Hike Across Grand Canyon, Part 1

Last week I hiked across the Grand Canyon, from the North Rim to the South Rim.

Mark and I drove down Thursday afternoon. We arrived just before dark, here's what the canyon looked like:



Mark's brother, Paul, drove in from Phoenix and arrived around midnight. We awoke at 4:30, packed up and started down the trail at 5:30 am. Here's the view from the top of the North Kaibab trail:



A little ways down three runners flew past us. Later we learned they were attempting to beat the rim-to-rim record of 3 hours 6 minutes. One of the three was the current record holder. (A new record was set.)

After over an hour of hiking there was still plenty of canyon below us.


Here's Mark and Paul going through the Supai Tunnel.



The trail is fantastic as it makes an improbable route through cliff bands and a very rugged and steep canyon.



The first bridge we crossed - took us from the left to right side of Bright Angel Canyon.



Still going down.  The trail hugs the base of the cliffs on the right.



Like this:



After passing Roaring Springs the canyon becomes a desert.



Ribbon Falls is a short side spur from the main trail and well worth seeing.



The canyon is open for a few miles after Cottonwood camp site then it narrows and meanders for a few miles:



And finally opens up at Phantom Ranch. We stopped for about an hour here to eat lunch, drink lemonade and rest our feet. The bottoms of my feet were tender and it felt really good to have my shoes off.  Even though I dreaded putting my shoes back on, my feet felt much better as we got hiking again.

Yes, it was hot at Phantom Ranch. I'm glad it was a relatively cool day, it had been 120 just a few days before.



Next post I'll talk about the hike up and out.