Distance: 2 miles round-trip
Duration: 1 hour
Elevation change: 150 feet
Effort: Easy
Trailhead: Across the road from Angel’s Window Overlook, a paved pullout 19 miles up Cape Royal Road

Although it’s short, this trail offers lots of variety. From the paved overlook 0.5 miles north of the Cape Royal parking area, cross the road to find the trail marker. The well-defined dirt trail descends through ponderosa-pine forest to an Ancestral Puebloan granary tucked beneath a large chunk of Kaibab limestone.

The trail curves around this boulder, then continues to descend through mixed forest into a rugged wash. You’ll leave behind the road noise and enter a magical world where the past feels near, as though you could look down and follow sandal prints left behind by the ancient ones who used this path. Here the trail hugs the limestone cliffs, sheltered by a stony overhang high above. Water seeps from the base of the Kaibab limestone walls, converging at Cliff Spring’s shallow pools at the 0.5-mile point.

You can linger here for awhile, enjoying the sound of dripping water and watching quietly as birds visit the spring. This is the end of the maintained section of the trail, but you can continue farther along the cliff to a rugged path that descends toward Clear Creek Canyon, offering views of Cape Royal and Vishnu Temple.