Solo Backpacking Grand Canyon Rim-to-Rim-to-Rim: Day 0

On December 1, 2021, I received my backcountry and campground permits to finally backpack across the Grand Canyon and back, May 14-19. I haven’t donned my day pack since my last trip up Blackett’s Ridge in February and I haven’t backpacked since last August, in Colorado’s Lost Creek Wilderness.  None-the-less, I am ready for this, and have been for several years. Got everything packed up and ready to go. The Grand Canyon Backcountry office recommends a backpack weighing only 15-20% of your body weight, but I would have to give up some major amenities were I to get my pack down to 27 pounds, so 40 pounds it is. 

I’ve wanted to backpack the Grand Canyon rim to rim to rim since my pal Ira and I spent a night on the canyon floor in 2018. Then we had small lumbar hiking packs, and stayed in a dormitory at Phantom Ranch. We didn’t need to carry much more than water and snacks as sleeping and eating arrangements were taken care of. 

I always regretted treating that first canyon trip just like any other day hike, keeping a torrid pace throughout, and making it more about the personal hiking challenge than about the beauty through which I hiked. It went by in a blur: three hours down the 7+ mile SouthKaibab Trail to the floor; four hours up the more grueling Bright Angel Trail, and over 9 miles back to the rim. Those stats might be impressive for old men, but we had really missed the point of hiking to the floor Grand Canyon (which fewer than two percent of visitors do): it is perhaps the only place on earth where you can come to gain an inkling of understanding about  geologic time, as well as an appreciation of the many transforming processes, still ongoing, that shape the incredibly diverse and stunning landscapes that make up the place. And to do that, you need to spend some time wandering around below the rim.

I was supposed to make this trip in 2020 when I first landed a backcountry permit, but then the NPS closed the park. Those of us who had permits were allowed to apply for new permits a month early (five weeks prior vs. four) within a two-year window, thus ensuring we got back in. This time I got the exact dates I wanted: May 14-19. Maybe I could avoid that breath-taking heat that sweeps the desert floor in the summer.

Permits are always hard to get, but especially for late May, as the North Rim opens May 15 and the weather becomes dangerously hot in June and thereafter. Typically only 10-15 percent of applicants get permits for late May; this year, it was half that as Bright Angel campground was limited to half capacity due to the overloading and impending rebuilding of the rickety old sewage system. So I was one of the lucky ~7% of applicants to get a permit.

I am also hiking this solo, as a way to become more intimate with this place that was, and is, considered sacred by the many people who have lived here: the Hualapai, Havasupai, the Paiutes, the Navaho (Diné), and the Hopi. Without a hiking partner, I will be able to focus on the stunning surroundings that drove me to hike this in the first place. This will be meditative, and I hope, cathartic.

Tomorrow I will walk over to the Backcountry Office and catch the 5am hikers’ bus to the South Kaibab trailhead. The Backcountry folks kindly posted the coming week’s weather. It’ll suddenly be 15° above normal mid-May temps—June weather, really. Did I mention my loathing of hot weather?

I checked in at the Backcountry Office after parking in Lot D, convenient to the hikers' trailhead shuttle, which I'll pick up tomorrow morning at the crack of Tony Orlando (5am). The office always posts the inner canyon's next four days' weather, so you can plan and possibly tweak your gear. This forecast is an uptick of 15º F from recent weather, and more typical of June scorchers. Looks like Bright Angel Campground will be over 100 degrees, so I might be spending a bit of time lolling in Bright Angel Creek.

 

Pictures from the Rim 

(taken today, May 13, a day prior to the hike)

The historic El Tovar Hotel where I am staying tonight. I also happened to make dinner reservations here, although vegetarian food is certainly not their speciality, based on pervious experiences.

View of the North Rim. I will climb up from Cottonwood Campground to the North Rim trail head and back on a day hike three days from now.

Bright Angel Canyon (containing Bright Angel Trail) which wriggles its way 18 miles across the Canyon and up to the North Rim.

A more direct view of Bright Angel Canyon as well as Plateau Point and Indian Garden Campground (center green patch of green), where I will spend my last night.

Books I read in preparation

Geology

My favorite of all the geology books I read, very concise and informative. Who knew the Canyon was dug out twice?! Available used.

Edition Description

Grand Canyon is one of Earth's most recognizable landscapes. Though scientists have studied the canyon for more than 150 years, a definitive answer as to how and when the canyon formed eludes them. The one thing they do agree on is that the canyon was carved by the erosive power of the Colorado river, but the river itself carried away the evidence of its earlier history. Carving Grand Canyon examines the many intriguing ideas and innovative theories that geologists have developed over time about the formation of the canyon. In the last seven years since the publication of the first edition of Carving Grand Canyon, new theories have been brought forth, and this second edition of the book captures these fresh ideas and examines them in the light of other theories. This story of a fascinating landscape is told in an engaging style that is inviting to casual readers interested in the mystery of Grand Canyon's formation. (200 pages)

This short book focuses on the geologic strata of the canyon. Available used.

