It's a Crash! Bang! Grand Canyon Thang!

“Dates are not 100% set in stone, more like 70-80%. No defineite itinerary yet, although I should have one soon, because I imagine I will have to request reservations very soon if I want to go in January. Would like to do a couple days on Bright Angel Trail, couple days deeper into the interior. All suggestions welcome.”

“U paying?”

“u selling?”

“Just my company. lol

I cannot afford a trip to AZ. But, I would LOVE to go. I've still never seen the GC and it's high on my list of things I want to see.”

“Hey, i'll keep this in mind, one of things i've always wanted to do and it might work out.

Not sure what the reservation deal is there.”

“i know you need to request a few months in advance, like now!”

“Oh man...I wanna go back there! South Kaibob is a good trail to descend ~ hang out in the interior for a couple of days and come back out Bright Angel. The Bright Angel Lodge on the South Rim is a cool (and relatively inexpensive) place to stay when you come out. No frills (no TV or phone) and very thin walls. :-\ They shuttle to South Kaibob as well so you can leave your car there if need be.”

“Hermit-Boucher-Tonto-Bright Angel is beautiful in January. I led a course there in 2001 and was amazed at the difference a season can make (not to mention getting off the corridor trails). Also, the helicopter traffic is significantly quieter in winter. I'll be out that way at the end of January, so if the trip is later in the month, I may be interested.”

“You can check out the trip I did at my website-

http://www.milemonster.net/grand_canyon_2003.html

Nice place, no matter where you go. Jan will be cold, though!”

“tell treebeard to send me for my 40th (its in Nov)”

“wow! are you really that old? i wouldve said 39 1/2, tops”

“tell treebeard to send me for my 40th - mapleleaf

LOL!”

“LOL


well more like 39 3/4”

“hmmm.....”

“day 1 indian garden campground or bright angel campground

day 2 bright angel campground or indian garden campground

days 3-5 tonto trail to hermit trail to the shuttle at western end of hermit road. campsites along the way: horn creek, salt creek, cedar spring, monument creek, granite rapids, hermit creek, hermit rapids”

“first couple of days are corridor campsites (less wild, more water) the last three are threshold campsites (a little more wild, less water). ive never been canyon hiking and im not a fan of or experienced hiking where water is at a premium, so i wanna ease myself into it. does anybody know the water sitch on tonto trail, generally? what can i expect in january?”

“Not much between Indian Garden and Monument. The water at Horn is no good- there's even a warning posted. We filled up at the river for this portion of the trip. I have a love/hate relationship with the MSR Drom bag. ;)”

“Hey C!B!
I did the reverse of you itenary in June.
There was water at Santa Maria Spring, Hermit Creek, Monument Creek, Cedar Spring, Salt Creek, (Horn Creek is Radioactive), Indian Garden, 3 Mile Rest House, 1.5 Mile Rest House.
The Hermit Trail is tough in spots because of the rock slides. Have a good time.

http://www.thebackpacker.com/trailtalk/thread/39008,-1.php
last edited: 8/27/05 10:38:17 AM”

“i like it rough

i just dont like it dry

(if thats not one for the out of context quotes, i dont know what is)”

“lol :)
Here are some pics of my trip.


http://community.webshots.com/album/380176310nrnESk”

“when is water availability the best?”

“After it rains.
;)”

“Really I don't think its going to be a problem in January. I had capacity for 1.5 gallons in June and never went dry. You can probably cut that amount to 1 gallon or less in January.
Unless you stay multiple days at Horn.”

“any other advice you (or anyone else) wanna chime in with in regards to canyon hiking would be great. im a fairly well experienced woods and mountains backpacker, notta lotta canyon hiking experience”

“Here are some links that I've found useful.
http://www.nps.gov/grca/grandcanyon/index.htm
http://www.hitthetrail.com/
http://www.grandcanyontreks.org/
http://www.rockhounds.com/grand_hikes/
http://www.grand-canyon.az.us/
http://grandcanyonhiker.com/
http://www.grandcanyonlodges.com/
Take crampons and poles for sure in January.
Hermit is gonna be a real test climbing out if there is ice or snow.”

