Rediscovering Cheyava Falls

In early May of 1903 William Beeson reported seeing from Yavapai Point a huge sheet of ice several hundred feet in length glistening over the wall a dozen miles away. Our experiences within the canyon led us to believe that it would be impossible for ice to withstand the warmth of the canyon walls so late in the spring. Searching with a powerful glass from the veranda of our studio , we were repaid by finding that instead of ice, the glistening we could see was the top of a high falls of sparkling clear water pouring out of the sheer wall. From then on each spring this was one of the major attractions to be pointed out to the tourists. The urge of visiting and photographing the remote and undiscovered sections of the canyons was early embedded within us, but it was not until the spring of 1908 that opportunity presented itself.
My brother Ellsworth prepared for a mad dash over the Granite and Tonto bench to photograph the fall. To make the climb and hike with the heavy plate cameras and canteens of water made it impossible to carry a blanket and rations were extremely light and soon exhausted as were the men who sat shivering in the gusts of the cold night wind on the high plateau. My brother was gone four days and returned with excellent pictures.
My first visit was by a different but more dangerous route. With a friend, Milton Madden, our cameras and luggage were dragged and rowed up stream from Bright Angel Creek to Clear Creek in an open fourteen-foot canvas boat. At the mouth of Clear Creek we camped two nights. The trip to the fall and the return to the river occupied a full day. By this route only cameras and a lunch were carried to the fall and we slept comfortably at night without the necessity of packing our beds on our backs, but it was all hard work nevertheless, though thrilling to the utmost. The return trip to Bright Angel Creek down the river was made in an hour as we were caught in a fast rising river which gave us no little alarm and hazard together with the necessity of quick thinking and quick action.
--Emery Kolb
from The Discovery of Cheyava Falls