Grand Canyon Backpacking Trip

March 6th 2010

I have been to Grand Canyon many times, but I have never hiked at there even at once.
Debbie posted the Grand Canyon Backpacking trip on meetup and I jumped in. All the hikers are very experienced, but only Debbie and Patric had hiked Grand Canyon.
Friday Evening, we left Las Vegas and drive up to the South Rim. We camped at Mother Camp Ground. As we expected there were snow on the ground.
We woke up early to catch the shuttle bus. Unfortunately, Mark and Frenchy didn't make it and they caught another bus that came 1 hour after.
We hiked down South Kaibab Trail. About couple hundred yard from the top were covered with snow. It seemed little bit slippery, so I used Yaktrax and it really worked. The trail goes down on the ridge line and at some point the view was amazingly beautiful.
After 3.5 hours, we reached Colorado River. We crossed the river and went to Phantom Ranch for taking short lunch break. When we were taking a break, Mark and Frenchy shows up. After the break, we headed to Indian Garden Camp Ground where we camp that night.
We took Bright Angel Trail and when the trail goes up hill, Patric and Mark didn't slow down. Actually they speeded up to get to the campsite as early as possible. The campspot are first come first serve, and only a few campspot are big enough to cover all of us. I tried to keep up with them, but they were so fast and I couldn't. Probably, I was about 5-10 minutes after them when I reached campsite.
After we took the short break, 3 of us (Mark, David and I) went to Plateau Point that about half hour walk from campsite. Its a top of criff where we can look down the Colorado River. We went there to see sunset view, but unfortunately sky was covered with thick cloud and we couldn't see the Sunset. Instead we saw many sheeps.
We went to bed around 8PM. Everyone brought tent, but I didn't. I just brought tarp and sleeping bag. I could see beautiful sky when I fall asleep. But, only 1.5 hours later, rain started falling. So, I had to run into under the roof.
On Sunday morning, the rain has already stopped, but still cloudy and the trail was little muddy. Everyone hiked seperately with their own pace. I made it to the top little over 2 hours. Mark left campsite about 15 minutes after I left and he made it right after I got to the top.
After we stopped at Pizza place, we headed back to the Las Vegas. It was a great weekend.



Entire 3D trail map

Top of South Kaibab

Middle of South Kaibab

Bottom of South Kaibab

Phantom Ranch

Bottom of Bright Angel

Plateau Point

Camp site to the top


Elevation Chart

Click here to see 3D trail map on Google Earth




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