The stretch of the Tonto between Cottonwood Creek and the junction with the South Kaibab trail is a long and lonely one. If you plan on doing this trek you should allow at least two days to do it. It really only takes about a day and a half at a good pace but trying to do it all in one day is pushing it and you won't get a chance to take in its beauty. It is 18 miles from from Cottonwood Creek to the South Kaibab Trail and the only perennial water south along the entire is in Grapevine Canyon. If there happens to be water in Cottonwood Creek you would be advised to load up there because the one time I was through Grapevine there was water there but it was just a trickle. Care should also be taken not to start following one of the many feral burro trails along this section instead of the main trail. I didn't notice this to be as much of a problem as in the area around Hance Creek and Horseshoe Mesa so maybe it's not a big deal. The burros have been gone from the Canyon for quite some years now and the trails that they have left behind will eventually fade and disappear.

When you are ready to leave Cottonwood Creek you may have to do some scouting around to figure out where the section of the Tonto Trail that continues westward is located. It is not that straightforward as the upper portions of Cottonwood Creek have quite a bit of vegetation which tend to obscure the trail. If you are staying in Cottonwood overnight you might want to locate the trail out the day before as I did. You should basically just work you way back up through the canyon and look for a trail that rises out on the west side. There are numerous trails through the area and you may just happen to run across the correct one. If not you should eventually spot it as you get higher up and then you can work your way back to it.

The first leg of the along this section is the 3½ miles to the head of Grapevine Canyon. This section is longer than it looks because you have to detour around a fairly large and nameless side canyon joins with Cottonwood Creek on the western side. This section of the trail was beautiful in the early morning hours when I was on it back in November of 1993. If you thought that Hance Canyon was big then just wait until you see Grapevine. Grapevine Canyon is the longest side canyon to cut across the Tonto Platform and Grapevine Creek is the only perennial water source along this stretch of the trail. It's a good 6 miles around Grapevine and you should probably allow at least 2-3 hours to complete it. You will be quite weary when you finally get back out again which is one reason why you should not attempt to go all the way to the South Kaibab Trail in one day. Chances are when you get out of Grapevine you'll be wanted to look for a place to make camp. One of the biggest problems with Grapevine is that it seems to take forever to get to the back side of it. The trail is constantly going into and out of side drainages along the way though there is not much change in elevation until you finally do get to the back. Even when you do get to the back the canyon there is forked and it takes a while before the trail starts heading back out again. Be careful in following the cairns when the trail finally cuts across Grapevine as this is not an easy stretch to follow.

After crossing Grapevine Creek the trail ascends again slightly and then heads into Grapevine's western fork. Beyond this the trail starts to head out of the canyon and again takes you through a number of side drainages along the way. If you are looking for an adventure there is supposedly a shortcut when you start to come out to the northern end of Grapevine. This shortcut will take you up and over the saddle between Lyell Butte and the nameless butte to its northeast (4396 on the topo) and back down into Burro Creek. I did not try it and others do not recommend it. I doubt that it really saves you that much time and it just adds some additional climbing that you would not have to do otherwise. If you don't know what you're doing you're just going to destroy the landscape by adding footprints where none should be. But if you are looking for adventure and are pretty good at route finding...

When you finally do get back out to the head of Grapevine you should be ready for a rest. The view of Grapevine Rapids, from the rim of the Tonto Platform, when you finally do get here is splendid. If you take the shortcut you will miss it. The next section of the trail will take you along the front side of Lyell Butte and across Burro and then Boulder Springs. Both of these had trickles of water running down them when I was there but they cannot be relied upon as water sources. You can check with the Backcountry Office before starting your trip to see if there is water in these but even their response does not guarantee you'll find it. When I did the trip in November, 1993 they told me there would be no water at all along this route but in actuality Cottonwood Creek was flowing like crazy and all of the other seasonal water sources did have trickles of water flowing through them. DO NOT RELY ON THIS and always make sure you are carrying enough water with you for the whole stretch. If you happen to find some water along the way then great, you've got some extra.

From Boulder Creek to Lonetree Canyon is about 3 miles. There is nothing particularly tricky about this stretch and you should not have any difficulty in following it. If you left Cottonwood in the morning then it's probably time to start looking for a place to camp. I wanted to camp in the back of Lonetree Canyon when I did this trip but I simply ran out of time and ended up camping a mile or so away on the eastern side on the canyon.

From Lonetree Canyon to the eastern end of Cremation Canyon is another 3 miles or so. If you camped overnight in Lonetree then this makes for a very pleasant early morning jaunt. When you finally do reach Cremation Canyon crossing all of the drainages in it will take a good deal of time. The trail here does not tend to go around the drainages but rather through them. If you are doing this early in the morning and are well rested it should not be a problem. If you happen to come across this stretch late in the day it will tax your spirits. If you hit it midday during the hot season you will be baked alive. There are, however, some very nice camping spots along this section of trail. If you wanted to take 3 days to do this section of trail and have enough water to do so, you could camp the first night in Boulder and the second in Cremation. The views of Zoroaster Temple on the other side of the Inner Gorge are magnificent when viewed from the Cremation area. There are three drainages that need to be crossed in Cremation Canyon. The first one will bring you down into Tapeats Sandstone before climbing back out to the Tonto and the remaining two will bring you down into the Hakatai Shale before coming back out. Amazingly, it is less than a mile across this section of the Tonto, but it feels longer. Cremation Canyon was a sort of burial ground for the prehistoric peoples who inhabited the area. They would cremate the dead on the rim of the Canyon just above and then scatter the ashes over the edge.

When you finally climb out of the western arm of Cremation Canyon it is still more then 1½ miles to the junction with the South Kaibab Trail. The trail first contours north for a while and is quite misleading because you can see the South Kaibab Trail and you are not heading for it. After a ½ mile or so the trail finally turns back towards the west and starts to climb upward to join with the South Kaibab Trail, 500 feet or so above and less than a mile away.
 

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