Once you pass the Phantom overlook the trail levels out a bit while it heads over to a break in the plateau that allows you to get on top of it. It takes about an hour to an hour and a half from the ranch before you finally get on top of the plateau. The Phantom overlook is at about the midway point time-wise. All along this section of trail I was able to look back across the inner gorge and see the route that I traveled over the preceding two days. The view from up on top of the plateau is gorgeous. Zoroaster Temple pretty much dominates the view along the first half of the trek to Clear Creek... until you pass it and it's behind you. Once on top of the plateau the trail is pretty straightforward and easy to follow. There is only one major drainage that it has to go around and even this is nothing like what I encountered on the other side of the river. You hardly even know your doing it unless you happen to be checking your map. After passing that point the trail just goes on and on until you reach Zoroaster Canyon.

At this point the view changes as now you are looking at the north rim and the Ottoman Amphitheater. It's a pretty spectacular sight. About a half hour or so into Zoroaster Canyon I noticed that the trail was starting to head down somewhat. I stopped to give me feet a rest, have some lunch and take in the view. My feet were not feeling too bad but I knew that most of the problems would be with the downhill part.

After lunch I continued the descent into Zoroaster Canyon. The trail really does not drop that much and most of it is fairly gradual. The climb out on the other side was somewhat steeper but still no big deal. After Zoroaster the trail remained pretty level aside from some little ups and downs until it reached Clear Creek. Some parts of the descent into Clear Creek are a little on the scary side. Some sections of the trail are barely wide enough to walk on and if you should slip you're going to roll for a couple of hundred feet before anything stops you and that will most likely be the bottom of the canyon. I guess that could be called a short cut? I don't understand why the trail does this instead of switchbacking down into it. Once I made it to the floor of the canyon it was only about a 20 minute walk down it to what I guessed was the camping area. Again I could not figure out why the trail descended where it did and guessed that the trail that I had used was not the same one that was on the map. Maybe it has moved recently.

Clear Creek is a beautiful spot and I highly recommend it. It does not appear to see much use, which is probably due to its being so remote. You cannot simply walk to it in a day. It takes at least two days to get there and two days to get out. Not many people are willing to make that commitment just to find a nice camping spot. The trip was worth it. There was no one else around and again I had the Canyon to myself, except for another annoying little mouse. I setup my tent, stuffed all of my gear inside and headed out to explore some of the canyon. I never found the waterfall that was supposed to be over here although there was plenty of water running down Clear Creek. I guess the waterfall is not part of the main drainage and does not run all year. I walked a good distance down Clear Creek which is not that easy to negotiate. You are supposed to be able to follow it all the way down to the Colorado but I think the roundtrip from Clear Creek would probably require the better part of a day, which I did not have at this point. I turned back after a mile or so and headed back to my campsite.

I found a very nice little pool that was caused by someone damming up a section of the creek. It looked extremely inviting since I did not get the shower that I had hoped for at Phantom Ranch. When I stuck my hand in it to test the temperature my whole body could have froze. This stuff was like liquid ice and must be coming from melting snow somewhere up on the north rim. I couldn't resist despite this and decided that it would simply be a very quick bath. And extremely quick it was. A quick dunk to get wet and lather up and then a another quick dunk or two to rinse. I was blue at the end of this and figured it would be a good time for a hot meal. I fired up the camp stove, made some dinner and settled back for the night. I left the rubbish that I had collected thus far on the trip outside for fear of the annoying little critter chewing its way into my tent. I built a pile of rocks over it figuring that it would be safe that way. Normally I would dig a hole, fill it in and then pile rocks on top of that, but here the ground was too solid for digging. I guess I was wrong about the critter being able to get at it as I could hear it crewing on the plastic and foil at various times during the night.