Day 3: Day hike to Cheyava Falls, 10 miles, ~1300’ elevation gain/loss

Cheyava Falls is the tallest waterfall in the Grand Canyon at 800 feet. Its name means “intermittent” in Hopi as it doesn’t always flow (it depends on snowpack and snowmelt from the North Rim). We weren’t able to find out if it was flowing before our trip (apparently you can spot it with binoculars from the South Rim, however it is hard to distinguish when it is running or not because the white travertine is so prominent) and the other campers at Clear Creek had not hiked to it. We knew it would be a longer day with ten miles round trip off trail with some bushwhacking, but we figured we were already all the way to Clear Creek and who knew if/when we would have another chance to hike to the falls. So off we went.

The beginning of the hike had some boulders to navigate and along with the section before the falls, was the “brushiest” of the day. It didn’t take long for the canyon to open up and after ~1.25 miles we came to the side canyon the other campers had explored, but we decided to keep to our Cheyava Falls plan and kept to the right to stay in Clear Creek Canyon. This spot had some nice cottonwood trees and a pretty open grassy area. Most of the canyon was decent walking (while always keeping an eye out for yucca and other sharp and pointy things), but it started to get brushier again as we were getting closer to the falls. It took us a lot longer going up canyon than going down as we were often route finding to find the best way through the brush. And often there really wasn’t a best way - we just had to push through. We kept consulting the map and keeping an eye out and as we finally got closer we realized that Cheyava Falls kept true to its name - dry. We noticed a waterfall on the adjacent cliff face and dubbed it “Consolation Falls”. From a distance it didn’t look like much, but we figured it was probably pretty impressive close up. But that was clearly a no go as the canyon between us and the cliff looked like a no man’s land full of dense brush and pointy things. So we admired Consolation Falls from afar and found a nice shady spot to enjoy lunch and imagine what a running Cheyava Falls would look like.

The hike back was much quicker and after ten miles we were pretty happy to see our tents at the mouth of the canyon. Despite a dry Cheyava Falls, we had no regrets and were happy we had a chance to explore Clear Creek Canyon - it was a beautiful hike with lots of interesting flora and nooks and crannies.