Unofficial Blurb 

An Introduction to Grand Canyon Geology offers a new approach to the geologic study of the Grand Canyon with an emphasis on basic geologic principles including plate tectonics, structural features and what they tell us, and the role of erosion in creating landscape. Dozens of photographs enhance and elucidate the text. This book is perfect for both the Grand Canyon visitor and the geology enthusiast. This description may be from another edition of this product. (64 pages)

Beautiful book. Almost like an historic atlas of the Colorado Plateau, helping you to understand how the  geography and topography have changed over geologic time. Available Used.

Book Overview

Imagine seeing the varied landscapes of the earth as they used to look throughout hundreds of millions of years of earth history. Tropical seas lap on the shores of an Arizona beach. Immense sand dunes shift and swirl in Sahara-like deserts in Utah and New Mexico. Ancient rivers spill from a mountain range in Colorado that was a precursor to the modern Rockies. Such flights of geologic fancy are now tangible through the thought-provoking and beautiful paleogeographic maps, reminiscent of the maps in world atlases we all paged through as children, of Ancient Landscapes of the Colorado Plateau.Ron Blakey of Northern Arizona University is one of the world's foremost authorities on the geologic history of the Colorado Plateau. For more than fifteen years, he has meticulously created maps that show how numerous past landscapes gave rise to the region's stunning geologic formations. Ancient Landscapes of the Colorado Plateau is the first book to showcase Blakey's remarkable work. His maps are accompanied by text by Wayne Ranney, geologist and award-winning author of Carving Grand Canyon. Ranney takes readers on a fascinating tour of the many landscapes depicted in the maps, and Blakey and Ranney's fruitful collaboration brings the past alive like never before.Features: More than 70 state-of-the-art paleogeographic maps of the region and of the world, developed over many years of geologic research Detailed yet accessible text that covers the geology of the plateau in a way nongeologists can appreciate More than 100 full-color photographs, diagrams, and illustrations A detailed guide of where to go to see the spectacular rocks of the region. (176 pages)

Hiking

Good from a logistics standpoint. Available used.

Official Blurb

Discover the best of Grand Canyon in this award-winning, full-color travel guidebook . From hiking to river rafting, Grand Canyon National Park is filled with outdoor adventures. But without careful planning, a trip there can be overwhelming. Grand Canyon: The Complete Guide gives you everything you need to make the most of your time in the park. Whatever your interests -- hiking the Bright Angel Trail , riding mules to Phantom Ranch , watching sunset from Hopi Point , relaxing at a historic lodge -- this travel guidebook puts the best of Grand Canyon at your fingertips. Beautiful color photos showcase the park's best destinations. Fascinating chapters on Geology , History and Wildlife reveal the story behind the scenery. Detailed maps make travel planning easy. From the stunning waterfalls in Havasu Canyon to incredible day hikes on the North or South Rim , Grand Canyon: The Complete Guide is the only guide you'll need Winner: Benjamin Franklin Award (Best Full-Color Travel Guide) Winner: Independent Publisher Book Award (Best Travel Guide) (310 pages)

Nice little group of disparate Canyon accounts related by Seth Muller, himself a Canyon lover and aficionado. Available used.

Official Blurb

There's the Grand Canyon as seen from one of the rims. Spectacular. Awe-inspiring. Dramatic. And there's the Grand Canyon below the rims, a very different place steeped in wilderness, bus-sized boulders, tumbling streams, knee-shredding switchbacks, solitude, and the cataract-punctuated Colorado River. The trails in Grand Canyon National Park attract more than 80,000 permitted overnight backpackers annually, as well as an untold number of day hikers and mule riders. Join author Seth Muller on a grand adventure, searching for the Grand Canyon's soul along miles of canyon trails. Muller profiles rangers, artists, volunteers, hikers, ultra-marathoners, mule skinners, and others who regularly experience the inner canyon, presenting the Corridor Trails in intimate, creative prose that will carry the reader into the depths of the canyon and back out again. Whether you're an experienced rim-to-rimmer, an armchair hiker interested in one of the nation's great wilderness areas, or a dreamer with a bucket list planning to one day check off the Grand Canyon, you are likely to find the unique and compelling Canyon Crossing fascinating. (272 pages)

Excellent distillation of the major trails in the Grand Canyon and my first purchase at a Grand Canyon shop in 2017. Available Used.

Unofficial Blurb 

Whether you're going to the bottom of the canyon or strolling on the rim, you'll want this guide in hand. Official Guide to Hiking Grand Canyon provides profiles and maps of major trails, beautiful photographs, as well as current park regulations and permit procedures. This description may be from another edition of this product. (68 pages)