Grand Canyon trip - looking for advice

[DougPaul]

. with consideration for approaching Indian Garden via South Kaibab Trail and a primitive/unmaintained trail shown on my Nat'l Geographic map running roughly from The Tipoff. Time on that tableland would seem fun,

I did that as a solo day hike in March 1999: down S Kaibab Tr, Tonto Tr to Indian Gardens, (side trip out to Plateau Point and back), and up Bright Angel Tr. ~18mi, IIRC. I waited at Indian Gardens until mid-afternoon so I could do the climb out (mostly) in the shade.

Water is available at Indian Gardens and may also be available at one or two points above.

BTW 1: that "primitive/unmaintained trail" (the Tonto Tr) runs pretty much the length of the Tonto Plateau (3Kft below the S Rim).

BTW 2: some people prefer to ascend S Kaibab Tr rather than Bright Angel Tr because it follows a ridge top and may have some breeze. However, there is no water. In contrast, Bright Angel Tr is deep in a valley (less breeze) but has water.

[Potentially] amusing anecdote: I fell in the mud while crossing Burro Spring on the Tonto Tr due to a rolling rock underfoot. Fortunately it was only an inch or two deep. Fifteen minutes later, the mud had dried to dust and blown away. Only in the desert...

Doug

 

[max]

Sorry for jumping in a bit late, I haven't checked in here in months.

There is a shuttle service that runs between the south rim and north rim, daily. The road mile distance between the two is around 250 miles. Here is a link below to the shuttle service. The negative side of the shuttle is that it arrives at the north rim in the late afternoon, so you also need some sort of lodging arrangement for the night if your plan is to start hiking down the North Kaibab in the morning. Hiking down to Phantom in 1 day is a piece of cake for someone in good New England hiking shape. The lower 60% of the trail is flat-ish and you can make good time, like 2.5 - 3 mph hiking speed if you have light packs. There is good water on the way down at several spots.

http://www.trans-canyonshuttle.com/


As far as Phantom Ranch goes, they regularly have cancellations and it's worth the effort to keep calling to see if they have open spots. Of course, this often means making travel arrangements at the last minute, so it's probably more appropriate for those of us that live out here (I'm 2 hours south of Grand Canyon). Arrangements for any camping spots in the canyon are always a bit easier if you can avoid the weekend.

A good multi-day camping trip (tenting) is to head down Hermit Trail, with a plan to camp the first night at Monument Creek. First day is 10 miles. Water available a few miles down at Santa Maria Spring (filter required) and again at Monument Creek (filter). Bring ear plugs for sleeping as often times the frogs will keep you up all night at Monument! Second day you can hike from Monument to Indian Garden. Avoid the water at Horn Creek along the way as it's contaminated with uranium deposits from the mines above. For that reason it also makes a poor choice for camping unless you're "water sufficient." Third day you can hike to the bottom and stay at Bright Angel campground. This is the shortest day and gives you lots of exploration time, to the first part and back on Clear Creek trail, or do some off trail scrambling around the Phantom area. A good side trip for this is wading up Phantom Creek, about 3/4 mile north of Phantom ranch. Bring something like Tevas to wade in. Hiking poles will come in handy for the wade across Bright Angel creek. On day 4 hike out via Bright Angel (plenty of reliable water) or via South Kaibab (no water after leaving Phantom).

Take care if you hike off trail in the Spring as that is rattlesnake season when they are most active. It's less of a problem in September and October. And you won't see them high up either. I've never seen one much nearer the rim than Indian Garden which is at 3760 feet elevation.