The creek forks here, just east of the clearing, and last time that I was here I thought that Clear Creek continued to the north. From looking at my topo though I could see now that this was wrong and that Clear Creek actually continued along the course to the east. The rock formations along the northern route resembled a sort of gateway to the canyon beyond and I longed to head that way, but it would just have to wait for another trip. I headed east and entered a beautiful grove of Cottonwood trees which was nestled in a deep canyon of the Tapeats. It was cool and shady here with lots of vegetation and it reminded me more of trips that I had taken up in the White Mountains of New Hampshire than the Grand Canyon. The Canyon will always surprise you when you least expect it. About midway through the Cottonwood grove the creek began to turn towards the northeast as it started climbing up through the Tapeats.

At around 9:30 I reached the top of the Tapeats and the canyon started up widen out considerably. The section through the Tapeats would not be a place that I wanted to be in the event of a flash flood even though there appeared to be considerable high-ground on one side of the creek or the other. The clouds were already starting to build in the sky and I knew that I would want to get back through this section before too late in the afternoon... just in case. The section of the canyon that I was in now was in full sunlight and it was very warm. Soon I knew it would be very hot.

At 10:30 I reached the point where two major side canyon enter Clear Creek at right-angles, one from the northwest and the other from the southeast, and I knew that Cheyava Falls was not much further beyond this. Would there be water running? I hoped so. The "trail" just beyond then passed through a section of rocks at the top of a hill that I found very strange. I was just sitting there, drinking some Gookinade, and looking at the rocks and began seeing patterns in them. Some resembled the remains of low walls and a number of these joined with others at right-angles. I wondered if I was seeing things or if these were actually the remains of another small community. The location certainly seemed perfect, at least now, as there was water flowing and plenty of space for planting.

At 11:15 I reached Cheyava Falls and to my delight there was water flowing, at least in the lower section. There was a huge crack in the cliff above this that appeared to lead string to the top of the Redwall and I guessed that the water was flowing down through this. During a heavy flow the water would probably just pour over the top of the Redwall and would be quite a spectacle. I explored the area and tried to get as close to the falls as possible but the closer I got the more thick the vegetation became and I was getting very scratched up by trying to force my way through it. There was also a great deal of cryptobiotic soil in the area and I did not want to disturb these areas so after a brief attempt I settled for the view that I had and gave up on getting closer. It was getting late anyway and there was now considerable cloudiness in the sky. After a reasonable rest I began the trek back to camp.

I arrived back at camp just before 2:00 and was very hungry. I had not stopped to eat lunch on the way back and settled down to eat it now. After lunch I got back into the creek and did some repair work on my dam and then lounged about in the pool and beneath the small jacuzzi-like waterfalls on the northern end. This was heaven! The flies became very annoying in the afternoon and after preparing my evening meal I had to retreat to inside the tent to eat it. It never did rain that afternoon and I was again treated to a fabulous sunset. I was not looking forward to having to leave Clear Creek the next day but I knew that I had to and tried to get as much of the packing and organizing done now as I wanted to get an early start out. The night was not quite as cool as the prior two but still very comfortable.