Grand Canyon N.P. AZ (GRCA)

 This was not our first time to the “Glorious Gulch,” but in many ways it effectively was. On that same 2016 trip I referenced in the last post, we stopped into this park for a day-visit, with only time to walk a short distance on the Rim Trail with our dog, Zuli, and take in some of the classic views from up top. We, especially me, do not like repeats, and we both don’t really care for the crowds at the most popular national parks, but we knew then we’d have to return someday for more in-depth exploring. Literally!

Huge pull-thru site #58

We had a couple camping locations in mind, originally thinking we would boondock on a local fire service road. We chose instead to stay at Ten-X, a USFS campground six miles outside the park’s south entrance. (Is that “Ten Ex” or “Ten-10” ?) It was still dry camping, but offered paved spots, restrooms if needed, drinking water, and dumpsters which kept us from having to haul our trash around hoping to find a place to offload it. Our site was huge, and we were able to position Essie to take full advantage of the sun for our solar panels. We only needed to fire up the generator once in seven days to top off the batteries. Otherwise, with propane fueling our stove, fridge, and heat, we had all the power we needed.

We walked the campground’s half-mile nature trail, and then drove into the park to try to catch a bit of sunset.

 

 TBG spotted these.

 

Bighorn ewe and lamb!

There were also several elk all over the place and it seemed like an equal number of visitors with their cars stopped along the roads to try to photograph them. Or chase them across the road into traffic while attempting to photograph them. It was not the last time during our stay that I wished I’d worn my NPS volunteer hat so I could yell at people.

For our first hike, we didn’t attempt anything very strenuous. We took advantage of the park’s extensive shuttle bus system and caught a ride out to the road’s west terminus, Hermit’s Rest.

 

Bus drivers also make good photographers!

From there, we walked the mostly flat and sometimes paved Rim Trail 7.8 miles back to the Village. The trail connects all the viewpoints along the south rim, and it is possible to catch a shuttle at each of them if you tire of walking.

Starting early, even on a weekend, meant having the trail mostly to ourselves for the first half.

During our first few days, smoke from a fire blazing on the north rim filled the canyon with haze, spoiling any really good pictures and probably our lungs. We encountered a ranger who was trying to radio-locate the park’s resident Condors, but he said that the particulates from the smoke had likely driven them out temporarily. Bummer!

Feeling sufficiently warmed up from our long walk, we headed out the next morning for a hike on the South Kaibab Trail. Private vehicles aren’t allowed to drive to the trailhead, so it required another shuttle ride. We got all settled on the first bus only to be told the water was off at the trailhead, so we un-bussed to fill our packs at one of the park’s convenient fill stations.

 

Signless trailhead? S’up wit dat?

 Hiking at the Grand Canyon is an opposite type of hiking than most others in that instead of hiking up to a viewpoint, you start at the viewpoint and head down. Straight down, mostly.

 

Like so.

 

.9 miles down at Ooh Aah Point

The smoke was still marring the views somewhat, but the temps were ideal with plenty of shade if we’d needed it.

 

But we never did.

 We had planned to do a six-mile round trip trek, but we weren’t sure about how we’d feel on the slog back up, so we halved that. After arriving back up top 10 minutes faster than we descended, we were a little disappointed to realize we probably could’ve handled the longer distance.

 

Table with a view, please.

 At 1.5 miles down, we reached Cedar Ridge where there were bathrooms and water.

 

We took a short spur out onto the point.

 

Where we swapped photographer duties with a nice fellow.

 

Our bus ride back, or more accurately our bus driver, was quite an experience. Dorothy H. ran a tight ship. As she approached out stop, she was yelling at us before her bus was even at the curb, waving her arm to tell us all to back up more. We weren’t even out of the parking lot, she was on her external loud speaker again, chastising a woman who was nearly nose-to-nose with an elk cow. “You’re too close! That’s bad for the animals! If you get kicked, you know whose fault it is!” At the first stop, she grilled a couple who’d been talking between themselves saying they didn’t want to add more miles to their hiking that day. “Why? Why do you want to go to the trail head then, if you don’t want to add more miles?” They were a bit flummoxed, as you can imagine. As we came up the road, there was a car trying to park at the end of a row where it shouldn’t be, and a man leaning into its driver window, his butt hanging into the road. Dorothy laid on the air horn. More than just a warning honk, Dorothy kept the blast going for an excessively long amount of time. Finally, she let up and was on her external mic apologizing to say the horn had stuck. We’ll never know for sure if it had or not, but the looks on the faces of those people were priceless. At the stop after that, she had no sooner rolled up to the sign and thrown open the doors before she was calling out to the people on the sidewalk, “Are you riding with us? Well, hurry up, I’m leaving!” Now, I can’t say everyone would agree that Dorothy H. was the best representative for the park, but as fledgling insiders, we adored her.

