Weekend Warriors Arizona Hiking Guide

CLEAR CREEK (FROM THE COLORADO RIVER)

If a hike up a narrow canyon to a waterfall appeals to you, Clear Creek is your hike.

HOW TO GET THERE

This hike is accessed from a river rafting trip on the Colorado River. This canyon is located at river mile 84.5 on river right.

RATING

Be Aware of: Route finding, scrambling. This is an Moderately difficult hike because of the scrambling and route finding involved in the early part of the hike.

35 yr old Recommendation: This is a classic Grand Canyon hike, not to be missed.

DETAILS

Elevation change: About 200 ft climbing up and over a ridge to get into the canyon. Once in the canyon, the hike is flat.

Distance: 1.4 miles round trip (to the waterfall and back)

Time: It took us about 2.0 hours total.

Time of year: Spring, Summer, Fall.

Solitude: This is a popular hike for river parties, expect to share it with another group.

Map: Click here for map

There are two Clear Creek hikes in the Grand Canyon. This is a short hike up to a lovely waterfall accessed from the Colorado river. To reach the start of the hike, you'll need to park your boats at a small beach on the right. This beach is after 83 mile rapid and just before the river turns north east. If you miss this point, there is another beach after the mouth of Clear Creek, also on river right. We accessed the hike from the first beach, so this write up will reflect this. 

Since the mouth of Clear Creek is impossible for boats to access (unless in a kayak), we have to park at a beach and climb over the schist rock and back down into Clear Creek. The route into Clear creek can be tricky to find, so use those route finding skills and look for the evidence of the NPS efforts at trail making. You will go up and down over a few ridges during this section that will require some scrambling. Eventually, you will see a good trail heading down into clear creek. Once at the bottom of the creek, simply head upstream. You will be walking on cobblestones and soon progress will only be made by walking up the creek, so don't bother trying to keep your feet dry. The narrows make this a very scenic canyon, so enjoy the walk. After about 0.7 miles of walking, you are rewarded with a nice waterfall.

After taking a few pictures (and perhaps a bath!) return the way you came.

[Clear Creek and narrows]

[narrows]

[more narrows]

[Clear Creek waterfall about 0.7 miles from the Colorado River]

[crazed hikers in Clear Creek]

return to top...

We did this hike in October 2007.