even if a bit steep in places. We were on our way down at 8:35 a.m. on this cool November day. I had been down here just the previous week and been ill (see Trekking to the Little Colorado) but felt fine for this day hike. We reached the Redwall Overlook, just past where the trail descends through the Redwall, at 11:15 a.m. At 12:30 p.m. we were headed back up and reached the rim at 3:48 p.m. Since we had come in from the east, on our way back to Flagstaff we stopped at the Cameron Trading Post for dinner. Most of us had the Navajo tacos. Quite delicious, but I hardly ever finish the mini-taco!

Elk at Desert View.	The group at the trailhead.	We are all ready to head out from our lunch spot atop the Redwall. Behind me, from left to right, Cara Lynn, TS, John H. and Tim.
Along the spine/saddle with 75 Mile.	Isis, Angel's Gate, Zoroaster & Shiva.