 

 The Autumnal Equinox brought an overcast morning during which we took a long walk around the campground before rain moved in. The forecast had predicted it, which was one of the reasons we’d chosen the following day for our big hike, hoping it would help with the north rim fire and clear the air for the next day. And it did!

On our way to the trail head, we encountered a couple with their binoculars trained across the canyon, and we knew.

Condor!

Although they are mostly black like the turkey vultures and ravens that soar alongside them, there is no mistaking their size when they are in the air with the others. Their white “arm pits” and their numbered wing tags (all condors are tagged) are the distinctive giveaways. At one time, there were only 22 of them left in the world, and now there are ~500. If you don’t know the story of America’s largest flying bird, it’s worth a look-up. We were able to enjoy this one for most of our first half-mile or so down.

Now that’s a trail sign!

This was to be the highlight hike of our stay, with a plan for nine miles. The news spread that all the water stations along the trail were working, so we dumped out some of ours from our packs to decrease the weight.

 

 A mule train had started down the trail not long after us, and the shouting interpretation of the guide shattered any hope of a peaceful descent. We were able to stay ahead of them all the way to the first rest stop, where thankfully, they moved on while we took a break.

 

The trail became a bit more steep between the first and second rest houses, appropriately named 1.5 Mile Resthouse and 3 Mile Resthouse.

 

Lots of tall erosion steps.

 

After another break, we continued on to our planned destination of Indian Garden, another 1.5 miles down.

Indian Garden was a much bigger, much greener rest area with several shelters, picnic tables, restrooms, and drinking water. We were feeling pretty good, so we decided to add another 1.5 miles out to Plateau Point to check out the view and get away from the small crowd at Indian Garden.

 

It seemed like a good idea at the time.

This better be good.

OK, that’s pretty good.

The large green stripe is, obviously, the Colorado River. The smaller green stripe to the right of it is the rest of the Bright Angel trail, which accesses the river.

 We had our lunch there where it was a bit more peaceful than Indian Garden. Then it was time to think about climbing back out.

We have to go back up that?!

“Why? It’s nice down here and climbing is stupid.”

The deer weren’t kidding. It wasn’t too bad at first, but somewhere between 3 Mile and 1.5 Mile Resthouse, it got very, very stupid, moreso for me. I had to stop way more than I’m used to for rest, snacks, and hydration. We met up with a nice fellow from Berlin and a lovely pair of hiking sisters, and we kept each other company for the final push. We arrived back at the rim exhausted and crusted with salt, and no wonder after a 12-mile 3000’+ trek done in almost equal parts up and down.

 We were zonked early that night, but that gave us the opportunity to be up with the sun. We filled our to-go mugs and headed into the park with hopes of espying the condor again. Unfortunately, we didn’t, but it was a fun morning just the same.

The area of the previous condor sighting, with Plateau Point on the right.

For our last day at the canyon we motored out to the eastern side of the park to the Desert View area. It’s a 22-mile drive (no shuttle buses run there) with several overlooks along the way.

Kitties?! I love kitties!

Grandview Overlook, the best views of the canyon, as the name implies.

The Mary Colter-designed Desert View Watchtower.

Colter also designed La Posada, the hotel we visited in Winslow, and just about every other famous building in the southwest. I’d tell you more about her, but I don’t feel like it, and this post is already long enough. But if you’re burning to know more LMGTFY

Beautiful weather, non-peak crowds, a peaceful campground, and very hard but rewarding hiking made our second visit to this geological wonder nearly idyllic.

Time for us to fly.

COMMENTS

Passport Overused Great post 😊

Chasing Dirt Thank you very much!

Ingrid If I were playing a trivia game, I would’ve been certain the Whooping Crane was the largest bird and of course been wrong. Thanks for taking us on the hike. That climb back up is brutal. Fun tidbit … there’s a lull in tourism at GC toward the end of August into September. that we love. We’ve boondocked several times just south of the Ten-X campground, once even over Labor Day Weekend, and it was never crowded. You chose a good time to visit!

