Day Hikes

Bright Angel or South Kaibab -- Which to Choose?--The South Kaibab Trail is steeper and shorter than the Bright Angel Trail. And while the Bright Angel offers ample shade and water, the South Kaibab has no water and little shade. Strong backpackers planning to do a loop hike to Phantom Ranch may choose to descend the South Kaibab Trail and climb out on the easier Bright Angel Trail. To break up the hike, spend 1 night at Bright Angel Campground and 1 at Indian Garden. Do not attempt to do both in 1 day.

Bright Angel Trail

Highlights: Long stretches near lush, cool creek beds. Drawbacks: During high season, you'll pass hundreds of hikers and a few mules. Difficulty: Water sources, ample shade, and a wide, well-maintained surface; the most accommodating trail into the canyon from the South Rim.

Both Native Americans and early settlers recognized this as a choice location for a trail into the canyon. First, there's an enormous fault line, along which so much erosion has taken place that even the usually sheer Redwall Limestone holds vegetation. Then there's the water -- more of it than anywhere else on the South Rim. The springs at Indian Garden supplied Grand Canyon Village as late as 1970.

For centuries, the Havasupai used this trail to descend from the rim, where they hunted in winter, to Indian Garden, where they farmed year-round. This went on until the 1920s when the Park Service expelled the remaining tribe members. Although most of the Havasupai now live on a reservation in the central canyon, a few of their pictographs (rock paintings made with mineral dyes) remain along the trail. Some are high on the rocks just past the first tunnel; others can be seen on a sandstone overhang above Two-Mile Corner, the first switchback below Mile-and-a-Half Rest House.

When Pete Berry, Niles Cameron, and Ralph Cameron prospected for minerals here in the late 1800s, they improved the trail to the point where most people could hike it. As more visitors came to the canyon, Ralph Cameron realized that the trail might be more lucrative than gold. He bought out his partners, then used mining law to take control of the land near and below Grand Canyon Village. Although the Santa Fe Railroad challenged his authority in the early 1900s, it wasn't until the 1920s that Cameron lost the trail. By then he had charged countless hikers a $1 fee to descend it.

If Cameron earned a dollar for every hiker on this trail today, he'd be doing just fine. More than 500,000 people hike on the Grand Canyon's three corridor trails (South and North Kaibab, and Bright Angel) every year, and the Bright Angel is the most popular. It's a freeway: wide, dusty, relatively gradual, with some occasional mule manure thrown in.

On a day hike, walk down to Mile-and-a-Half House or Three-Mile House, each of which has shade, an emergency phone, and seasonal drinking water. Or continue down to the picnic area near the spring at Indian Garden, with lush vegetation and large cottonwood trees providing shade.

Watch the layers on this trail as you descend. As you move from the Kaibab Formation to the Toroweap Formation, the wall on your left gradually turns from cream-colored to pinkish-white. After the second tunnel you'll start down through the steep buff-colored cliffs that form the Coconino Sandstone. As you do, compare the elevations of the cliffs on either side of the fault. The ones to the west have been offset and are 189 feet higher. At the bottom of the Coconino Sandstone, the Hermit Shale, deep red in color, is visibly eroding out from under the harder cliffs above it. This weakens the cliffs, which then break off along joints.

After dropping through the Supai Group and Redwall layers, the trail begins its long, direct descent to Indian Garden. As you near Indian Garden, you'll begin to see species found near water, including willow, mesquite, catclaw acacia, and even Arizona grape, a native species that produces tart but edible grapes. In spring, the purple blooms on the redbud are bright enough to be seen from the rim. Fit, well-prepared day hikers may wish to hike an additional 1.5 miles past Indian Garden on the Tonto and Plateau Point trails. The Plateau Point Trail eventually crosses the Tonto Platform to an overlook of the Colorado River, 1,300 feet below.

