Williams News Logo
Grand Canyon News Logo

Trusted local news leader for Williams AZ and the Grand Canyon

Into the heart of the Grand Canyon

The author enjoys a brief stroll into the muddy Colorado River at Serpentine Rapids.  The river was running high because of flow releases at Glen Canyon Dam. Photo/Dennis Foster<br /><br /><!-- 1upcrlf2 -->

The author enjoys a brief stroll into the muddy Colorado River at Serpentine Rapids. The river was running high because of flow releases at Glen Canyon Dam. Photo/Dennis Foster<br /><br /><!-- 1upcrlf2 -->

GRAND CANYON, Ariz. - William Wallace Bass first came to the Grand Canyon in 1883.

Over the next 40 years he built tourist camps, trails, gardens and roads. He ran stagecoach lines to the Canyon, built a railroad siding to collect tourists, conducted rim tours, put in two cables across the Colorado River and operated copper and asbestos mines.

In mid-November, I planned a nine-day trek through this historic heart of the Grand Canyon, which some have taken to call "Bass' Empire."

I started down the South Bass Trail at 9:30 a.m. and was able to make my camp at Bass Rapids about an hour before dusk. The river was running a deep emerald green and would provide for my water needs for the next five days. The next morning I filtered out two gallons and hiked them up a thousand feet to the Tonto Trail, where my second camp would be located.

In the afternoon, I followed the old trail that went to the river below the rapids where Bass first ferried tourists and supplies across to the north side by boat. The trail is still quite intact and takes one right down to a tiny beach, facing a similar beach on the other side.

Then I looked for the adjacent cable site, which Bass put up later, and with which he could transport people, supplies and his burros back and forth across the river. The trail to the cable site was more difficult to locate, but once found it was easy to follow down to the platform area where it was anchored. The cables were cut back in the 1960s, but they are still hanging down from their anchors drilled through the rock walls.

Also here is the cable car, or what is left of it. The years have taken their toll, but you can still see the hardware and much of the wooden planking.

On my third day, I loaded up with another gallon of water and headed up to the Tonto Trail for my second camp. The views were much more dramatic here, looking across into the Shinumo Amphitheater, punctuated by Powell Plateau, Holy Grail Temple and King Arthur Castle. Looming behind my tent was Tyndall Dome, completing the sense of immersion in this grandest of canyons.

On my fourth day, I hiked west into Copper Canyon. Bass built trails going deep into the schist, where he located a copper mine. With some idea of approximately where the trail was, I managed to hunt around the edge of the plateau until I found it and then easily followed it down to Bass' campsite near his mine. There were walls here, creating a level living and working space, an old cast iron stove and bits of old ceramic dinnerware.

The next day, I hiked to the other side of Copper Canyon to a point overlooking the river. Working my way gingerly down the slope, I soon met up with Bass' old trail that leads down to the site of his other cable crossing of the Colorado River. This one was used only to haul ore from his asbestos mine in Hakatai Canyon to the south side of the river so that it could be transported by burro up to the South Rim.

On my sixth day, I hiked east, back across Bass Canyon. My camp was out in front of the Grand Scenic Divide, a huge terrace 2,000 feet above me. I stayed here for two nights, which allowed me to take a day hike further east to Serpentine Canyon and then down into the river, which was now running high and muddy.

On my eighth day, I loaded up my pack and hiked back up the Bass Trail to my final camp, on the Esplanade. Near my objective, I ran into the first, and only, other backpackers I saw on this trip.

I was soon at my intended campsite and had the whole afternoon to take a day hike out on Spencer Terrace and find Bass' original camp in the Canyon at a place he called Mystic Spring. Although the spring has been mostly dry for the better part of a hundred years, you can still see retaining walls here.

My last night in the Canyon was a cold one, as I expected. I was all zipped up into my sleeping bag and tent by 6 p.m. and did not make my final exit the next morning until 6:40 a.m. That's one of the major shortcomings to winter backpacking - long hours with nothing to do but try to sleep. It was a clear morning, and I was on my way early, knowing that it would only take me a couple of hours to reach the rim.

As I climbed up the trail, I thought a lot about Bass and his long tenure at the Canyon. I passed by a barbed wire fence that kept his burros from wandering away. The trail goes through a ravine where Bass built some check dams to collect and store water. Near the rim is a small structure that he built for visiting photographers to develop their film. And, at the rim, remnant structures can still be seen.

Bass spent 40 years at the Canyon engaged in various activities, but would last only four years after it became a national park. Still, while he lived out his remaining years in Wickenburg, his ashes were spread atop the Holy Grail Temple in his beloved Grand Canyon.


Donate Report a Typo Contact