Fair 41° F

Home > Archive > Jul 19, 2007

A Grand Way to See the Canyon
By Sharon May
Managing Editor
There’s a reason it’s called the Grand Canyon.
One reason is its size – over 275 miles from Lee’s Ferry, near Page, to Lake Mead in Nevada, an average of 10 miles wide and about a mile deep. The canyon is also grandly beautiful and grand in its geologic scope – from 270-million-year-old Kaibab rim rock to polished Vishnu basement rock over 1,800 million years old. In between is an impressive display of colorful sandstone, limestone, shale, a stunning pink marble laced with quartz and basalt.
After all, millions of visitors to the Grand Canyon’s rim can’t be wrong. They gaze in awe at the crenulations, buttes, towers and layers sculpted by uplift and eroded by wind, weather and swirling waters.
I’ve been smitten, too. I’ve spent gazing time on north and south rims, and at overlooks from east to west.
But as grand as the view is from the top of the canyon, you have to get below the rim and spend time enfolded in the canyon’s walls to form a deep bond with the canyon and feel her essence.
But it’s a long, strenuous trek to the Colorado, bubbling and boiling and unfurling through the canyon bottom. On the south side, it’s about nine miles of grueling walking from the Bright Angel trailhead to Phantom Ranch, where a cool Phantom Creek, lodging, campsites, water and hearty food reward your persistence to get there.
Indian Garden is roughly half the distance, about 4.5 miles down the steep switchback trail. It offers an oasis of green, a running creek, inviting campsites and a place to rest and refill water bottles. But even half the distance, especially during summer temperatures, can be daunting. If you attempt it, take plenty of water and salty snacks – and ibuprofen if you’re hauling your weight on arthritic joints.
There are other ways of getting down inside the Grand Canyon, though.
Last summer, I spent two weeks rafting motor-less through the entire canyon, with a launch at Lee’s Ferry and an exit at Pierce Ferry. If the idea of Class Bonkers rapids doesn’t frighten you, rafting the Colorado is a rapturous way to really see the canyon. River guides (a hardy bunch, genetically half goats, I’m sure) lead rafters on two or three hikes daily, up lush side canyons spilling waterfalls gathered in deep pools beneath. You can spend almost as much time hiking as rafting, and after two weeks floating her green artery and climbing her rocky flanks, you become intimate with the canyon, her sights and sounds and smells.
This summer, answering the siren call of the canyon – maybe it was the canyon wren – I took advantage of four legs not my own to walk down into the canyon and revisit the grand matron.
Xanterra, the park’s concessioner, offers mule trips from both north and south rims. The north rim ride, however, doesn’t reach canyon bottom, and riders never glimpse the Colorado. Spectacular, nonetheless, of course, the north rim riders take the Kaibab Trail into Bright Angel Canyon and pass Roaring Springs, the source of culinary water for both sides of the canyon. The north rim is about 1,000 feet higher, cooler, and offers more pines to shade your ride.
But the south rim ride is my favorite. Views of the green ribbon of Colorado frothing through the canyon begin not long after you start down the Bright Angel Trail. The south rim mule rides offer a day ride that passes Indian Garden and continues to the promontory of plateau point overlooking the Colorado and back.
You can also opt for the grand mule ride – a ride to the bottom of the Bright Angel trail and across a suspension bridge to Phantom Ranch, named not for the ghosts of expired hikers but for Phantom Creek that runs beside the ranch and joins the Colorado. The approximately nine-mile ride takes until the early afternoon – lunch is a box of goodies packed on a mule. It feels like a long ride, and you’ll be exhausted by the time you hit the sandy portion along the river. You won’t want to take this ride if heights make you nervous – the trail switchbacks down a dizzying steepness, and the trail is barely wider than your mule, who seems to enjoy walking two inches from the edge. On tight turns, the mule’s front end swings over the precipice, with hundreds of feet of empty air between you and the next rock ledge down. The mules make this journey a few times a week, though, so you just have to trust it. One guide told riders at a particularly steep and gnarly turn, “Just do what the mules do and shut your eyes.” That kept my eyes open, and, I checked – so were the mules’.
Once at Phantom Ranch, you’re assigned one of the historic bungalows, which are now air-conditioned. But most riders stumble into the creek for immersion in the cool stream, where well-placed rocks nudge the water into waist-deep pools.
Rejuvenated, you’re called to dinner in the early evening, a sumptuous and tasty feast served at the canteen. One of the resident rangers usually leads afternoon and evening programs about the geology and human history of the canyon, its critters or its nightlife.
The next morning, riders wrestle their protesting knees and cabooses back into the saddle for a shorter but steeper – and waterless – ride up the hairpin Kaibab Trail. Plenty of breathing stops to rest the mules give guides the opportunity to answer questions and talk about the canyon and trails and allow riders to get photos.
The Grand Canyon is a marvelous host – colorful and impressive, full of stories and glories and defeats. Its quiet inner beauty is unsurpassed, and already, I’m scheming how to get back to her again.

For reservations or more information on the Grand Canyon Mule Trips, call Xanterra toll-free at (888) 297-2757 or visit www.grandcanyonlodges.com. Overnight hiking in Grand Canyon requires a backcountry permit ($15), usually reserved a few months in advance, although there is a daily waiting list. For information, write to Backcountry Information Center, P.O. Box 129, Grand Canyon, Ariz. 86023, or call (928) 638-7875.

---