Grotto Canyon Ice Walk

Our big plan to scramble a mountain yesterday was foiled by some icy conditions up the steep trails. I blame Jesus. Thanks JC, you ruined Easter. That's what Easter's all about right? Pointing fingers, laying blame, and hearing about how Jesus rises from the dead to become the original zombie, two millennia before zombies were cool... but I digress.

By the time we bought an extra set of crampons to navigate the icy trails, it was getting late, so we opted for a short ice walk up Grotto Canyon instead, to scope out the last vestiges of the rapidly melting frozen waterfalls, some Native American pictographs inscribed along the canyon walls, and also to witness two ladies crying when they foolishly ascended a very steep 35 foot embankment, without thinking about how they were going to descend. Fortunately, a nice bystander spent a solid 20 minutes coaching them on how to get down, otherwise me and my crippled back would've been forced to help them descend, and that would've been a comical sight.












Trekking along the dry creek bed, the canyon walls soar 50 feet on either side of you.


If this was earlier in the season, this would have been an ice walk up the frozen creek. As it was, much of the creek had melted and dried up.


The upper falls, which are much easier to see when the lower part of the falls are frozen, enabling you to climb up them.


Easter Egg Hunt failed, but I did find this beauty!


These are pictographs drawn on the canyon walls using ochre, by visiting Hopi Native Americans, dating between 500 - 1300 years ago.