Saturday, 12th of April 2014 at 07:49:27 AMSince my first visit of the Grand Canyon I had dreamed of going down and see the Colorado river from close. But all signs and guides discouraged to do it in one day. Thus I had tried for several years to book a night at the Phantom Ranch down at the bottom of the canyon. Always without success. A alterntive approach was necessary.
Two major trails lead from the South Rim towards Phantom Ranch : Bright Angel trail a 17 km long trail and South Kaibab trail which is 10 km. The only Alternative left was to do the hike down and up in one day In Supai I met a guy who had done this before and told me some people do it starting at Kaibap trail (the one wothout water supply) and coming up Bright Angel trail, where there is usually water available at Indian Garden and the 3 and 1.5 Mile rest houses.
At 4:30 am I checked out at Maskwik Lodge and drove my Rental to Bright Angel Lodge, where I took a Taxi to the Kaibab Trail head. At 5 am I started in the dark with the headlamp and was reminded with the warning sign not to do it.
I had almost reached Skeleton Point some miles down when the sun rose.
I reached the Kaibab suspension Bridge at the bottom at 7:50 am
At 8 am I was at Phantom Ranch where I had a 30 min break,
Then the hard part began. Climbing up on Bright Angel trail to the Rim. First I crossed the Colorado over the Bright Angel Suspension Bridge and could take several photos on the trail which followed the river a while before ascending.
I arrived at Indian Garden at 11 am
I arrived at 2:10 pm at my Rental Car at the Bright Angel Lodge.
log of times:
5:00 am TH Kaibab (Rim)
7.45 am Kaibab Suspension Bridge
8:00 am Phntom Ranch (Bottom)
11:00 am Indian Garden
2:10 pm Bright Angel Lodge (Rim)
GPS track and height profile of the hike:
My next Base camp was the small village of Tuba City, AZ. A short 90 min drive from Grand Canyon, I was so saturated from Grand Canyon that I didn’t stop on any of the viewpoints. I had them visited in the years before.
Comments are closed