Widforss Trail at the North Rim equals delightful solitude

SOLITUDE at even the North Rim of the Grand Canyon can be hard to find these days.  Yes, the South Rim is way overrun and crowded with visitors, yet the North Rim can sometimes feel overrun as well.

One possible solution is the Widforss Trail.

Located as a turnoff the main road to the west, just before the North Kaibab trail parking lot, this is a 0.6 of a mile dirt road that leads to the trail's parking lot. The turnoff the main road is signed.

(Look for the parking lot, as the dirt road continues well past the trailhead.)

The trail is a maximum 5 miles long, one-way, but after 2.5 miles it goes into the deep forest before emerging with the final Grand Canyon view.

The trail climbs steeply for the first 1/2 mile, but resides in a cool forest of pines and aspens. It offers a variety of viewpoints into the Grand Canyon without a crowds. For as short as 3 miles, one could see a worthwhile viewpoint.

Even the San Francisco Mountains are visible at these viewpoints along the trail.

There is a restroom in the parking lot, but no water available.

The trail is named for Gunnar Widforss, a parks employee who loved painting scenes of the canyon in this area during the 1930s.

Why ‘Point Sublime’ all but disappeared at the Grand Canyon, North Rim; Plus, Yellowstone’s old Point Sublime trail to the river

  

                                    The sign to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon.

WHY is the lodge and centerpiece of the North Rim of the Grand Canyon located where it is and what happened to Point Sublime, early ballyhooed viewpoint?

(OK, the world-renowned Grand Canyon, North Rim, isn’t in Utah, but its beginnings and history relied heavily on Kanab and Cedar City.)

The first decades of trips to the North Rim always focused on Point Sublime, located about 17 miles west of today’s lodge at the North Rim. This point was so named because the earliest of visitors to the Grand Canyon all seemed to agree this was the most stupendous view of all to be found – on either rim.

 

The Salt Lake Herald of December 7, 1892 reported on a large group of men visiting the North Rim on primarily a wild game trip with “Buffalo Bill.” The group visited Point Sublime and even Bright Angel Point (location of today’s North Rim lodge). Brigham Young, grandson of Brigham Young was the primary guide in the Grand Canyon area, though his horse fell and rolled down a mountain, badly injuring Young.

A February 26, 1905 story in the Salt Lake Herald said that Point Sublime is “where all descriptions fail” and that place offers a view of six amphitheaters so vast the Yosemite Valley and all of its wonders could be hidden away in a corner there.

According to the Los Angeles Times of September 7, 1905, it was Col. William F. Cody in a group that included John W. Young (a son of Brigham Young) who first proposed the idea of making a national park from the Kaibab Plateau of the Grand Canyon.

The same group also proposed an aerial tramway for the Grand Canyon, to provide inner canyon access for everyone.

                                      Today's North Rim Lodge, as seen from the southeast.

The Deseret Evening News of March 24, 1906 stated another reason for the early popularity of Point Sublime – there was a copper mine there, frequented by Utah miners. One such group of miners that winter had underestimated the severity of snowfall on the Kaibab Plateau and with a lack of provisions, had to survive on just meat for 12 days before they got back to Kabab. The group also thought it depressing that they could see the railroad running on the South Rim of the Grand Canyon, just 12 or so miles distant, but could not profit from that.

                                A 1933 map of the North Rim, from the Piute County News.

“Million dollar hotel for Point Sublime” was a June 15, 1916 headline in the Washington  County News of St. George. That dream has never realized.

The Deseret News of August 16, 1917 reported that “Point Sublime reached now by automobile.”

Dr. George Worthen James, author, speaking to the Salt Lake Rotary Club declared, “that the best point from which to view the Grand Canyon of the Colorado can be reached through Utah and northern Arizona, this being Point Sublime on the north rim.”

That was stated in the Salt Lake Herald-Republican newspaper of June 16, 1920. Dr. James said probably only 10 men in the room realized that now. (He also inaccurately predicted that one day 5 people will view the Grand Canyon from the North Rim for every 1 at the South Rim, when the reverse actually happened at an even higher rate.)

