How to Hike the Grand Canyon | From an Average Hiker | Just the Essentials (South Rim)

look up to the Grand Canyon National Park and here's what we're gonna do we're gonna hide from the rim all the way down to the river and back up to the rim and I want to show you this hike from the perspective of an average guy average Commissioning average hiking skills average equipment and even above average age I'll be showing you everything you need to know to complete this hike so thanks for joining me and let's go so it is 4:45 we were up bright and early it is still dark the Sun hasn't come up yet we are on our way to catch the first shuttle to make our way to the South Kaibab trail head we are now in the shuttle the first shuttle leaves at 5 o'clock a.m. careful on your hike especially at night and you guys have a safe hike and I hope to see you guys when you come back out enjoy your day and we are officially off first few steps on a major hike I am so excited to be back at the Grand Canyon I was just telling a couple hikers I've been to so many national parks and seen so many beautiful places and maybe some even prettier than the Grand Canyon but there's something about this place that always draws me back I love it here so here we go we are officially right now entering the canyon you can see where we started see some hikers coming down and say we've descended about 500 feet or so already starting to brighten up a little bit you know other thing people always ask me this is a dangerous hike and of course it is there have been fatalities and serious injuries on this height throughout the years but as far as falling into the canyon unless you're just really not paying attention that's not going to happen the National Park Service does a tremendous job grooming and manicuring these trails if you just keep your eyes in front of you and you stand the path you'll be totally fine although I would highly recommend if you come out early in the morning and it's still dark that you pick up a good head flashlight for yourself so you can have full visibility of the trail we just went past our first checkpoint as you can see in the sign it's called the point incredible view Sun is starting to come out actually lost a few layers of clothing you know the interesting thing about hiking the Grand Canyon is when you start off especially this time of the year I think the campground is 40 degrees when I woke up this morning down in the canyon they're predicting 96 degrees so you have a major shift in temperature and obviously you need to dress appropriately for both of them but right now it is ideal it's probably 60 degrees right now light breeze but as the day progresses and we go deeper in the canyon it's just going to keep getting hotter the Sun is out and it's warming up already I love the sunrise and the sunset in the Grand Canyon it's so beautiful I especially like the way it cast shadows we are now approaching the second and my favorite Check Point welcome to Cedar Ridge Cedar Ridge is one and a half miles into the 7 mile hike and it takes the average hiker about one to two hours to get to this point so that is the third check point that is skeleton point three miles in we're about halfway down with this trail body is feeling good and we're down to our most base layer of clothing sunscreen is on let's keep going you know the canyon isn't just straight down there's a couple places where it does plateau out a little bit but where it is very steep you can see how they cut switchbacks into the canyon wall itself they also got our first view of the Colorado River and from this point right here in your skeleton point we have decided about 2,000 feet and the Colorado River is about 2700 feet from here so I picked up the pace kind of broke away a little bit from the pack but as I'm walking down the South Kaibab trail I'm just reminiscing about the other two times that I did this trail let me show you some pictures the first time was in 2011 with Natalie and the second time was in 2014 with Natalie and Kelly yeah when you can't pronounce your daughter's name I think it's time for a break make that Killa so we've chosen come down as I said on the south kaibab trail that is usually a hikers favorite because it's a lot shorter it's only seven miles as compared to nine and a half miles on the Bright Angel Trail another advantage I like of it too is if you're going up too bright into trail it's nice to have a little variety so you come down on one kind of go up on the other disadvantages it's almost all in the Sun as far as I've made it so far and I'm about three-quarters of the way down with it there's no water on this trail so you drink a lot of water in this hike so whatever you need for your trip to make it down to the Bright Angel campground need to have in your backpack this is the tip-off checkpoint number four four and a half miles into the trail 3,300 feet down into the canyon all right so we made it to our first legitimate look up the Colorado River so it's time for a little break we're making really good progress right now I think we'll do lunch at the Phantom Ranch but it's good we do these kind of hikes just to take some breaks along the way rest your body grab some snack food I like sweet things and salty things so it's work really well so I got some gummy bears some beef jerky and as always replenishing the liquids it's dehydrated [Applause] now we're doing Oh doing great yeah yeah you two have