A good buddy and I just hiked the Hopi Salt Trail in the Grand Canyon and to say that this one isn't for the faint of heart is an understatement! One of the biggest mysteries was whether or not there are any filterable water sources at the bottom of the trail and we were not able to find any definitive information...WHICH IS WHY I AM WRITING THIS BLOG POST TO SHARE THE ANSWER WITH YOU NOW! And that answer is YES, there is a spring and water source near the helipad and near the camping areas and hopefully your quads will benefit from not having to carry a ton of extra water down this grueling 'trail.' I have also posted a reel with video showing how to find the spring so hopefully you can find that too :) From the Helipad, simply head toward all the greenery that you will see toward the bottom of the canyon walls to the left if you are standing on the Helipad, and looking back out of the canyon as if you were going to be hiking out. It is only 40 feet or so from the helipad and if you listen closely, you will likely hear the running water.
A Few Notes / Tips /Tricks:
- the water in this spring has some noticeable salinity
- The way we mitigated this was to mix the water we filtered from the spring with the water we packed in, about half & half. This proved to be a winning strategy and I drank a few liters of the Spring water by mixing it this way.
- You can use a gravity filer bag or a filter pump like the Katadyn Hiker Filter Pump that we used.
- Another option available here is to Cache water along the trail for the hike out. I may do this next time and tape a note onto the gallon of water explaining that this is indeed a water cache that we will use on our hike out.
- Sidenote: BRING WATER SHOES OR FLIP FLOPS AT A MINIMUM if you plan to get into, or hike along the Little Colorado River's bright blue waters.
I hope this helps someone enjoy this extremely challenging, but incredibly rewarding hike a little bit more!
