The Dragon and Dragons Head

The Dragon 8,105′ and Dragons Head 7,765′
Grand Canyon National Park
Total Time: 14:40
Distance: 13.9 miles
Elevation Gain: 5200′
Crux: Class 3
Trailhead: Point Sublime Road, no services

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Continued…

I can’t say I was really looking forward to Dragons Head. It had the reputation of being a pretty hairy bushwhack. One ranger on the north rim said he knew a few people that had tried and turned back from the brush. Art Christiansen told me he camped on the summit, splitting the 14 trailless miles over 2 days. The bushwhacking was not to be underestimated, and would be all the more difficult with a bum ankle. I had actually bailed early on an attempt of the Dragons Head previously, a downpour starting less than a quarter mile from the car that left me soaked. That day I switched to a climb of the Little Dragon, which to this day remains my least favorite outing in the canyon. But if the brush on the bigger Dragon was anything like the little one, it would be a long, painful day. Knowing that, I woke up at 4 AM off Point Sublime Road not far from the starting point on Crystal Ridge. The forecast called for 0% chance of rain, but the dark clouds blanketing the full moon overhead along with the high winds seemed to suggest otherwise. I left the car and dropped into the dark woods about an hour before sunrise, relying heavily on my GPS to find the start of the ridgeline to the Dragon. The trees creaked with the high winds, and I genuinely worried about one of the larger burnt snags snapping from the high gusts. I felt a bit better as I left the small burn area and dropped into a deep drainage before climbing up a small false summit and start of the ridgeline. I still needed my headlamp as I dropped to the first of many saddles and started up the first obstacle of the day. A decent goat trail got me to near the top of this first rise, and I skirted some upper cliff bands and turned off my headlamp.

The summit plateau of the Dragon was now in view, separated by one additional small false summit along the ridge. I had misremembered that the break in the first series of cliff bands was to the southwest, and I started dropping through loose talus only to be immediately cliffed out.

There was no obvious way through, and I checked my beta to find that I actually needed to descend off the southeast side, and climbed back up and over the false summit to drop to the opposite side of the ridge. I had a tough time finding the weakness in the cliff bands to the southeast as well, and ultimately descended a loose class 2-3 gully with deep pine duff making the descent a bit slippery and sketchy.

Once below the first set of cliff bands, I needed to traverse south to the next saddle. And so began the first serious bushwhack of the day, and probably some of the worst of the entire outing. After 5 minutes of thrashing I reached into my bag and pulled out something I’ve never brought on a hike before- a pair of hedge clippers and work gloves. I started clipping as I pressed into the thicket, getting a great deal of pleasure lopping off the tops of the small evil locust brush as I went along. I tried to utilize game trails when I could, but they would often fizzle out just as soon as I came upon them. I tried to more aggressively reach the ridgeline proper where I thought it might be a bit more clear and at last reached the first major saddle.

The next obstacle was traversing the next false summit along the ridge, this one too blocky to go up and over easily. GCSS suggests the east side might be a bit less brushy based on the view from Little Dragon. That suggestion was good enough for me, and I started off on a game trail on the east side, having it quickly dead end and finding myself in just as much brush as I had before. The ridgeline hooked ever so slightly to the west around this small subpeak meaning going around on the east side was actually a bit longer than the west. I finally reached some relative relief from the brush at the final saddle just below the Dragon. An orange metal blaze was hammered into a pine tree, and the first decent use trail of the day headed directly up the ridgeline (although still overgrown with some locust brush and small oak trees).

Just below the summit there were a few small cliff bands that I easily got through by cheating to the west before the ridgeline opened up just below the summit. Nearly at the top, I passed a pair of metal lockers under a tree in surprisingly good shape, finding some jugs of water and fire equipment stashed inside. I wish I had brought some water treatment to lighten my load…

I was a bit surprised when I topped out on the summit to find absolutely no brush in any direction. The summit plateau was a beautiful healthy pine forest with some fire fighting equipment littered near the north edge. I incorrectly thought that the high point was BM 8051′ and continued off in that direction, only figuring out that the highpoint was on the north side of the summit plateau when I was half way across. It would make for a nice break on the return…

It had taken about 4 hours to hike from the trailhead to get halfway across the Dragon, and with the clouds overhead, I hadn’t used much of the 4.5 liters I had brought. I was in as good of shape as I could be to get Dragons Head in a day. But the key would be finding the descend off the Dragon down to the connecting ridgeline. If I botched that and got cliffed out, I might not have the time or energy to climb back up to the Dragon and re-descend. I decided to try the main ravine to the southwest of BM 8015′ dropping off the Dragon, and a use trail littered with a few small bones.

I encountered some cliffs pretty quickly, but found a loose class 3 descent to the west that would go, made safer by being able to yard on the small oak trees as I lowered myself. Working down one set of cliff bands I lost a water bottle into the abyss, bringing me to about 3 liters for the rest of the day as the sun was beginning to peak through the clouds. Once through the cliff bands I started some painful and brushy traversing to make my way back towards the main ridgeline. The small oaks and locust brush, while still present, were largely replaced by thick manzanita. Although I was happy to be temporarily done with thorns, the steep loose slopes and tough brush still made the going slow, and it wasn’t until I dropped down to a use trail just above the Coconino cliff bands that I found a clear path to the first of several small false summits along the ridgeline the Dragons Head.

