Grand Canyon Rim to Rim 2010

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We like to hike, it's kind of what we do for giggles. So when friend and co-worker Mary mentioned that she and a posse of her friends from Arizona were going to do a rim-to-rim day-hike at the Grand Canyon, we perked right up. Haven't done THAT before. It sounded like a lovely way to see if we still have what it takes to go 24 miles across one of the world's more impressive ditches. I mean, we didn't have anything else going on this weekend, so why not?

We left Dolores by about noon on Friday, our chauffer Mike whisking us 5 hours up to Jacob Lake where little cabins awaited us. We threw our bags in the door and hopped back in the car for another 50 minutes to catch the sunset at the North Rim as we were not going to be seeing much of the view at the start of the hike the next day. We were hoping to grab dinner there at the lodge but it was PACKED - this is, not surprisingly, a very popular time to visit the canyon. The north rim facilities are about to close in anticipation of snows that ultimately shut down the road that provides access and the fall air makes it deliciously perfect to be in the tall pines.

Back down to Jacob Lake we drove and grabbed dinner there at the Inn. Slept hardly at all that night which didn't matter much as we had to be up again at 4am to leave for the trailhead at 4:30am. It was impressive to see all 10 hikers and two drivers ready to roll and wheels-up at the planned departure time. Group dynamics don't often lend themselves to such efficiency but these people were ON it.

24 degrees didn't feel too terrible. We were dressed for it and anticipated that an inversion would sink the cold air into the canyon for quite a bit of the early morning. THAT turned out to be wrong and we were shedding layers almost immediately after dipping off the rim. Hiking with a headlamp for the first half hour was surreal, especially as the faintest light of day started to reveal the canyon walls. The light came up quickly and we floated along grinning ear to ear at being in such a beautiful place with a whole day of fun to look forward to.

Almost immediately we started getting passed by people coming up behind us. Old people, young people. At one point what looked to be a 70-year-old rather paunchy gentleman passed us fast enough that a small Doppler affect occurred. We were hiking about as fast as we could go (and jeepers, it's not like we're SLOW) and getting passed like we were a 4-cylinder VW van going up Red Mountain Pass. People were hauling ASS coming down the hill, lots of folks obviously (?) also heading for the south rim, many only carrying a couple of water bottles and the tiniest of packs. More and more people flew by us as the day went on until at one point we started to develop a serious complex. THEN the ultra-marathoner types starting whizzing by us going in the opposite direction, having started that morning on the south side; they were already coming up the north and were probably all rim-to-rim-to-rimmers. For a while it felt like the trail was a superhighway and we were the slowest thing on it. We even started flinching every time we stopped to take a picture for fear that we'd be run over. I kept wondering what the Bright Angel trail was going to look like if the North Kaibab was this busy.

It was all ok though. Suffice it to say that we simply aren't used to seeing anyone on the trails we hike and had to get used to what seemed to be a sea of extremely fit humanity all of whom decided to have the same adventure on the same day. It was a good sort of craziness.

The trail stays in the shade almost the entire way down the North Kaibab, a soft breeze was blowing and the trail, the TRAIL my goodness, could there be a more lovely, perfectly engineered trail in the world? Graded for mule travel and in many places, blasted out of what is otherwise a sheer rock face, the trail had us in awe for 24 miles. Someone (in the 1900s the Grand Canyon Transportation Company and later in the 20s the CCC) put a lot of blood, sweat and tears into making it what it is today. We could not appreciate more what building and maintaining that trail must have been/be like and send a big shout-out to everyone in the NPS still involved.

The pictures will have to paint the picture of what it all looked like as words can't do it justice (at least the words that I can come up with) but as you descend through the layers of time, water starts magically appearing, shooting straight out the side of the cliff, forming Bright Angel creek. From that point there is running water all the way down to the Colorado and what appears from the top to be a desiccated, barren landscape in reality comes alive in a sea of lush green vegetation in the drainage bottoms. Century plants line the dry hillsides with their fantastic final salutes to life, cottonwoods pop out of nowhere, waterfalls large and small throw their charisma into the mix...it was just such a hoot to hike on a trail I'd never seen before.

