[Day 4] Into Grand Canyon

My day in Grand Canyon. Where to begin…

Around 7am on this 20°F morning at the northern Grand Canyon boundary, I started my way into the park, hauling a frozen tent on my back. That may be one of the coldest sensations on the hands: folding, rolling, and packing the icy panels of a fabric tent.

After a few miles, I hit the high point of the AZT, about 9,150 feet above sea level. The trail peaks above 9,000 feet only a couple other instances — near Snowbowl outside of Flagstaff and at Miller Peak a touch north of the Mexican border.

I rolled through the relative flatness of the north portion of Grand Canyon National Park, en route to the ranger station at the north rim. After 13 miles, I made the ranger station and inquired about permits for camping in the canyon. Lucky for me, there was ample allotment for AZT hikers in site 33 at Bright Angel Campground. The only downside, though, was 14 miles of 7,000 feet of descent. Gravity was due to put a beating on my joints.

I took a lunch break at Coconino Lookout as I started down. I was in for a day of stellar scenery.

Not too far into my descent, a beautiful buck sent large rock debris tumbling down a ledge, landing on trail in front of me. Should I have been 15 seconds faster, I doubt my hike would be continuing. And, why is there a deer climbing the walls of the Grand Canyon? Isn’t that for bighorn sheep?

The descent from the north rim followed similar to an exponential decay curve, highly steep initially and nearly flat at the bottom over its distance to the Colorado River. A canyon routes down to Roaring Spring Creek, which merges up with Bright Angel Creek paving the way to the Colorado River. The canyon was filled with people, especially countless runners doing rim-to-rim attempts.

As my elevation dropped, the temperature grew higher. At Cottonwood Camp, some 21 miles in, a reliable thermometer read 93°F. Maybe I shouldn’t be so eager to get off the Colorado Plateau and into lower elevation Arizona.

The last few miles to Bright Angel were reminiscent of the low route on the middle fork of the Gila River — the Grand Canyon’s walls are far higher, but the Gila had more interesting spires and a more intimate canyon. By mile 29 (it was only supposed to be a 27 miles day), I slogged into Phantom Ranch, merely putting one wobbly leg in front of the other. At the ranch, I ate on a dinner of bagels, meat sticks, and lemonade from the snack stand.

Bright Angel Campground was another half mile down the way, so I fiddled my way there in the dark. After a lousy pitch of my tent, I called it. A good night of rest is in order for the climb up to the south rim tomorrow.

The stars are excellent tonight — if only my camera could capture the magic.

Signing off,

Zeppelin

“Freak on a Leash”