However, the July 25, 1920 Salt Lake Telegram stated that there was much bitterness over the fact that the Department of Parks had denied automobile access to the North Rim’s “two big view points” -- Point Sublime and “Skidoo Point” (today’s Point Imperial), in favor of only allowing road travel to Bright Angel Point.

                                                 The North Rim at Bright Angel.

The Salt Lake Tribune of June 22, 1923 stated, “The automobile road of today brings one only to Bright Angel Point. In the days of wagons, people journeyed westerly to Powell’s Plateau and to Point Sublime, a stupendous, soul-stirring viewpoint …”

Thus, it was when the Grand Canyon became a national park in 1920 that Point Sublime and the viewpoints east of Bright Angel were not open to autos. (Though in the later decades, good roads were made eastward to Point Imperial and Cape Royal, but western views from Bright Angel were still denied.)

Today, Point Sublime is only accessible by a very rugged 17-mile, one-way, four-wheel drive path. Or, there’s the five-mile-long Widforss Trail for hikers, that travels almost a third of the way west, toward Point Sublime, but ends at Widforss Point (named for artist Gunnar Widforss, who painted the Grand Canyon in the 1920s-1930s).

    There's still a great view of the Grand Canyon from where the North Rim Lodge is today.

The National Parks Service designated Union Pacific Railroad to initially develop the North Rim. Although it never made a rail line there, it chose Bright Angel Point as centerpiece for the North Rim primarily because Roaring Springs below offered reliable water, a scarcity in the area. (In fact, even today Roaring Springs water is piped to the South Rim as their main source of H2O, though studies are now underway to seek a closer underground water source around Phantom Ranch at the bottom of the canyon).

                                     Today's North Rim Lodge blends into the native rock.

The North Rim Lodge opened in 1928 after construction continued during an entire snowy winter to do so. The lodge eventually featured 140 nearby cabins.

However, a fire completely destroyed the four-year-old lodge on September 1, 1932. Despite the Great Depression, the Utah Parks Company

(designated concessions company) rebuilt a smaller, but sturdier lodge by 1937, using original materials leftover from the fire.

The lodge did close during most of World War II, but has been open ever since.

                      The start of the trail to Supai today from Hilltop.           Photo by Ravell Call.

-Here’s yet another intriguing Grand Canyon historical tidbit: According to the Arizona Republican newspaper of Phoenix from April 27, 1925, plans were being made to build an automobile road to Supai, at the bottom of Havasu Canyon. This was to allow visitors to “see one of the most interesting of Indian tribes in their canyon retreat” and enjoy “its beautiful waterfalls.” The road never happened and nothing but a foot/horse trail (or helicopter travel) can access Supai today.

              The trail to Supai after the first switchbacks.  Photo by Ravell Call.

-BACK TO THE REGULAR GRAND CANYON -- The North Kaibab trail in the Grand Canyon from the North Rim to Phantom Ranch is one of the longest canyon trails, at 14 miles.

(Compare that to the South Rim’s Bright Angel Trail, 9.9 miles, or the South Kaibab at 7.4 miles. Descent or climb wise, the North Kaibab is 5,850 feet in elevation change vs. 4,860 feet for the South Kaibab, or 4,460 for the Bright Angel.)

The North Kaibab lacks the spectacular Grand Canyon views that the South Kaibab has, because it is located in a deep side canyon, where Bright Angel Creek flows down.

According to the Arizona Republican newspaper of Phoenix on August 16, 1921, the North Kaibab trail was a nightmare for hikers in its early years.

“The almost ice-cold creek had to be crossed 117 times between the Colorado River and the North Rim; and this in itself is no picnic,” the story stated.

It also advised that only “a seasoned athlete who has no objection to strenuously roughing it” could handle the rugged path up or down.

Only five hunting parties had went up or down the North Rim that season, because of the rough trail involved.

-However, some 11 years earlier, Emory C. Kolb, youngest of the Kolb photographers on the South Rim, did make a daring solo jaunt across the Grand Canyon sometime in the early summer of 1910.

According to the Arizona Daily Star of Tucson on June 28, 1910, Kolb volunteered to deliver a message to a tourist on the North Rim and he did it in one day.

When he got down to the Colorado River, there was no one to help pull the cable across the water, so Kolb had to overhand the 450-foot-long cable – and his thermometer measured 100 degrees that day. Then, he proceeded up the wild North Kaibab trail and did find the woman to deliver the letter to on top.