As you approach Phantom Ranch the canyon tightens into a beautiful gauntlet of high black walls reflecting the red glow of the rock above. Phantom Ranch itself is a collection of stone and timber buildings designed by Mary Colter and built to stand the test of time. It's a tiny town consisting of employee housing, guest cabins and a main lodge/canteen that has welcomed guests since the early 1900s. We paused here under the shade of the cottonwoods with about 30 fellow hikers to eat a quick lunch and rest our feet before heading into the real work of the day, climbing the last 10 miles OUT of the canyon. From the ranch you wander through the green flats till you're met with the roar of the Colorado and the beautiful expanse of the Silver Bridge. The river was a lot muddier than we had expected as the water coming out from the bottom of Lake Powell is cold and clear and the tributaries feeding in from below the dam we wouldn't expect to be running too hard...regardless of what WE thought it should look like, there it was in all its chocolatey glory. Pretty cool to take a moment on the bridge and contemplate Powell and his men coming around every new bend without any real idea as to what lay ahead. Those were unbelievably brave folks.

Anyway, we started the trek out of the canyon by about noon, the temps staying tolerable considering that until about a week ago it was reaching 100+ degrees at the bottom. We guessed that it was about 80-85 and while a huge swing from the 24 degrees of the morning, all very tolerable. The ascent is as lovely as the descent, a very scenic stair-master. Surprisingly the traffic on the trail all but disappeared and for a few miles we felt like we had the canyon to ourselves. Up and up we climbed till we hit Indian Gardens, a popular day-hike destination for many south-rim hikers. After a short rest here (one gets afraid to sit for too long lest the legs start believing they're done for the day) we continued to push on, glancing up once in a while to remind ourselves how much lay ahead in order to get to dinner at 7:30.

With 20 miles down and the 4 most difficult miles to go my afterburners kicked on and I felt unstoppable, riding high on a day-long love affair with the whole experience. Apparently uphill is our forte as suddenly we were in the passing lane. I have to say that trail etiquette changed wildly from the north side to the south - those folks encountered just below the south rim were really loathe to yield any space on the trail. But that's ok, we maneuvered through the increasingly coiffed and nice-smelling crowds up to the last mile.

The last mile.

Something changes in that endless last mile. I think it gets a little tiltier. Or maybe I just started running out of gas. In a panic I snarfed down some energy gummy things, sucked down a bunch of water and dug deep to find my game face. But before I had time to worry that I'd drop dead on the trail, there was Kolb studio and the finish line. Yeehaw! Just over 10 hours of hiking and we were back on top, just minutes away from the hottest, most lovely shower ever in our Bright Angel lodge retreat. Mary was not far behind and before long we were sipping some of the world's finest tequila while catching a few minutes of college football. Then off to a lovely dinner at el Tovar with Mike and Mary and out cold by 9:30.

6000 feet down, 4800 feet up, 24 miles covered in 10 hours, 20 minutes.
One. Of. The. Best. Days. EVER.

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Comments

[Popper]

Thanks for letting me accompany you on your fantastic hike across Grand Canyon. Your comments at each stage were intriguing. Almost as if I was there with you.The photos are great too. Thanks for including me on your adventure. Popper

[cabochick]

Nice pics!
Wow! Drop dead gorge-ous scenery! Love it! [photo=5533416]

[Judy]

What a great experience you had! I loved reading about your rim to rim hike and your photos are great! Together they tell a fantastic story. We just returned from the Grand Canyon, Zion and Bryce.... The Southwest is an awesome section of our country where nature has created the most beautiful formations with rock. I could go back tomorrow and still feel the goosebumps on seeing these beautiful places. Thanks again for your wonderful post.