This trip is not for the faint of heart, nor for people in questionable physical condition. The weather was extremely favorable, especially in that temperatures remained below average. Most, at the end, questioned whether they would ever again want to do a similar trip. There is usually reliable water in the picnic area at the south end of Fredonia. We filled containers Saturday afternoon so we could car camp near Toroweap Point the first night and have enough left over to hike Sunday.
Basalts mix with sedimentary rocks through the middle sections.
There were excellent wildflowers Q especially the larger ones such as paintbrush, Apache plume, and sego lilies. We arrived at the creekbed in about an hour and broke for lunch. Schmutz Spring is a 10 minute scramble up the far side of the wash, in some trees at the base of a small slide of red gravel. The hike to Cottonwood Spring was uneventful. We arrived only 4 hours after leaving the cars, including our lunch time and rest stops.