                                                     The Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone


-The North Kaibab trail has also had a number of washouts over the decades. For example, in August of 1936, a cloudburst not only wiped out most of the trail coming down from the North Rim, but it also destroyed 3,000 feet of the pipeline from Roaring Springs, that supplies the North Rim.

Two hikers were on the North Kaibab trail at the time of the cloudburst and narrowly escaped with their lives. They had to cling to a two-foot-wide ledge to barely be above the waterline. (-From the Williams News, Aug. 28, 1936.)

-Another heavy rainstorm in August of 1948 also severely damaged the North Kaibab trail and mule trips down could not be resumed that summer. (-From the Arizona Daily Sun on Aug. 11, 1948.)

-YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK also boasts its own Point Sublime. Named in the early years of that National Park, it is located just north of Artist’s Point on the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone River.

However, today there’s just a three-mile roundtrip trail to Point Sublime and back and most visitors call it a “disappointment,” according to on-line reviews by hikers.

Why is it a disappointment?

Simply because it isn’t what it used to be.

“New attraction offered at Park.

The story explained that since the close of the 1920 season, work on cutting a trail to the BOTTOM of the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone was done. The result is a horse that actually leads to the river level, not just the rim.

The story states that this is the second trail that leads to the bottom of the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone. The other is the Uncle Tom’s footrail that is located southwest of Artist’s Point.

Today, Uncle Tom’s Trail is the ONLY trail that goes to the bottom of Yellowstone’s Grand Canyon. How long the Sublime under the rim trail was open is unknown.

Danger likely closed the Sublime descending trail and erosion may have obliterated all traces of it under the rim trail.

 

 

The legacy of the Grand Canyon’s Roaring Springs – Water salvation with a giant cave

 

ROARING SPRINGS is the reliable source of water that keeps visitors quenched at both the North and South Rims of the Grand Canyon.

Today, if many people think of a cave in the Grand Canyon, they may actually envision Grand Canyon Caverns, located along High 66, southwest of today’s Grand Canyon village.

However, “Cave of vast size is found in Grand Canyon” was an April 11, 1928 headline in the Tucson Citizen newspaper.

This cave was actually Roaring Springs.

Three workmen employed on building a water pumping station for the new lodge being built atop the North Rim went inside the cave for an estimated two miles. They only turned back, because a boat was needed to go deeper inside the mountain.

                                          The Roaring Springs sign at the North Rim.

“Roaring Springs emerges from openings in the cliffs and the water cascades down in falls,” the story stated.

One of the apertures is large enough to permit a man access and Bill Denson of South Dakota went inside with a small flashlight. Seeing vast spaces and tunnels inside, he returned outside to tell co-workers, Mack Jensen of Toquerville, Utah and Paul Swain of Salt Lake City, what he had seen. The three secured gasoline lanterns and extra fuel bottles and went exploring inside for four hours.

“There is a regular labyrinth of tunnels in there,” Jackson said. “And, we didn’t try to explore all of them.”

They found four connecting tunnels.

“At the place where these four tunnels come together, there’s a big river coming down one of them, dividing among the other three. These divide again and again, so that all the waterfalls you see in the canyon that we call Roaring Springs are just the ends of smaller tunnels. The one big creek supplies them all,” Jackson said.

One place, the walked along the river on a narrow ledge and estimated the water below to be at least 20 feet deep.

Finally, two miles in, they came to a large room filled entirely by the river.

“As far as we could see, the cave and the river got bigger and bigger. The river is too deep to wade and too cold to swim, or we would have gone further,” he said. “The inside of the cave is very beautiful. It is filled with stalactytes and stalagmites …”

The story concluded that since the caverns of Roaring Springs and so vital a natural resource to the area, that the National Park Service may prohibit future exploration inside.

It appears that is the case, about a century later.

The story also said some believe that there is a huge underground lake beneath the Kaibab Plateau and that is what fuels Roaring Springs.

There are no streams on the Kaibab Plateau, north of the Grand Canyon, and none on the South Rim either, as far away as to Flagstaff.  (There are some springs, though.)

That’s because the limestone rock below and many sink holes absorb almost all the surface water and take it underground.

