Concepts of a Trail: Grand Canyon Gems

March 6-9, 2025

Background

The Tonto trail is an iconic 100-mile trail that traverses lengthwise on the south side of central Grand Canyon. It’s most commonly done in sections, and used to make open loops out of the many “vertical trails” from the South Rim road system. By now I had hiked all sections of the Tonto except for the section between Bass and Boucher, known as “the Gems”.

My favorite thing about the Tonto trail is how natural it is. The trail is hardly constructed at all anywhere along its length. Instead, it just follows a geographic feature - the Tonto Platform. Like washes, platforms are a type of feature that require no trail-building to be walkable. The Tonto trail is just a line through the bushes that's had the largest rocks pushed aside by hikers for perhaps thousands of years. Literally, when I think about the days when the Havasupai people commuted by foot anywhere between Royal Arch and Hance Creeks, I assume the Tonto trail looked fairly similar to how it does now.

All of this is especially true of the Gems section. Named for the side canyons it passes, which are each named after various jewels, this is the most infrequently traveled section of the Tonto. As such it's also the faintest, giving it a reputation of being frustrating to travellers. But as someone who doesn't always need trails to walk places, I was excited to hike one that's barely visible at times.

Day 0

Joelle and I left Flagstaff around 6pm with pizza, both of our vehicles, and Matt along for the ride. We dropped Douglas at Hermit’s Rest and drove the Rowe Well to 328, then headed out to the Havasupai boundary gate in Hydra. From there the fence line road was rough but we made it to the Bass TH at nine and unloaded gear under a beautiful moon. The air was warm, but wind was increasing.

Matt left to drive our truck home and Joelle and I set up camp. I stashed 4 gallons of water for a friend who's group would be walking in to start a trip on Monday, and we went to sleep.

Day 1

Things got stormy overnight and snow started around 3am. We woke up before 7 and packed up inside the tent. There was no more than three inches outside.

Right as we walked over to the rim the clouds parted and a beautiful scene presented itself. The snow had only made it down to the Toroweep but the deep red of the vast Esplanade was extra rich from the morning shower. We took our time through this section, savoring light dancing across Huethawali and beyond with frosted shrubs in the foreground. 

A wet snow resumed as we crossed the platform. This on/off pattern would persist all day. I didn't mind at all, we were layered up and descending casually, the weather only added to the experience.  Pinyon Jays were flying all around us making their iconic whimsical noise.

We stopped for a snack under a Supai ledge, then again below the Redwall when the skies cleared. But our sun-soaking minutes were counted on one hand - as we turned onto the Tonto the wind picked up again and brought more graupel.

The point between Bass and Serpentine gives a dramatic view of the river, the only one we'd see all day. Once again we seemed to be at the right place at the right time in regards to lighting. 

Around 1:30 we took another break under an amazing Tapeats overhang, snacking pleasantly as heavy graupel pelted the surrounding terrain. Serpentine was an uneventful canyon with no water, as was it's neighbor to the southeast. 

We kept on towards Ruby, gradually becoming accustomed to the pace of plodding along the Tonto. It's faint here in places, but I was impressed, we would only lose it for a few seconds at a time.

With plenty of time before dark we rolled into Ruby, both arms of which had water pools in the Tapeats. We set up the tent promptly but enjoyed great weather for dinner. The pools seemed small enough to be of questionable in a dry year like this, so I filled and cached two liters for our friend Carrie who's attempting to run the entire Tonto in two weeks. 

Day 2

We had a calm, pleasant morning in Ruby and got hiking around 9. Clouds were hanging around all the high points of the rim but it didn't rain much. I wore my rain jackets all day anyway because the occasional breezes weren't warm.

Really it was just a lot of contouring around all the way to Turquoise, a huge canyon with a few large pools of water. It was almost 12:30 and we had lunch here, refilling some water to go to Sapphire.

Sapphire had lots of pretty Tapeats bedrock so we walked down a few minutes, then turned around and loaded up with over 3L each. Walking on the Tonto above the canyon bed, it was clear that the lower part held some really cool basement rock narrows. They looked so good I almost wanted to turn around and use our spare time to try to walk to the river, but I was doubtful this would work, so we kept going.

