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Grandview Trailhead to Cottonwood Creek:

As Jack and I finish packing at Grandview Point a tourist passes by and asks why we aren’t hiking Bright Angel.  My first thought is, “Dude, you have no idea how many different answers I have to that question.”  Instead I mumble something about fewer people and continue preparations.

Two heavy winter storms have passed through in the last week and there is a lot of leftover snow and ice on the upper parts of Grandview Trail.  The going is slow as our footsteps repeatedly plunge through heavy snow up to our knees in places.  One switchback has a protruding boulder jutting out over a section of trail that has become very narrow on account of the snow; cautious sidestepping gets us past this obstacle.  I am using new Microspikes on my boots and they are a tremendous help for some of the steep, icy sections of trail.  Just below the Hance/Cottonwood saddle I hear a thunderous rockfall somewhere in the Redwall layer below.

This is the most snow and ice I’ve ever hiked through on Grandview Trail and it’s a relief to finally remove crampons just above Horseshoe Mesa. We stop for lunch on the mesa and inspect what’s left of the old mining cabin.

From here we descend the west side of Horseshoe Mesa. Near the base of the Redwall I see a solo hiker maybe half a mile away on our trail, heading our direction, and approaching the bed of the easternmost arm of Cottonwood Creek. The hiker continues to stop every few paces and looks around, presumably also at us. When we reach the creek bed I assume the hiker will pass us any moment, but we never see him (or her) again.

Don’t know where that hiker went but there is nobody in any of the Cottonwood Creek sites, so we apparently have the creek all to ourselves.  We setup in the same place we did almost three years ago, on the east side of the creek above the Tonto junction.