In 2014 I went on a trip to the southwest, primarily to do a down and back backpacking trip in the Grand Canyon. This is the day to day journal I kept while traveling and hiking. I’ll add photos to this later.

 

November 3

Left my apartment at 1:30am and drove fairly nonstop until Amarillo TX, at 2:30. I ate at the Big Texan, a Route 66 attraction that advertises a FREE 72oz steak (if you can finish it in one sitting). I chose not to attempt that but I had a good burger and a beer they brew on premises. After finishing up there I drove to Cadillac Ranch and looked around a bit. It was not particularly crowded, and I watched people walk up and spray paint the cars buried in the dirt. It’s an interesting place, and beautiful in its own goofy, ramshackle way.

 

After this, I kept driving, stopping only for gas and to use the bathroom, until I reached Albuquerque, NM. I had driven just over 1000 miles that day, spent over 15 hours in the car, and stayed at a Motel 6. The bed felt great.

November 4

Started driving at 7:30, and kept at it until I reached Petrified Forest National Park. I stopped in and got an Annual Pass, which I hope I’ll put to good use, then went into the Park. This place is very cool! I just did a few of the pullouts and one short hike, but I was struck by the color and otherworldliness of the rock here. Apparently you can backcountry camp without a permit here, which seems crazy but might be a fun thing to do in the early fall or late spring. Can’t imagine this is much fun in the heat of summer. After spending 2 hours there I kept driving until I hit Flagstaff around 3pm. At this point I decided to take highway 89 instead of 180 to drive into the park. This meant I entered through the eastern Desert View entrance instead of the more popular southern entrance. If I had gotten there earlier in the day, that would have been a great way to avoid crowds. As it was, I just had to set up my tent in the dark. I got a spot at Mather Campground and went to bed, leaving the rain fly off the tent for a better view of the stars. I walked over to the El Tovar hotel for cell service, called my parents and had a beer. Temperatures were in the 20s, and the night sky was incredible when I went to bed.

November 5

This was my first full day in the park. I got a backcountry permit for two nights in the backcountry, one at Bright Angel campground at the bottom of the Canyon, the other at Indian Gardens campground about halfway up. The plan is to hike down the South Kaibab trail in one day, hike up to Indian Garden the next via the Bright Angel trail, then all the way out the third day. Bright Angel trail is less steep and a lot longer than the South Kaibab, so I think it will be a good way to see a lot of the Canyon in just a few days. I’m going to bring six liters of water, which is what the National Park service recommends. Seems excessive, but this time of year there is only water at the bottom of the canyon and at Indian Gardens, so better to have too much than too little. After getting my permit, I took the shuttle around a bit to check out the different areas, hiked along the rim some and just visited all the different buildings and exhibits.

November 6

Woke up to see the sunrise and used my car to charge up my phone. I’ll be taking just my phone for photos for the next three days so I wanted to start with a full charge. I picked up a battery backup at the supermarket in the canyon but I don’t know how effective it will be.

I parked at the backcountry office and took the hiker express shuttle to the south Kaibab trailhead. Spectacular views on the way down. I started hiking at 9:30 and was finished by 1:30. Ask you descend, the views change. Instead of looking down into the canyon, you begin to look across it, then up out of it. The trail is very steep but not very busy. After the first mile or so most of the day hikers have turned back and the trail becomes a lot less crowded. I saw maybe a dozen people once the crowds thinned out. I also passed 3 mule trains, which weren’t as much of a hassle as I thought they would be.

After hiking all the way to the bottom of the Canyon, I have a much better understanding of its incredible size, but interestingly the Bright Angel campground still seems intimate. This is because the last bit of descent is very steep with near vertical walls, so the actual area at the bottom seems like a much smaller canyon. You can’t even see the larger surrounding canyon walls because of how steep the inner canyon walls are. I talked to the ranger at Bright Angel camp and found out I was put down for two nights here. I’m concerned because this means about double the hiking distance to get out, but the ranger said two nights down here is a better way to go. I’ll have all day tomorrow to do day hikes. I got information about Ribbon Falls, which is six miles one way up the North Kaibab trail. I plan to do that tomorrow then check if there are any vacancies at Indian Gardens. If there are, I’ll hike up to there. If not, oh well.

My calves hurt, and I’ve got tender spots on my hips and shoulders from my pack. I definitely overpacked on water, I only drank 1.5 liters heading down. I also have a heavier pack than I would have liked because I only have a two person tent, and a backpack meant for a weeklong trip. I decided to bring an Esbit stove, instead of an isobutane gas one, but other than that I didn’t make much effort to save weight.