The most brush free path seemed to be going up and over each small bump, and the extra elevation and descent was worth avoiding any extra sidehilling through brush. Dropping off the final false summit to the last saddle required a bit of class 3 downclimbing, but nothing too difficult or loose compared to the rest of the day. I stashed a liter of water at the final saddle and took a short break in the shade to get out of the progressively more intense sun.

The key to the summit is via a pine tree gully on the west face, which required a bit more brushy sidehilling and traversing to reach. I climbed up through the first small cliff bands on the traverse, but in reality this was unnecessary as it did not get me past a small dry waterfall in the center of the gully. I dismissed the waterfall as fifth class (although when I looked closer on the way down it probably would go at third or fourth) and used a series of small dirty ledges to the right. This was probably the most difficult climbing of the day, and I was only able to get over the last shelf by squeezing between a fallen tree and a tight chimney. I was concentrating so much I even forgot to take any pictures! Above the waterfall, things didn’t get too much better, and I slowly worked up through a mix of loose dirt and sand through a final series of rock bands to the desolate summit. The summit was more of a plateau than I expected, with small scattered trees. The highpoint is on the northeast side of the formation and I searched in vain for an existing register or summit cairn. I then tried the south side, finding a cairn but no register and about 50′ downslope of the actual plateau. I took a long break here enjoying the views to Shiva Temple and Confucius and Mencius Temple to the south.

It was hard to resist the temptation to chug water, now down to 2 liters (including the cached bottle) with the full force of the sun bearing down. The helicopters buzzed past, but didn’t seem to notice me as they headed back to the airstrip on the south rim. I headed back to the northeast end, with two bumps vying for the highpoint. I chose the one slightly further north as it had a better view and built a cairn, tucking the summit register made by Art Christiansen underneath.

It was about noon when I dropped off the Dragons Head, giving me about 6.5 hour of daylight to cover the 7 trailless miles back to my car. At least I knew the way? Descending the tree gully wasn’t much easier than ascending it, and I showered down rock and sand, one of the few times I was glad I was traveling solo as I would have showered anyone below me with rock. After climbing below the waterfall, I continued to descend, choosing not to traverse the various ledges and instead trying (unsuccessfully) to find a game trail that would take me back to the saddle where I cached my other liter of water.

The class 3 climb and traverse of the ridgeline was straightforward, with the real challenge climbing back up to the Dragon. I wanted to avoid the manzanita traverse from the way in, and hugged the Coconino cliff bands where I found an excellent goat trail that felt like a superhighway. I made note of a huge detached boulder where I would need to begin my ascent and quickly hiked over, leaving the use trail for more familiar bushwhacking back to the gully. While a bit more direct, I still had plenty of small oak trees to swim through, which honestly make for good hands as I pulled myself up the scree and class 3.

Aside for a few patches of brush on the south side of the Dragon, the open pine forest was cruiser, and I reached the north side of The Dragon where I again looked for a summit cairn and register in vain. I took a rake from the fire equipment and used it for the center piece of my summit cairn on the northwest side near a tree that seemed to be the highpoint.

I tucked another Art Christiansen register under the cairn and dropped off the side, helicopters now buzzing past every few minutes in the improving afternoon light. A few helicopters spotted me and buzzed low. If I wasn’t so exhausted, I would have dropped my pants and given those tourists a real show… Back at the saddle below the Dragon, I was backed to the part of the route that I had been dreading the entire day- the bushwhack around the blocky small summit followed by even more bushwhacking and loose class 3 to regain the ridgeline back to the rim. I decided to stay on the west side this time rather than traverse east, and found an outstanding goat trail off the saddle. It looked very fresh, like I may have spooked a small herd that very day. I followed the trail religiously, even as it descended far lower than I wanted to go. It eventually cut hard down a gully where I had to abandon it, but it easily got me 75% of the way there, and I could hardly complain about how little bushwhacking I needed to do to get back to the next saddle. That being said, I doubt I would have found that goat trail on the way in since it was so low, so I’m not sure I would have saved that much time going around the west side on the ascent. I picked up another game trail on the east side to get me over to the final bit of class 3, which, although not as clean as the last trail, certainly did the job and got me below my class 3 weakness. I went a bit past to find some open pine needle duff to ascend before scrambling up the loose chimney to regain the ridgeline with plenty of daylight to spare.

From there it was easy traversing along the ridgeline followed by a short but steeper (than I remembered) climb out of a gully to get back on Crystal Ridge proper. I almost made it back to my car before needing a headlamp, and reached it after 14:40 minutes of logged GPS time, hiking a little under one mile per hour. I hauled it back to the main area of the North Rim to grab some food and a celebratory beer before settling in to a painful sleep with about 1000 microcuts and punctures on basically every exposed surface of my body.