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The Grand Canyon: Pipe Creek to Diamond Creek

Wednesday – Wednesday, April 8-15, 2026 | Low CFS: 8,030 – High CFS: 8,660

Less than a week after returning from a great rafting trip through the Grand Canyon from Lees Ferry to Pipe Creek Beach at the bottom of the Bright Angel Trail last year, I called up and booked the second half of the trip for April of this year so Diane and I could finish what we had started. Although Arizona River Runners wasn’t running their usual Hiker’s Special trip this spring, their sister company Grand Canyon Whitewater was offering the same trip, so we booked with them since it’s the same company- just with a different name on the sides of the rafts. On this trip we would be hiking down the Bright Angel Trail and then following the current of the Colorado River all the way down to Diamond Creek over the course of seven days, and we were looking forward to seeing this part of the canyon! However, as I have mentioned in the previous two Trip Reports, I had been battling a pretty bad cold for the past week and a half and was finally getting over it right as we left to drive to Arizona on Wednesday, so I was a little concerned about the hike down into the canyon since I hadn’t been able to do much hiking for the past couple of weeks, but I figured it would be OK since the hiking was all downhill…

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Phantom Ranch: The Bottom of the Grand Canyon

Grand Canyon National Park | Saturday – Wednesday, January 31 – February 4, 2026

Just about a year ago I was able to secure reservations for a three night stay in a cabin at Phantom Ranch at the bottom of the Grand Canyon, which Diane and I were looking forward to. We had both thoroughly enjoyed our very first visit to Phantom Ranch just over two years ago, so when the opportunity came up to return- we jumped at it! After making the reservations our initial plans were to spend a few relaxing days at the bottom of the Grand Canyon together while also taking a day to hike up the North Kaibab Trail to Ribbon Falls while we were down there. Of course, little did we know at that time that the Dragon Bravo Fire would decimate the North Rim and close the North Kaibab Trail or that Diane would later find out that she had a meningioma that would require surgery in October. Even after surgery we still had hopes that Diane would be able to go on this trip, but after some setbacks that delayed her Radiation Therapy to mid-January, she would not be finishing up the therapy until later in February and unfortunately would not be able to join me on this trip.

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Crack-In-Rock Pueblo at Wupatki National Monument

Saturday, April 12, 2025

After the huge disappointment of not being able to hike to the Crack-In-Rock Pueblo in the backcountry at Wupatki National Monument last October because of wet weather, earlier this year I was lucky enough to get us signed up again for the spring hike that was scheduled for this Saturday. The timing couldn’t have worked out much better for us since we would already be hiking out of the Grand Canyon at the end of our rafting trip on Wednesday and would just need to stick around Flagstaff for a couple extra days. After spending Thursday and Friday around Flagstaff, we were up early on Saturday morning and made our way over to the Visitor Center at Wupatki National Monument before 9:00am where we met up with the Rangers and the rest of the small group that would be going on the hike. After a brief orientation we all hopped into the three vehicles that took us to the starting point for the hike via bumpy backroads surrounding the park.

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O’Leary Lookout in the San Francisco Volcanic Field

Friday, April 11, 2025

After spending an easy day around Flagstaff on Thursday, we still had one more day to wait until our Crack-In-Rock Pueblo hike which was scheduled for Saturday and I was wanting to go on a longer hike early this morning to help pass the time. Last October while Diane and I were hiking the trails in Sunset Crater Volcano National Monument I had noticed a road switchbacking up O’Leary Peak to a fire lookout tower on top and thought to myself that I should hike up there the next time I am in the area and have a little extra time, so that’s what I decided to do this morning before it started getting too warm out. Diane wasn’t interested in hiking another 2,000 feet of elevation today, so she stayed back at the hotel while I headed out to visit the fire lookout on the summit of O’Leary Peak.

Walnut Canyon National Monument & Keyhole Sink

An Easy Day Around Flagstaff | Thursday, April 10, 2025

After spending the last five days on the Colorado River in the Grand Canyon and then hiking out via the Bright Angel Trail yesterday, it was time for a rest day out of the record heat that had arrived in the southwest. When I first booked this river trip I had originally planned to drive home today so we could get back to work on Friday, but earlier this year I managed to get us signed up for another Crack-In-Rock Pueblo hike at Wupatki National Monument on Saturday, so we needed to stick around Flagstaff for a couple more days instead. Although we mainly wanted to rest and relax today, we had a few hours in the afternoon while we were between check-out and check-in times at different hotels, so we headed out on a few easy local hikes to pass the time.

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The Grand Canyon: Pipe Creek to Diamond Creek

Phantom Ranch: The Bottom of the Grand Canyon

Crack-In-Rock Pueblo at Wupatki National Monument

O’Leary Lookout in the San Francisco Volcanic Field

Walnut Canyon National Monument & Keyhole Sink