Grand Canyon - Rim to Rim
- Thread starter jgolden
- Start date
Christophe Noel
Expedition Leader
Sure. What do you want to know? Are you thinking of a multi-day trip, or a bloody foot assault in one day. I've done it in one day. Not advised if it's your first trip to the canyon. It's a massive landscape.
Colorado David
Explorer
I hiked from the South Rim to the inner gorge and back out the same way the following day. Your muscles and joints get a thorough pounding on the way down. Then you hurt like bloody heck the next day on the way out. When we hiked out, my hiking partner and I were so tired and hungry that we went to eat in the nicest restaurant on the South Rim. I've forgotten the name of it. Our server came over to our table and asked if we knew who Alistair Cooke was (this was 1979 or so). We said yeah, sure we do. She said, well I don't, but he's right over there.
MoGas
Central Scrutinizer
Why only one day? There is so much to see.
I did a rim to rim hike a couple years ago that went like this:
Day 1, S. Kaibab Trail to Bright Angel Campground (Phantom Ranch).
Day 2, Still in Bright Angel Campground, did a nice day hike.
Day 3, Hike to Cottonwood Campground in early A.M. Drop gear at Cottonwood Campground, hike to Ribbon Falls, have lunch and hike back to Cottonwood Campground to set up for the night.
Day 4, Hike out the North Kaibab Trail.
On day 1, a buddy from work drove my car to the North rim and met us at Bright Angel Campground for the night. I had driven his car to the South rim.
We did this in October and there were no services open North of Bright Angel Campground. There was a water line break below Roaring Springs, so we had to carry a lot of extra water to Cottonwood Campground. We also purified some from Ribbon Falls to take back to camp with us and stay topped off.
We had heavy, cold rain on day 1, (Thank God for Gore-Tex) that cleared off by the time we got to camp, so we got to set up with no foul weather.
Day 2 was sunny and hot, shorts weather. We did a couple nice short day hikes not getting too far from Bright Angel Campground. Day 3 started out very brisk as it was ~4 in the morning when we packed up to depart and the weather was very pleasant throughout the day. Shorts in the afternoon. It got windy and cooler in the night and on day 4 we had rain until about Roaring Springs, then heavy snow the rest of the way to the North rim. The
North Rim was closed inbound at the time and we were beat, so we drove to the forest just outside the GCNP boundary and camped for the night instead of driving in the snow. We drove back to Flagstaff the next morning.
When I do it again, I will go North to South. The two main reasons are that the view will be different heading the opposite way, and the North Rim is ~1,000 feet higher than the South Rim and that makes a big difference on that last day.
There is a huge difference in hiking rim to rim in a day and really hiking the Grand Canyon. I would recommend the latter.
Dave
I did a rim to rim hike a couple years ago that went like this:
Day 1, S. Kaibab Trail to Bright Angel Campground (Phantom Ranch).
Day 2, Still in Bright Angel Campground, did a nice day hike.
Day 3, Hike to Cottonwood Campground in early A.M. Drop gear at Cottonwood Campground, hike to Ribbon Falls, have lunch and hike back to Cottonwood Campground to set up for the night.
Day 4, Hike out the North Kaibab Trail.
On day 1, a buddy from work drove my car to the North rim and met us at Bright Angel Campground for the night. I had driven his car to the South rim.
We did this in October and there were no services open North of Bright Angel Campground. There was a water line break below Roaring Springs, so we had to carry a lot of extra water to Cottonwood Campground. We also purified some from Ribbon Falls to take back to camp with us and stay topped off.
We had heavy, cold rain on day 1, (Thank God for Gore-Tex) that cleared off by the time we got to camp, so we got to set up with no foul weather.
Day 2 was sunny and hot, shorts weather. We did a couple nice short day hikes not getting too far from Bright Angel Campground. Day 3 started out very brisk as it was ~4 in the morning when we packed up to depart and the weather was very pleasant throughout the day. Shorts in the afternoon. It got windy and cooler in the night and on day 4 we had rain until about Roaring Springs, then heavy snow the rest of the way to the North rim. The
North Rim was closed inbound at the time and we were beat, so we drove to the forest just outside the GCNP boundary and camped for the night instead of driving in the snow. We drove back to Flagstaff the next morning.
When I do it again, I will go North to South. The two main reasons are that the view will be different heading the opposite way, and the North Rim is ~1,000 feet higher than the South Rim and that makes a big difference on that last day.
There is a huge difference in hiking rim to rim in a day and really hiking the Grand Canyon. I would recommend the latter.
Dave
MoGas
Central Scrutinizer
Another thing or three.
We were in excellent shape at the time. I was playing ice hockey 2 nights a week and coaching 2 other nights, the other guy also played hockey with me and coached 1 other night and has a pretty physical job in construction. I had also come off a strong Summer of hiking and mountain biking around our area, typically above 9500 ft. Even with the time we took, the weather pounded us mentally.
Dave
We were in excellent shape at the time. I was playing ice hockey 2 nights a week and coaching 2 other nights, the other guy also played hockey with me and coached 1 other night and has a pretty physical job in construction. I had also come off a strong Summer of hiking and mountain biking around our area, typically above 9500 ft. Even with the time we took, the weather pounded us mentally.
Dave
My bud and I did Bright Angel trail to the Colorado and back to the visitor station in 7.5 hours. We left at 10am
Logistics of the freakin' deal:
-We took a light camel pack (2 storage pockets - 1 big - 1 strech b/c you don't need anything else)... refueled water half way down and at the colorado on the way down and up. ( Iodine tablets and filtered the sediment out of ours shirts) ... freakin nasty
- snickers energy bars, trail mix, and some energy goo... very light weight and nutritious
- extra reserves on some food to carry in the pockets... wrappers go in the camel pack
- emergency bivy sack
- head lamp ( dual light (natural and led) with a extra change of batteries
- $10 walmart treking poles ( never broke!)
- alitimeter watch
- breathable clothes (only took what we had on our backs... due to the quick drying material)
- sun glasses
- 2 lbs of whoop MMMMM
- 3" blade knife
7.5 hours round trip.. we RAN DOWN
I had to save my buddy from heat stroke once down in the Devils Corkscrew and then towards the top his blood sugar went out and I had to run up and get a roll of oreo's from a tourist and ran it back to him
remember fast and light ethics!
it wasnt rim to rim... b/c we didn't have a car waiting on us on the other side
Logistics of the freakin' deal:
-We took a light camel pack (2 storage pockets - 1 big - 1 strech b/c you don't need anything else)... refueled water half way down and at the colorado on the way down and up. ( Iodine tablets and filtered the sediment out of ours shirts) ... freakin nasty
- snickers energy bars, trail mix, and some energy goo... very light weight and nutritious
- extra reserves on some food to carry in the pockets... wrappers go in the camel pack
- emergency bivy sack
- head lamp ( dual light (natural and led) with a extra change of batteries
- $10 walmart treking poles ( never broke!)
- alitimeter watch
- breathable clothes (only took what we had on our backs... due to the quick drying material)
- sun glasses
- 2 lbs of whoop MMMMM
- 3" blade knife
7.5 hours round trip.. we RAN DOWN
I had to save my buddy from heat stroke once down in the Devils Corkscrew and then towards the top his blood sugar went out and I had to run up and get a roll of oreo's from a tourist and ran it back to him
remember fast and light ethics!
it wasnt rim to rim... b/c we didn't have a car waiting on us on the other side