Below Indian Garden, the Bright Angel Trail follows Garden Creek down a narrow canyon in the Tapeats Sandstone. After leaving the Garden Creek drainage, the trail descends through much of the Vishnu Formation in a series of switchbacks known as the Devil's Corkscrew. It then follows Pipe Creek to the Colorado River and the junction with the River Trail. There you'll find a small rest house with an emergency phone and pit toilet -- but no pretreated drinking water. After skirting the river for 1.7 miles on the River Trail, you'll reach the Silver Suspension Bridge. When you cross it, you'll be near Bright Angel Campground.

Round-trip length of the trail is 19 miles; 4.6 miles to Indian Garden; 7.8 miles to Colorado River; 9.3 miles to Bright Angel Campground. Access: Trail head is just west of Kolb Studio, near Grand Canyon Village. Water sources at Mile-and-a-Half Rest House (seasonal), Three-Mile Rest House (seasonal), Indian Garden, Colorado River, Bright Angel Campground. Maps: Grand Canyon (7.5 min.), Phantom Ranch (7.5 min.). Parking can be found 1.2 miles of the trail head in parking lots D and E.

South Kaibab Trail

Highlights: Panoramic views for much of the distance from the rim to the river. Drawbacks: Mule traffic and its byproducts. Difficulty: You won't find water, abundant shade, or shelter; more dangerous than the Bright Angel -- and steeper. This trail is very strenuous.

The South Kaibab Trail was the Park Service's way of bypassing Ralph Cameron, who controlled the Bright Angel Trail in the early 1900s. Cameron used mining law to lay claim to the land around the Bright Angel Trail and charged $1 to every person descending it. Later, as a senator, he pushed to deny funding for the Park Service. In 1924, exasperated by Cameron's maneuverings, the Park Service began to build the South Kaibab Trail, which, like the Bright Angel Trail, linked Grand Canyon Village with the Colorado River and Phantom Ranch. Unlike the Bright Angel Trail, which follows natural routes into the canyon, this one was built using dynamite and hard labor.

The South Kaibab Trail begins by making a series of switchbacks through the upper rock layers. As you descend the Kaibab Formation, you will see a few Douglas firs, remnants of the last ice age (and part of a microclimate protected by shade). After that ice age ended 10,000 years ago, the firs retreated off the South Rim, clinging only to a few due-north slopes where they received almost no direct sunlight. As the trail descends the Coconino Sandstone, watch for evidence of cross-bedding -- diagonal lines formed by windblown sand in an ancient desert.

Below the Coconino, the trail descends onto Cedar Ridge, a platform that has pit toilets and a hitching post for mules. This is an excellent place for day hikers to picnic and rest before hiking the 1.5 miles back out. Continuing northward down the ridge, it then reaches a saddle underneath O'Neill Butte, with views 1,000 feet down to the Tonto Platform on either side. The trail then rounds the east flank of the butte, eventually reaching another saddle. It descends in steep switchbacks through the Redwall, then slices downhill across the Tonto Platform toward the Inner Gorge. From the Tonto Platform, make sure to glance back at the natural rock bridge in the cliffs. At the tip-off, where the trail begins its drop into the Inner Gorge, an emergency telephone and toilet are available.

As you begin your descent of the Tapeats Sandstone, you'll see the Colorado River between the dark, sheer walls of the Inner Gorge. The pink in the otherwise black walls is Zoroaster Granite, formed 1.2 billion years ago when molten rock was squeezed into fissures in the Vishnu Schist. From here it's an hour's walk to the Kaibab Suspension Bridge and Bright Angel Campground.

Note: This is a good second hike to take after you've tried Bright Angel Trail and know your abilities. From March through November, you cannot drive to the South Kaibab trail head. The park's free shuttle service begins ferrying hikers to the trail head at least 1 hour before sunrise every morning.

6.7 miles to Colorado River; 6.8 miles to Bright Angel Campground. Hiking time 3-4 hr. down, and 6-8 hr. up. Do not attempt round-trip in 1 day. Access: Trail head near Yaki Point (Hwy. 64, E. Rim Dr., 5 miles east of Grand Canyon Village). Water sources at top of trail head, Colorado River and Bright Angel Campground. Maps: Phantom Ranch (7.5 min.) quadrangle.