When H proposed going to Grandstaff Canyon and exploring the righthand fork on Sunday, I thought he was crazy. Go to Grandstaff Canyon on a gorgeous Sunday in the middle of a holiday weekend? It'll be packed! It was pretty busy, once we finished up, but we got there early enough to snag a parking spot in the trailhead lot plus we didn't see anybody once we got off the main trail. The creek was running well, with plenty of water for all the on- and off-leash dogs, but it was cold enough when we started that there was a fair amount of ice around the many seeping springs, so we did have to watch our footing in places.
This trail is funny, I think, because they have improved the trailhead (maps and a pit toilet and dog waste disposal) but they are so reluctant to put directional signs out on the actual trail. There are a couple of flappoles with arrows at creek crossings, but there are a lot of newbie hikers out there and it would certainly help folks to give them some more direction. For example, when we turned right (after the last creek crossing, when the main trail heads up a long, wide hill), we followed a faint trail up that branch of the creek to an impassable pour-off and a very confused couple. They turned away from the frozen waterfall and asked us, "Is this it [Morning Glory Arch]?!?" We laughed and told them no, and sent them back to the main trail with better directions. The fact that there's a faint trail up to this point shows that they are far from the only folks who make that mistake.
After checking out the very cool frozen waterfall, we bushwhacked through a thicket of scrub oaks up a level to where we could continue up the canyon. Once up there, we laughed because there was a trail - no additional bushwhacking required. We were in the full sun now and could hear the trilling tones of a canyon wren. When this canyon split, we went left into Echo Canyon. The trail faded in and out but we could mostly follow it, up just a short ways to the rounded head of the canyon. There were quite a few old dried up cow patties but otherwise no evidence of people - except for a hiker way up on the rim, hiking the Slickrock Trail, no doubt, who raised his hands above his head and shouted WOOHOO!
We backtracked out of Echo Canyon and tried to find our way up to the Abyss, which had really been our goal all along. Whereas there was a followable trail up Echo, there really wasn't one up Abyss Canyon so we bushwhacked a little, sticking to rocks and under trees until we could get down into the wash. From there, we just hiked up the mostly dry wash - the water that would end up cascading over the frozen waterfall was flowing underground until surfacing a little ways before the falls - climbing up and around a couple more impassable pour-offs.
As we neared the Abyss, we started to hear engines and, looking up, could see people on foot, MTBers and 4x4 vehicles up on the Slickrock Trail. We didn't think anyone saw us, though, and we kept an eye out for errant loose rocks coming over the edge.
We retraced our route back to the frozen waterfall, then followed that trail - and we could hear voices below us from more confused hikers - until it turned into an old road, which joined the main Grandstaff Canyon trail. Milton had stuck close to us all day, especially when we were bushwhacking and he didn't know the trail, and he continued to do so on the way out, although he very much enjoyed greeting the many friendly dogs who were just making their way in.
Grandstaff Canyon is super-popular and over-visited, at least for us. But in the winter, taking the canyon less traveled turned out to be solitudinous and enjoyable.
Hike stats: 7.95 miles; 2:54 hours / 2.7 m.p.h. moving; 3;28 / 2.3 overall; 1,010 feet of elevation
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