I tried to call home from one of the pay phones at Phantom Ranch. It was credit card only, and the two cards I tried were declined. Not sure whats going on there, but I’ll have to figure that out once I’m up at the rim again. I had a beer at Phantom Ranch, but I couldn’t buy anything else because their credit card connection was temporarily out and I didn’t have enough cash. I would have gotten a t-shirt if I could have.

I attended a talk about the history of navigating the Grand Canyon. It was very interesting. There was another at 7 regarding Geology, but it was canceled when an audience member fainted. He seemed okay after a few minutes, but the rangers wanted to keep an eye on him. This backcountry campsite is pretty plush, with flush toilets, fresh water spigots. In fact, other than remoteness and no working phones, its very similar to front country sites. I can’t have a fire though, so there’s that. I had freeze dried chili mac and beef for dinner and turned in early. Big morning tomorrow. Ribbon falls is six miles away, but it looks relatively flat. The Bright Angel creek runs along the campground, so I’ll hear the water as I go to sleep. I’m not going to bother with an alarm, I’ve been waking up before dawn since I got here. The plan is to set out at first light.

November 7

Woke up very early, and my legs are killing me. Once I got moving they started to hurt less, but starting out was pretty brutal. I hit the trail at 6:30, before the sun was up. Cold morning, but I was moving and had a long sleeve shirt on, so it wasn’t too bad. This hike was really fantastic, climbing out of the inner canyon and almost as far as Cottonwood Camp. I saw a group of mule deer grazing in one of the riparian areas along a stream, and views of the inner canyon were really incredible. I hiked in the shade the whole time. Sunrise was at 6:55, but the Canyon is so deep the sun doesn’t directly reach down into it until much closer to noon.

Rainbow Falls was incredible. A thin stream of water drops a long way down onto a large flat rock, which is covered in moss from the splashing water. I stayed for over half an hour, taking photos and looking around. On my way back I was now sometimes in sun, but still not all the time. I got back to camp around noon and checked at the ranger station to see about an Indian Garden campsite. No one was there. I poked around Phantom Ranch a bit and checked again an hour and a half later. Still nobody. By now it would have been too late to start anyway, so I did two other day hikes whose descriptions I found at the ranger station. The first was to Phantom Overlook, and had great views of the Colorado River and surrounding canyons. It was three miles, very steep and rocky. The second was only a mile long, and was called the River Loop. It is a simple hike, but was a good short trip to get in right before it got dark. There are two bridges at the bottom of the canyon, and this hike crosses the larger one first, works its way back along the steep inner gorge wall back to the smaller one, then crosses back into camp. I got back as it was getting dark, fixed another freeze dried dinner and went to bed. Tomorrow I hike out.

November 8

Woke up early, broke camp, and ate a Mountain house dinner for breakfast. Hit the trail well before the sun was up, and hiked for quite a while by moonlight with my headlamp. Passed Pipe Creek while it was still dark and then really began ascending the inner gorge. Passed three trail runners headed down. I could see them from a long way off from their headlamps, and eventually we passed each other. Got to Indian Garden campground around 7:30, stopped to refill water and socialized a bit. The campground looks nice, but I’m starting to agree with the ranger that Bright Angel is a better place to spend two nights. After poking around for about 45 minutes I started up again. About a mile and a half later I was at the 3 mile rest house. Three miles from the top. Good views and a decent crowd of people there. After this the trail got much more crowded, as the 3 and 1.5 mile rest houses are popular turning back points from the rim. Lots of switchbacks, lots of good views too. At mile and a half rest house I stopped again. Because its November, there is no water at these places, but they are still good spots to stop and take a break. Obviously going up is much slower than going down, and I wanted to savor the last bits of backpacking here. I reached the rim at 1:30. Wandered around Grand Canyon village a bit, made camp at Mather, and called my folks to let them know I made it.

Thoughts

Good trip! I know its sort of the basic ‘everybody does it’ backpacking trip in the Grand Canyon, but I think it was worth it and a very good introduction to the Canyon. I think if I have the opportunity, I’d like to try hiking from the North Rim to the South Rim, but logistically this could be a problem. Its a 200 mile drive from south to north rim, so I would need some sort of shuttle or other plan to make it work. Another option is to hike the Tonto trail across, never going all the way down into the canyon, and staying in the Tonto formation the whole time. This would be considerably longer, harder, and less supported by water access, so it would be something I would only consider once I’ve gotten some more experience.

I’ve decided I should create a website to organize and categorize my backpacking trips. My intention is collect trip information, photographs, and gear information, primarily for my own reference.