We planned on dry camping tonight so all we had to do was swing out to a scenic point with a flat place to sleep. We set up the tent near Scylla Butte and ate dinner at the edge. For about 10 minutes some walls on the north side were drenched in sunset, the only direct light we'd seen all day.

Day 3

We woke up with the sun and enjoyed bluebird skies drying all our gear. Hiking at 9 got us around the corner and into Slate. We spotted some rogue cairns before reaching the back of the canyon and followed the route down through the Tapeats.

I had read somewhere that Slate would go to the river if one could reach the “lower bed”, so that was my hope for the day. But we weren’t dependent making it there - there was plenty of water right here. I was able to climb upstream through a few obstacles to reach the trail, but I turned around to rejoin Joelle.

We headed downcanyon into pretty narrows of schist and granite. A clear stream of water flows through here (I believe perennially) and I downclimbed a few drops, but got stopped by a large one. Too bad. 

We filled up on water and exited Slate through a Tapeats break near the prominent spire. I believe it’s possible to descend a Tapeats break on the eastern rim further downcanyon, but we gave up and finished the Tonto to Boucher.

At one point we got off-trail and decided to just continue up towards the Muav and down the other side to make a “shortcut”. This was actually pretty fun because we found great walking and watched some bighorn from above for 10 minutes.

This was the final piece of Tonto for me and it was satisfying to arrive at a familiar place. Especially a beautiful place with great water. We encountered a ranger at the confluence of Topaz and Boucher and talked for a bit, showing her our permit.

Joelle and I had already decided it was a goal to reach the river on this trip and since we got shut down at Slate we still had plenty of time. We walked down Boucher to camp at the rapid. This was a really pleasant moment of the trip, walking briskly down the canyon splashing through the creek. Near the end we passed a dead bighorn.

We had the Boucher beach all to ourselves and went for a swim before the shade came. There was a  nice flat place in the rain-compacted sand for our tent, although it was a warm night with no wind.

Day 4

Joelle was feeling more well rested now and woke up a little earlier, so we started our hike up the creek before 9. It was cool and pleasant in the shade all the way to the top of the Redwall. 

We left our packs in a hidden (from ravens) nook and headed up White’s Butte. I had passed this many times now and there had not yet found as good of a time to go up it as now. I enjoyed routing our way up the casual Supai ledges and we enjoyed the view from the top for a while. 

We ate lunch and then began climbing up the Supai. It got a little warm in this section but before too long we were passing through the amazing Esplanade break and on flat terrain for a while. I like the scenic crust around Yuma Point and past Dripping Spring a lot. Last time I was worn out after running down and around from Hermit and struggled to find flow. This time, being more fresh and committed to walking, was more fun.

The climb up the white layers was in full sun, but didn’t feel as hot as I worried it would. March is such a great time to hike in the Canyon. We reached Douglas at 5:30 and got Mexican food at Plaza Bonita before driving home.

Notes

• We experienced excellent water conditions, but I’ll try to make general comments. The water on the gem gets better with every canyon to the east

  • We didn’t go below the Tonto trail on Bass, but I’ve heard there are some potholes soon that hold water

  • Serpentine has no sign of water or bedrock to hold it

  • Ruby has many small, shallow potholes in the Tapeats right around the trail. They were obviously full for us but I think they could dry up in a week of warm sunny weather

  • Turquoise has the largest potholes on the route. We only found two, but one was the size of a jacuzzi and has nearly 100% shade.

  • Sapphire has many medium sized potholes of various shade levels. It had a small flow for us and also did two weeks prior, according to a report I got.

  • Agate is a small canyon and had no water

  • Slate has a small flow that I believe is perennial. Accessing it could pose a challenge to anyone with extreme aversion to scrambling

  • Topaz has no water, but Boucher has excellent perennial flow.

• The 328 road towards Bass TH was in fine condition for our drop off but would’ve been snowy and muddy during our trip. We also drove the fenceline road for direct access to Pasture Wash and the TH - this road is high clearance 4wd mandatory

• Despite the storm, I never measured a temperature below freezing on this trip