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Published: June 12th 2006
This was our free day. All but two of us headed out to Ribbon Falls.
To get to Ribbon Falls, we continued down the North Kaibab trail. We stopped at Cottonwood campground to admire the work the guys had done the previous day and chat with the ranger who’d been the park liaison when the project was at the campground two springs ago. He provided us with some lemonade in the breezeway. It was probably in the upper 90’s… pleasant canyon weather.
On down the trail and across Wall Creek where we didn’t even get our feet wet as we rock hopped. Last year I hear the water here was raging when Mike and Dan crossed it on their way out. Mike was thankful he had his Crocs with him at that time.
A little further and we came to the spur trail to Ribbon Falls. At this point, we crossed the Bright Angel Creek via bridge and followed the trail about ½ mile to the falls.
You can see an opening behind the lower part of the falls in the pictures. John, the NPS guy, had ducked in there and stuck his head out the little
hole slightly above and to the left. When he came out, he told me that there was a dipper bird sitting on a nest in there. I originally had no intention of going in, but how could I resist seeing this bird so under the falls I went. And there, up in a little cubby hole to the right, I could indeed see the little bird’s head.
We also went up behind the falls. This is a cool spot, both figuratively and literally, with a gorgeous view through the veil of the falls. I’ve got a bit of video of this that I’ll post on the family website eventually.
Mike and I have been to Ribbon Falls twice before, but we’d never been to Upper Ribbon Falls. Since we had John with us and he knew the way, off we went. We walked back to the Bright Angel Creek and then up a rather steep trail for maybe ¼ mile after which it was an easy walk, maybe a mile, to the falls. (There is also an Upper Upper Ribbon Falls, but that is more of a challenge, I’ve heard.)
You’ll see a log to the left
of the lower part of the falls that John and Lynn used to access the pool above. I thought about trying that, but ended up just sitting in the lower pool which felt soooo good.
Finally we headed back to our base camp, stopping once again at Cottonwood for more lemonade and use of the CTs. While we were there, I met a camper wearing bright orange Crocs… smart guy. The ranger was also attempting to help a young woman who was not feeling too well. And the wrangler resting there told about being sure he kept his mules far ahead of the lady with the white umbrella.
The last 1½ miles back seemed the longest. I figure we probably hiked about eight miles on this day.
When we got back, Gene and John were treating a dehydrated hiker who, at that point, was about 15 miles into a rim-to-rim day hike with another 5.5 miles to go. We also had to call Cottonwood campground to get a man’s son to come carry his pack as he could barely walk after coming down from the North Rim.
Tonight’s fare was Italian… lasagna, garlic bread, minestrone, and,
of course, another bottle of wine and the rest of the ice cream. We were all hungry! No leftovers to put away.
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