“tanks, bruh”

“Crash - I may wanna get in on this trip w/ ya.

After being overcome by tourists at Teton & Yellowstone years ago, and even Glacier, I've vowed off visiting any major national parks. Since I've never made it to GC, I figured I never will. For some reason going in January never even crossed my mind.

I usta be on this site a lot years ago - not much now. I'll pop in to chat about this more, or throw me an e-mail if you wanna know things like 'have you ever killed anyone"...or other minor stuff like that.”

“Xmas Day, '02 we headed down the Kaibab(sheesh......kababi, lilmountaingirl!!!) Trail to Phantom Ranch Campground.
My knees were trashed!!
55 pounds was way too much!!

Day 2- We go ten miles to Clear Creek.......the end of the world!!

Three nights there and two days of exploring up and down Clear Creek.

There was a couple there for the first night and then just us and those weird critters that try to steal your food.

For any of you who work in education, that is a good time to visit the Grand Canyon.
Xmas break is 10-12 days for most and it's the ideal weather to visit there.
The only drawback is that the days are shortest.”

“Hey people, I'm new to the site, really like this trip/trail page. Tons of places I'd like to go just dont want to go alone, so this works well for me.
Grand Canyon in January sounds great, I'm in!
Never been to AZ so if there is info on where to fly into (from CA) and shuttles/Taxi's to the trailheads, please post em.”

“im moving the date back. probably going in march now.”

“tentative dates are now march 6-10”

“Are people planning to drive there or fly?”

“dont know yet.”

“And the trip report will be posted in .... 2007?

:-P”

“I am going to swim there.”

“anybody got an address for an online map of the grand canyon, or even just a section of it with campsites? i need the tonto and hermit trails, plus indian garden and bright angel campgrounds. im making reservations tuesday and i cant find my map”

“http://www.arizonahikingtrails.com/

http://www.hikearizona.com/”

“just tried faxing permit request. got a buncha busy signals... gonna try again in a little bit”

“does anybody know approximately how long it would take to take south kaibab trail to river trail to bright angel, and then to indian garden campground at the junction with tonto trail?”

“Crash,
I did the South Kaibab-Bright Angel loop in 2004. I stayed at Phantom Ranch overnight. It took me about 3 1/2 hours down the SK and about the same to Indian Gardens. So about 7 hours. I know you hike faster than me so you can probably cut some time off that. Great views on the SK. Now you got me thinking, I want to go back to the GC and do the North Kaibab.”

“i doubt i would be much faster, especially considering its downhill steep rocky terrain, and with my bad knee i would be forced to slow down considerably. thanks for the info”

“are the dates on this trip for sure?”

“ill know when i get confirmation from park service in a couple of weeks.”

“how much space did you reserve? room for me?”

“i told them 2 hikers are going, but i dont think there should be any problem adding a third. i dont know what the size limit is, but im sure its more than 3”

“i just looked it up. the limit for small group is 6. when i get my permit confirmation, ill find out the procedure for adding people. the cost for each person is 5 dollars per night, plus 10 dollar permit fee”

“itinerary:

from the south rim, hike north on bright angel trail, west on tonto trail, then south on hermit trail back up to south rim, followed by shuttle back to cars

campsites:

day 1 indian garden campground
day 2 salt creek campsite
day 3 granite rapids
day 4 hermit rapids
day 5 hike out”

“CB, that sounds like a killer (in a good way) trip! Darn you!! Have a good time!”

“im leaving in a few minutes to fax in the hiker information sheet and credit card number for payment. haspack, i hope you like the sound of running water, we're gonna be right next to the colorado river the last two nights. you might wanna bring earplugs.

incidentally, does anyone know of any reasonable shuttle services between the airport and the grand canyon? im not renting a car on top of airfare tickets. id sooner drive all the way out first.”