Some tests in the 21^st Century have shown that as little as six days is all that was required for some rainwater on the Kaibab Plateau to exit through Roaring Springs.

A section of the trans-canyon pipeline from Roaring Springs, as it appears above Indian Gardens, along the Bright Angel Trail. Note how vulnerable the pipeline is.

The 12 or so miles of pipeline from Roaring Springs to Phantom Ranch suffer frequent leaks and breaks, whereas the pipeline across the Colorado River and up the South Rim are much more stable.

Roaring Springs supplies a vast majority of the water for both the North and South Rims.

Even as recent as the early fall of 2022 there was a brief stint of rationing water on the South Rim, when some breaks in the trans-canyon pipeline diminished the outgoing water supply.

 

'Ooh Aah Point' -- A New milestone along the South Kaibab Trail

THE inner Grand Canyon does change.
In 2012, there was no such viewpoint as the "Ooh Ahh Point." There was no sign on this strategic lookout along the South Kaibab Trail.
But jump forward to 2019 and there is not only a sign (see the two photographs above) for the lookout, but many more people there.
In fact, this has become one of the most popular part-day hikes in the Grand Canyon. It is probably 1.3 miles down to the Ooh Aah Point.
In the past, the 1.6 miles down to Cedar Ledge was the first regular milestone going down the South Kaibab Trail.
The photograph below is from May of 2012 and shows no sign posted at the now Ooh Aah Point:

Grand Canyon updating its Transcanyon water system

THERE is nothing else on Earth quite like the magnificent Grand Canyon. And, although the Colorado River may have carved the Grand Canyon, water in this region of Northern Arizona is otherwise in very short supply – and extra difficult to access.

For example, The National Park Service announced plans (in May of 2019) to replace the aging waterline that serves 20,000 people a day; or a year-round population of 2,500 residents, plus 6 million annual visitors on the South Rim of the Grand Canyon.

Wells have to be extremely deep, or some 5,000-feet down on the South Rim to access water -- that depth has to be near the elevation of the Colorado River.

                             A portion of the Grand Canyon waterline, near Indian Garden.

So, for more than 60 years the Parks Service has relied on pumping water from the North Rim’s Roaring Springs, to the South Rim, with its Transcanyon water system.

The problem is water breaks in the 54-year-old pipeline system – AND some 80 waterline breaks have been repaired just since 2010.

The NPS will spend up to $110 million to replace three miles of waterline between Phantom Ranch at the bottom of the Grand Canyon and Indian Garden, part-way up the South Rim.

                                   A sign at the Grand Canyon on its water system.

Since most of the waterline breaks have occurred on the North Rim side, that section of pipeline will be eliminated. Instead of having a major waterline intake at Roaring Springs, the intake will be moved to near Phantom Ranch and just above where Bright Angel Creek (primarily fed from Roaring Springs) empties into the Colorado. This water intake will also be supplemented with water treatment facilities there and storage tanks.

From there, the waterline will cross the Silver foot bridge over the Colorado and continue as now up to the South Rim near the path of the Bright Angel Trail.

The 1965 pipeline was originally designed to last just 40 years and is now 14 years beyond that.

Water that falls on the North Rim tends to go south and ends up inside the Grand Canyon. However, water that falls on the South Rim also tends to go southward and ends up thousands of feet deep in the ground.

          The San Francisco Mountains as seen from the South Rim of the Grand Canyon.

The South Rim of the Grand Canyon is a desert region. Even the San Francisco Mountains, that rise to an elevation of 12,663 feet above sea level, are “dry,” because they do not produce any streams or runoff.

Essentially the SF Mountains are more ancient volcanoes and moisture percolates downward.

Flagstaff obtains all of its water from wells.

The summit of Mount Humphrey, 12,663 feet above sea level, more volcanic than a regular mountain.

Grand Canyon: The Less Crowded North Rim

       What it looks like at the bottom, near the Kaibab Suspension Bridge, along the Colorado River.

                                            Kaibab Trail suspension bridge over the Colorado.

Videos of The Kaibab Trail/Bright Angel Trail

Here are some video segments of the Kaibab Trail:

Here's a video of the Bright Angel Trail, and mules, just below Indian Gardens: