THE LITTLE-KNOWN OTHER RIM OF THE GRAND CANYON

DISCOVER THE GRAND CANYON'S 'SECRET'

"I had no idea that this was here,"

said the woman with a European accent. "They keep it a secret, yes?"

she asked me.

Well, no, I told her, not a secret. This place just isn't publicized very

much. People hear about it by

word-of-mouth.

"That's how I heard about it," she said.

"Some campers in the national forest

told me to come here if I really wanted

to see some great scenery. So I did.

"I am mad at the park service. I have

come to the Grand Canyon every

summer for my vacation, and so I asked

the ranger back at the [North Rim]

headquarters for some new places to look

at the Canyon. He never told me about

this place.

"Look. Look down there," she said,

Pointing with her hiking staff. "You can

see all the way down the Colorado River.

Look at all the canyons. And then you

just turn around, and you can see all the

way up the river, even see the highway I drove on my way up here."

To be honest, you need good binoculars

of 8 to 10 power and a clear day to see

the highway (U.S. 89A) and the cars and

trucks zipping underneath the crimson

wall of the Vermilion Cliffs.

But she was right about the views from the East Rim.

Millions of visitors to the Grand Canyon know there is a South Rim and a North Rim. Few know there also is an

East Rim and that it offers marvelous

views of the Grand Canyon both upstream and downstream.

At the East Rim, located on the

southeast end of the North Kaibab

EAST RIM

Text by Bob Thomas

Photographs

by George Stocking

EAST

Plateau, you can view a part of the Grand Canyon that most visitors never see.

From an aerielike lookout on the plateau, you can see both sides of Grand Canyon National Park - plus all the glorious terrain of Marble Canyon from the Navajo Indian Reservation on the southeast to the ramparts of the Paria Plateau on the northwest.

For me, the great sweeping vistas far outclass the views from either the South Rim or North Rim. Many would find that hard to believe, but it's true.

The East Rim also offers these advantages: The Forest Service vista points here are uncrowded, averaging maybe a dozen cars a day. On some days, the viewpoints are completely empty. There are numerous free camping sites for sleeping bag and tent campers. You do not have to make campground reservations, and you don't have to pay a park entrance fee, which is $20 a car.

Here, all the tortured, eroded geography of the upper Grand Canyon and Marble Canyon is laid out before you like a living contour map. At this point, the Kaibab National Forest sits at a 9,000-plusfoot elevation, giving visitors views similar to those from a sight-seeing airplane.

I think the best view of all the East Rim vista points is from an unnamed rounded knoll near the Saddle Mountain trailhead.

The knoll is less than a quarter of a mile from the trailhead parking area. But the trail to it first drops some 500 feet into a saddle before climbing to the top of the knoll.

The steep climb takes a half hour to reach the vista point, but the hike is worth it. From there you can see the South Rim, a bit of the Colorado River and the Inner Gorge, Nankoweap Canyon (which leads to Nankoweap Rapids, a favorite stop for river runners), Marble Canyon, Echo Cliffs on the Navajo reservation, Navajo Bridge, the awesome Vermilion Cliffs, the Paria Plateau, and vast House Rock Valley.

With the help of binoculars, you can look down into the great chasms of the side canyons of the Colorado River or up the river past Lees Ferry, where the Paria Plateau and the Echo Cliffs pinch the green waters of the Colorado River between sheer walls of red rock.

Lees Ferry itself is too deep in the canyon to be visible from the East Rim.

As you look downstream from Saddle Mountain, you can see the San Francisco Peaks next to Flagstaff, some 75 air miles away. Then, looking in the opposite direction, you can see the rounded hump of Navajo Mountain, 85 air miles distant. Both mountains are usually covered in snow until July.

Beyond Navajo Mountain, dominating the Utah horizon, lies the vast Kaiparowits Plateau, more than 100 miles away.

The best time for viewing is late afternoon. As the sun settles above the North Kaibab, the slanting sun rays and shadows play across this wilderness, giving definition and shape to clefts and canyons and turning the red rock cliffs into shimmering fire.

But desert haze can mask the Canyon in gauze. I have found that the crisp fall temperatures seem to give the air the clarity of polished crystal.

Fall is my favorite time to visit the area, not only because of the clear air but for the fall foliage. Forest Service Road 610 to Saddle Mountain is lined with aspen trees, and in the fall their leaves turn yellow, making the dirt road a delightful golden tunnel.

There are a number of viewpoints on the East Rim. I rate Marble Viewpoint as next best after Saddle Mountain. From FR 610, take FR 219, a five-mile one-way trip. The road dead-ends with a great view of North Canyon.

But the best view of Marble Canyon and House Rock Valley can be missed if you don't see an unmarked two-track road that leads east from the end of FR 219. This road is only about 100 yards long and almost hidden by the thick pine forest.

But as you emerge from the trees, the whole world seems to open. From almost every place on the point, it seems, you can look down on House Rock Valley, the Arizona Game and Fish Department buffalo ranch, or the depths of the seldom-visited side canyons on the north side of Marble Canyon.

On the opposite side of North Canyon, at the end of four-mile-long FR 611, is the East Rim Viewpoint, but you can see better scenery from either Saddle Mountain or Marble Viewpoint. Dog Point, at the other end of FR 610, also offers superior views.

In fact, if you don't mind some motorized exploring on unmarked two-track roads that dead-end at various points along the East Rim, you can discover some spectacular places.

(LEFT) From the Saddle Mountain Trail, the terrain climbs across rocky ground to the rich pine forest.

(RIGHT) A southerly view from the trail exposes the sculpted landscape of the Grand Canyon.

(BELOW) The white bark of aspens forms a backdrop for New Mexican locust flowers in the Saddle Mountain Wilderness.

The whole area beneath the cliffs on the East Rim has been designated the Saddle Mountain Wilderness. In June of 1960, a forest fire swept up from Grand Canyon National Park and burned 8,600 acres of national forest land, most of it on the exposed points and ridges that extend to the east overlooking House Rock Valley.

Nature is hard at work repairing the damage. The burned area now boasts a forest of aspens, scrub oaks, and manzanitas with ponderosa pines and Douglas firs that look like Christmas trees. Eventually the pines will dominate the landscape again and kill off the aspen trees.

By removing the trees and brush, the fire opened all the vista points. Previously the thick forest hid the Rim so well that you couldn't see the cliffs even if you were a dozen feet away.

The forest regeneration is already clothing many of the points. A few years ago, I had an unobstructed 180-degree view from the knoll opposite the Saddle Mountain trailhead. On a recent visit, some of the fastgrowing aspens rose well over my head. So far it has been no problem because all you need to do is move to a new spot a short distance away to see what the trees are screening.

The fire also has spurred a new growth of succulent plants and thick grass that has created a wildlife paradise. The North Kaibab mule deer, famous for their huge ears and antlers, can be seen everywhere.

The equally famous Kaibab squirrel an Abert's variety that has a white tail, an auburn streak on its back, and large tasseled ears can be found wherever there are ponderosa pines.

But the wild buffalo are the real surprise here. Over the years, buffalo have escaped from the fenced-in buffalo ranch below the Rim and migrated 3,000 feet up onto the Kaibab Plateau, where they have started a small herd in the alpine forest.

I have run into the herd several times, each occasion a major shock to me as the snorting, shaggy-haired giants stampeded through the trees. If you have ever thrilled to a buck deer gracefully leaping over a fallen log, wait until you see 1,500-pound bull buffalos perform the same feat. They can jump fully five feet in the air. What they don't leap over, they simply lower their heads and crash through, snapping aspens and jack pines like twigs.

This part of the Grand Canyon may be lesser known, but not for long, as those

EAST

who discover it keep passing the word. If you do visit the East Rim, remember what the great man said: "Go west, young man, but keep your eastern views."

WHEN YOU GO

The best time to visit the East Rim is May through October before snows block access.

For more information on recreation, directions, and any required permits, contact the Kaibab National Forest's North. Kaibab Ranger District, (520) 643-7395; and the Grand Canyon National. Park Backcountry Office, (520) 638-7888.