Kim Klinke Thank you Joodie, as always, for keeping us aware of your location and sharing your adventures! Wow, having never seen or been overly enthused about seeing the Glorious Gulch, I now want to go. Well said, well sold. -Kim, TSIL (The Sister-In-Law)

chapter3travels Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful photos… especially the grand view one and the last one. The Grand Canyon never ceases to impress, even those of us who’ve seen lots of impressive stuff. Your campground find sounds terrific. While we’d need to run our generator, just having actual campsites and water so close to the GC sound fantastic. All in all, it looks like you visited at the perfect time with beautiful weather and minimal crowds, which is important for another reason: I can only imagine what Dorothy is like during high season. Yikes….

Chasing Dirt Grandview shouldn’t have been but was a surprise for us. We almost didn’t go to that side of the park, but we’re so glad we did. Those photos are to TBG’s credit.

We were very happy with the CG. Even though others had to run generators a bit more than us, the spacing was very good, and we were never disturbed by anyone’s noise at all. And it’s an easy, straight-shot drive right into the park. Great deal all the way around!

We were so worried about how busy the park might be, and although there were a few backups in a few places, we felt very lucky this time around. It’s never a not-busy place, but we somehow managed to hit it at a less-busy time.

Dorothy was a character, all right! We thought the same thing — how does she manage in July?! 😀

Pete You have outdone yourself with both the written word and the photography,
Thank You

Chasing Dirt You’re too kind, Pete 🙂 It was so hard to choose which, out of a zillion, photos to display. It is a place so full of beautiful scenery for sure.

Lowe's Travels Great captures of a great and incredible place!
And I like the photos of both of you, beautiful hikers 🙂
That huge trailhead sign was not there many moons ago, and we only hike just the first 1.5 and turn around. So kudos to both of you for making it that far. At first I thought you will be going all the way down and camped down in the canyon. From the looks of it, you had the perfect weather to be at Plateau Point!
And that pic showing the trail can actually be viewed from the North Rim on a clear day.

Chasing Dirt Thanks ML! Isn’t that trail sign a nice one? So much better than a lot of the signs all over the place. We were wishing we hadn’t gone quite so far in that last 1.5 miles — that was more miserable than we anticipated. Camping at the bottom? No way! I’m too spoiled for that 😀 It would be really cool to see that trail from the opposite rim!

Laurel Your photos of a very difficult to photograph place are fabulous!! You seriously managed to capture the grandeur and beauty of the Grand Canyon from every angle. Love the photos of you two happy hikers, and the shot of the mules going down the trail is very cool. Although I know from experience that hiking with those mules is not so cool. You are ‘almost’ making me want to return to hike the Bright Angel Trail again, but 25 years after my first experience, I’m still recovering, LOL!

Bus driver Dorothy sounds like a hoot! And by the way, I have an extra silver Junior Ranger badge that looks just like a sheriff’s badge that’s YOURS. You can wear it wherever you go and reprimand poorly behaved people anytime you want. That’s what I do. 😜

Chasing Dirt TBG gets (most) of the credit for the photos, except for the condor which was mine complete with the stupid smudge on the lens! But for something so far away, not too bad, eh? I just wish we could make out the number on the tag. Oh, those darn mules! Loud guides echoing through the canyon, tearing up the trails, pooping everywhere. I think you paid your lifetime dues on the Bright Angel trail! Ha, bus driver Dorothy was amazing, everyone ON the bus thought so, everyone outside the bus, not so much 😀 I can’t believe I didn’t swipe a Junior Ranger badge when I had the chance, but I will gladly accept your offer. I did yell at a gal who was holding her hand out to a plague-carrying squirrel LOL

heyduke50 we are just over n the other side of that little canyon from you… cool that you got to see a condor!

Chasing Dirt Well, shoot, we just missed ya!

Shannon We bow before your hiking superiority. Those are some seriously impressive hikes that you tackled! And you have incredible photos and memories to show for all that work. We only did the Rim Trail from Hermit’s Rest back to town though, in our defense, we did also get a foot of snow during our stay this spring and all trails into the canyon from the South Rim were iced over. I think fall is truly the best time of year to visit so many locations in the southwest, when trails are clear of ice, days are sunny, and temperatures are moderate. “Why can’t it be fall year round?” I wail inconsolably. 🙂

Chasing Dirt Oh, I dunno about superiority. Bright Angel kicked our asses! It is always a balance to decide which hikes to do while we’re in an area since we want to do the ‘signature’ stuff but can get whomped by it. Early- to mid-Autumn really is the country’s best time (usually) to travel. I wail along with you about why can’t it be so perfect everywhere always?