Tanner and Beamer Trail Map Poster

The Tanner and Beamer Trail is a 34 mi (54 km) out-and-back route in the eastern Grand Canyon, Arizona, made of two old trails joined at the Colorado River. The Tanner Trail leaves Lipan Point on the South Rim at 7,350 ft (2,240 m), crosses 75-Mile Saddle and skirts Escalante and Cardenas Buttes before it plunges through the Redwall to Tanner Rapids, 4,700 ft (1,430 m) lower. The Beamer Trail then follows the river upstream, past Palisades Creek and along the Tapeats cliffs, to the Little Colorado River.

Most walkers take three or four days and sleep on the beaches between Tanner Rapids and Palisades Creek. Neither trail is maintained, and there is no water above the river. The Redwall descent is steep and loose, the Dox Sandstone ledges above the river are a foot wide in places, and past Palisades Creek the path runs along the very edge of a cliff. River guides call this open, shadeless stretch Furnace Flats, so spring and fall are the best times to go.

Seth Tanner improved the route around 1890 to reach his copper claims, and it later served horse thieves moving stolen stock across the river. Ben Beamer tried to farm near the Little Colorado, at the confluence where Marble Canyon gives way to the Grand Canyon proper. Turquoise water waits at the far end; relive the walk there and back on a Tanner and Beamer Trail map poster.