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Grand Canyon loop

Posted: Thu May 02, 2019 3:16 pm
by JeffH
I took a road and camping/hiking trip to Grand Canyon last week, hiking down the South Kaibab trail, along the river, and back up the Bright Angel trail. It's a lot of driving, plus I took the Mustang so I kept the speed below 70 nearly the entire way. While out there I drove on a portion of the original Route 66, which is mostly just a straight old road.
Since it was National Park Week and also the tail end of spring break, not one campsite was available inside the park. That didn't bother me too much since I was planning on camping on National Forest land outside, during some reading prior to the trip a few people had mentioned good spots nearby. However, since it takes approximately forever plus a couple hours to get there, it was dark by the time I reached Forest Road 688 - but I got lucky in finding a flat spot pretty near the highway junction. These are popular with RV's, however most spots I saw didn't have too much level ground for pitching a tent. Didn't matter too much since I set my alarm for 4:20am, planning on enough time to have some breakfast, break camp, drive to the Visitor Center and catch a bus to the SK trailhead. That all worked out great, after cleaning some frost off my windshield I drove in and parked at 5:55 and walked 100 yards to the VC where I caught the 6:00 bus. Just 10 minutes later I was chatting with a backpacker at the trailhead, who asked me if the trail was easy to follow.....He had waited three days to get a permit and didn't want to miss anything. I think maybe during that time he could have read about it or checked a map.
The trail switchbacks down right away, and in the shady part of the canyon it was a morning suited to long pants, long sleeves and gloves. I shed all of these while taking a long break at Cedar Ridge, which is about 1.5 miles down the trail and the point where things get much sunnier. After that, it's just more and more downhill, with a short detour to the actual Skeleton Point where the cliff edge provides a great east and west views. I reached the tunnel leading to Black Bridge a little over three hours after hitting the trail, at this point I waited for a church group spread out on the trail to finish their (very long) prayer time. On reaching Boat Beach at the river, there was a group of rafts tied down with folks packing up their gear. Seems some people walked down to meet the rafters there and would join them for the next two weeks of adventure. I shed my shoes, socks and gear, ate some salami and cheese tortilla wraps for lunch and also enjoyed the celebratory Golden Road beer I carried down. I also cooled off in the frigid river, wading out about thigh-depth a couple of times although not for long due to cold feet.
For the walk back up, I checked to make sure I had enough water to reach Pipe Creek, which the trail crosses four times in the first couple of miles. I refilled my Camelbak bladder there, along with a Powerade bottle to ensure I would have enough water. The temperature at the bottom of the canyon was supposed to reach about 94 degrees this day so it was plenty warm. Once past Pipe Creek, the trail starts to climb quite a bit, so the near term goal is to reach Indian Garden which at 4.5 miles is about halfway up the Bright Angel trail. At this point I was still making pretty good time, reaching this milestone about 20 minutes earlier than I had figured. One drawback now is that one of the giant cottonwoods here is now in cut pieces, meaning a lot less shade. I did stop for a while to do some more eating, along with refilling my bottle of water with Gatorade mix. The thermometer was just nosing close to 100 in mixed sunlight as I left IG, unfortunately the rest of the hike is almost directly south or into the mid-day sun. From here to the rim there are two rest-houses, at 3 miles and 1.5 miles which meant that I could plan for just three separate 1.5 mile hikes. Sounds easy....I figured by now I might be doing about 1.5mph, meaning an hour for each one. So I was pleasantly surprised when I reached the 3-mile house after 45 minutes, although it was a bit tiring as I got closer and the shady break was nice. Then I made it to the 1.5-mile stop in less than an hour, although I stopped for uh, photo opportunities a lot more. From there it was just a slog back up the last 1.5 miles, I was very tired and like always figured I should get myself into better shape before I attempt things like this. However, once I saw the rock tunnel below the rim I found a little spring in my step and reached the end point after about 9:40 total time on the trail.

Trying to break this down into 10 pictures:

View from the the first 100 feet of trail
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Reaching Cedar Ridge, where the trail really opens up into the canyon
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Almost to Skeleton Point, the trail follows along that ridge and then switchbacks down quickly
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Arriving at Boat Beach, I walked over and sat down in the shade for almost an hour
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Looking back at Silver Bridge after crossing the river
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Time to leave Indian Garden, halfway up Bright Angel trail
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Looking back down just after leaving 3-mile rest house, IG is the lower group of trees
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Almost to the top - I like how some of the trail looks like it is going into nowhere
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Tourist photo from the rim, after my break which included drinking two full bottles of water
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AllTrails track of the route, I missed about a half mile when I left the river. The last 1.5 miles took over an hour to walk.
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It's a great hike, although probably too hot from now until October or so......

Re: Grand Canyon loop

Posted: Thu May 02, 2019 3:31 pm
by David R
We went the opposite way a couple of years ago but it was earlier in the year and cooler. We were fortunate to get lodgings right across from Bright Angel. Climbing up the corkscrew from the river would probably be the toughest section but you should have the most energy on the uphill at that time.

Re: Grand Canyon loop

Posted: Thu May 02, 2019 6:37 pm
by jfr
I did that same hike with my son's scout troop back in the 90's. I was a lot younger then, but, man, was I whupped by the time I got back to the top. I know exactly why that last 1.5 miles took you so long! But at least you got to relax by the river. When I went, those fool boys didn't want to stop for anything, and so I had to keep on hiking. It would have been mellow, sitting in the shade, simply watching that big ol' river just flowin' on by...

Re: Grand Canyon loop

Posted: Fri May 03, 2019 11:31 am
by tekewin
The Grand Canyon is so awesome. Nice hike and great photos, thanks for the report. I love that water is available at many points along the way. Even on the north side, you are never too far from a stream or campground. Did you see any elk around the south rim?

Re: Grand Canyon loop

Posted: Wed May 15, 2019 8:30 am
by Sean
Beautiful pictures. Thanks for the report.

Re: Grand Canyon loop

Posted: Wed May 15, 2019 10:16 am
by JeffH
It's tough to take bad pictures there, especially early in the morning. That place is way different once you get off the rim.
A few more just because I can.......

They changed the warning signs about hiking to the river and back, now they have puking dude.
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Lots of these blooming along the upper part of the trail. The flower size is less than one inch.
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Considering how much traffic is here, it's remarkable that the trail is in such good shape.
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Cactus blooming lower in the canyon. There were plenty of other flowers this time of year.
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New status for Black Bridge, I didn't know about it being the only river crossing for ~700 miles. Lots of work to build it!
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Three-mile rest house.
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Break time at 1.5-mile rest house. One guy stopped to ask me why I wore the covers on my shoes.
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Offroad camping in Kaibab National Forest. I had a bit of Balvenie for my after dinner cocktail, did not use the fire pit.
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Re: Grand Canyon loop

Posted: Wed May 15, 2019 10:38 am
by Sean
Puking Dude is awesome. He's the new default avatar. I'd be puking too if my back was that sunburned.

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Isn't Black Bridge what Frodo and friends had to cross to escape the fire monster in Lord of the Rings?

Re: Grand Canyon loop

Posted: Wed May 15, 2019 10:51 am
by dima
Gah. If only I didn't already have an avatar, I could be Puking Dude. Too bad.

Re: Grand Canyon loop

Posted: Wed May 15, 2019 5:25 pm
by David R
I resent this avatar, I have never puked on a hike only some dry heaves.