Sunday June 4, 27.0mi/43.5km

North Rim at road FS223 (NA/8060ft) to Deer Creek Campsite (696.3/2360ft) (AZ) +23.7mi Tapeats detour

I started off at 7am and had a nice bushwhack for a mile.

It was mostly open forest and only a couple spots were dense and slow-moving. The rest of the morning was on dirt roads, and I even passed a couple of springs. Water is hard to come by up here, so I refilled my bottles from this cattle trough.

It was a sunny and cool morning up here at 8,000 ft elevation on the north rim. Perfect for making miles!

After lunch I had a couple more miles to get to the Bill Hall trailhead, and I was surprised to see this random group of portable toilets in the middle of nowhere.

Almost to Monument point!

One of the other alternates I had researched for getting around Tapeats Creek was called the Crazy Jug route, and I’m guessing it would have emerged from below the rim around here. Now that the road was traveling right next to the edge of the Canyon I had pretty spectacular views to the south.

I made it to the Bill Hall Trailhead at 1pm, and I heard rumbles of thunder from the clouds behind me. Time to descend into the Canyon!

The clouds were getting darker.

But the flowers on the ground looked just as cheerful as ever.

All of a sudden the trail seemed to have disappeared, and then I noticed this little sign with a down arrow. Down I go!

Looking to the east, across the North Rim. The gathering clouds made the photo much more interesting.

And looking to the south:

The trail descended steeply at first, and then contoured around a cliff band. Some spots were a little narrow but mostly it was a reasonable trail.

I thought this little grassy section was unique for around here.

After I had finished the first part of the descent, I was on a bench called the Esplanade. The desert life and cacti started reappearing.

The Bill Hall trail joined the Thunder river trail, and I had some easy hiking on all the slickrock benches.

The storm clouds to the northwest didn’t look too happy. But I like when the clouds are around, it keeps the hot sun away.

The second part of the descent was down into Surprise Valley, which I could see about 1,000 ft below me.

Once I was down in Surprise Valley, I was back on the main Hayduke route. I took a quick side trip over to see Thunder River. It was really cool, this massive spring gushes out from the middle of the cliff. It made a huge waterfall and below it, a sizable stream.

If I had been able to hike Tapeats Creek (it was flooding), I would have hiked down this canyon.

Looking West across Surprise Valley, to where I will be heading.

I easily crossed Surprise Valley in 30 minutes and then started hiking downhill one last time, into Deer Creek Canyon.

The trail started off gently, but soon enough became steep switchbacks and had a couple narrow sections against a cliff.

I stopped and hung out at upper Deer Creek falls for awhile. It was similar to Thunder River falls, it was a massive spring that seemed to just come out of the middle of the cliff.

I refilled my water bottles (which were basically empty), drank a ton of ice cold water, and rinsed off my feet from all the dust. It felt so good. I hiked another 15 minutes to the designated camping area for Deer Creek.

There were some spots in the soft sand, which I passed by for this premium spot under an old cottonwood tree. What a long day, it was 27 miles and almost 6,000ft of descent, I’m gonna sleep good tonight.