Cottonwood camp n roaring spring trip
Posted: Tue Jan 10, 2012 7:23 am
Hello! I went the farthest I ever have in the canyon yesterday (jan 9th). Down the same trail I did the other day, so I didnt take more pics of that (south kaibab) -anyway, I made it past cottonwood camp to roaring springs. Thats 15.9mi from my start point,just under 32 round trip). I ran the first 26 of the miles in 5hr flat then walked the last 6 miles back up to the south rim. (that walk took me 3hrs! lol, doing a 5000ft hill climb after basically running a marathon, was NOT the most fun ive ever had) but i feel pretty good about it now that im home and have slept 10hrs.
*also, note to other runners who may read this and are unfamiliar with the canyon-, i know 5 hrs for 26 mi is a very unremarkable marathon time, but these are grand canyon miles, much harder than flat or normal hills. It takes even the fastest person over 3 hrs to even do a rim to rim because of the terrain and elevation changes/gains, and thats less than 21 miles. Runnin here is a totally different beast than a normal run.
Anyways, It was really fun fo sho! And It was really cool in the morning because the full moon was still out (i started befor sunrise) -Then, as the sun started to rise the canyon looked really pretty. Lots of pink and pastel colors come out in the early AM that you never see in full daylight. I have no pics of this because It was more about the run this time than photos. It was really fukn awesome though! If you ever come to the canyon, you HAVE to see the sunrise from about a mile down the S. kaibab trail, its the neatest thing Ive ever seen, beats the sunsets all to hell, imo
Dis n ele.
South Kaibab Trailhead 0.0 7200ft
Cedar Ridge 1.5mi 6060ft
Tonto Trail Junction 4.4mi 4010ft
Tipoff 4.6 3870ft
Colorado River Bridge 6.2 2480ft
Bright Angel Campground 6.4 2400ft
Phantom Ranch 6.9 2560ft
Ribbon Falls 12.5 3720ft
Cottonwood Campground 14.0 4065ft
Roaring Springs 15.9 5200ft
this is 14mi out
cottonwood camp ranger cabin (theres always water here, and at the pumphouse 2 miles away....i dunno why people think theres no water here in winter....anywhos- there is. Maybe they dont want tourist to know so they can do trail maintenance. But it was there, i was suprised cause ide heard a buncha people say there wasnt. But people live at both those places, so there kinda has to be water! lol. now the faucets ARE off, but they keep big gatorade kegs full of filtered water for whoever comes by.
part of Roaring Springs
break time!
looking north, im only 5 miles from the top of the north rim here
neat tree
big crack!
Ide like to camp here
lookin back at the south rim where i started
After runnin 20 of my miles, Time for chocolate!! -I also brought PB'nJelly sandwich, fig newtons and a banana strawberry smoothie type thing (nice thing about running in winter wen its below 50 is your drinks stay cold and chocolate doesnt melt!
***also, should I post this type of stuff in the running section instead?? Does anyone care? lol im never sure it these count as a trip, or a run....
*also, note to other runners who may read this and are unfamiliar with the canyon-, i know 5 hrs for 26 mi is a very unremarkable marathon time, but these are grand canyon miles, much harder than flat or normal hills. It takes even the fastest person over 3 hrs to even do a rim to rim because of the terrain and elevation changes/gains, and thats less than 21 miles. Runnin here is a totally different beast than a normal run.
Anyways, It was really fun fo sho! And It was really cool in the morning because the full moon was still out (i started befor sunrise) -Then, as the sun started to rise the canyon looked really pretty. Lots of pink and pastel colors come out in the early AM that you never see in full daylight. I have no pics of this because It was more about the run this time than photos. It was really fukn awesome though! If you ever come to the canyon, you HAVE to see the sunrise from about a mile down the S. kaibab trail, its the neatest thing Ive ever seen, beats the sunsets all to hell, imo
Dis n ele.
South Kaibab Trailhead 0.0 7200ft
Cedar Ridge 1.5mi 6060ft
Tonto Trail Junction 4.4mi 4010ft
Tipoff 4.6 3870ft
Colorado River Bridge 6.2 2480ft
Bright Angel Campground 6.4 2400ft
Phantom Ranch 6.9 2560ft
Ribbon Falls 12.5 3720ft
Cottonwood Campground 14.0 4065ft
Roaring Springs 15.9 5200ft
this is 14mi out
cottonwood camp ranger cabin (theres always water here, and at the pumphouse 2 miles away....i dunno why people think theres no water here in winter....anywhos- there is. Maybe they dont want tourist to know so they can do trail maintenance. But it was there, i was suprised cause ide heard a buncha people say there wasnt. But people live at both those places, so there kinda has to be water! lol. now the faucets ARE off, but they keep big gatorade kegs full of filtered water for whoever comes by.
part of Roaring Springs
break time!
looking north, im only 5 miles from the top of the north rim here
neat tree
big crack!
Ide like to camp here
lookin back at the south rim where i started
After runnin 20 of my miles, Time for chocolate!! -I also brought PB'nJelly sandwich, fig newtons and a banana strawberry smoothie type thing (nice thing about running in winter wen its below 50 is your drinks stay cold and chocolate doesnt melt!
***also, should I post this type of stuff in the running section instead?? Does anyone care? lol im never sure it these count as a trip, or a run....