a safe ride up approaching this tunnel means that we are at the end of the trail let's go you waiting for us is the mighty Colorado River as we cross the famous black bridge you're hot like me when you get down here and you're looking forward to doing some swimming don't think about doing in the Colorado River way too dangerous hazardous currents let me show you where you can do some swimming now this is a spot where you don't want to take a dip that's a Bright Angel Creek probably a good idea just go in cool off drop that body temperature a little bit it's really now officially at the bottom of the Grand Canyon and we were on one of the river trails then we'll take us through the campground the bite right angel campground and to one of my all-time favorites happy places can't wait to get there so what about halfway where I want to be gets you over my left hand shoulder is the Bright Angel campground this is where you'd stay if you want to do something that's less strenuous meaning hike down in one day spend the night down here then hike up the next day there it is fighters a campground need a permit to stay there I was just thinking as I was walking here if I were to list my three favorite buildings number one would be my house number two would be my church and number three would be the Phantom Ranch by the way no offense the in-laws that live in Michigan you guys would be in that list somewhere as well I'm not sure exactly what it is that I love so much about this place maybe just the the fact that you can go inside sit in the air-conditioned get a cold glass of lemonade maybe just the coolness of being a building on the bottom of the Grand Canyon or maybe just the fact that it's the end of a destination it's the goal at the end of the line that you strive to achieve you know so good to be here [Applause] another fun thing that you hear at the Phantom Ranch is to write a postcard you can put it here in the box and put it on a mule and they ship it out to wherever your dresser Shane this one's for you too buddy until the next time we see you always enjoy being here take care we'll see you there ready to begin our ascent back up to the rim of the canyon we're going to pass through the Bright Angel campground and then get on the Bright Angel Trail and go up about 4,500 feet and it is hot so we took the black bridge in and we're taking the silver bridge out I saw a deep part of the Bright Angel Trail through at the beginning you actually walk in sand and you go past these palm tree like plants show a return trip we've been hiking right along the water's edge of the Colorado River we've descended probably about three four hundred feet already but this is the most discouraging part of the hike because the trail goes right back to the water's edge so you lose all that elevation to gain so you can't think so much about elevation the other thing about mileage and of the 9.5 miles we've chipped off about one of them so far two miles down on the trail that's the first checkpoint the river rest house so that one mile stretch right after the river rest house is nasty not a huge elevation change but direct Sun all the way and we're still so low it still have to be in the 90s the shaders are welcome relief now it's time to enjoy some elevation change let's go for it when you're hiking up this trail which is a total of four thousand five hundred feet elevation gain is essential let me go on uphill in the Sun and exerting this much energy that you have water and thankfully here on the Bright Angel Trail there's a series of stops along the way you can fill up your water bottles the last mile I pretty much have put the camera away I just got to focus thinking up this hill we got some serious elevation change people are throwing up all over this trail it's showing a lot of casualties and it's beating a lot of people with this heat in this direction that is the advantage of spend the night the canyon we'd come down in the evening and then hike up in the morning when you do the dreaded turn and burn as we call it or a rim to River to rent you're stuck at some point hitting this heat and it's nasty we're gonna keep going though we're just gonna keep going you look at all those switchbacks I just came up they called that area the devil corkscrew and it's appropriately named pretty hike as we're approaching Indian Gardens will walk in parallel to a stream below us down its banks its land with cottonwood trees very pretty it's more shade as well which is nice all right we did it you officially made it to Indian garden campground this is truly an oasis and meld the desert halfway point when I come here after juju they have a tradition of doing two things then a lot of cool water from the pump and laying down on a picnic table it is time to saddle up the horses more trails the hike or beauty to behold after Indian garden there's basically three stops each amount a half apart from each other to get back up to the rim four and half miles total so we have the two rest houses and then the final destination on the rim so we are making our way up now to the three mile rest house there it goes the Sun is finally disappearing you know one of the disadvantages of hiking back up is you just want to get done and you don't get the opportunity to appreciate the extra beauty of the canyon because all you want to do is finish in your head is looking down at your feet most of the time so it's important to take a break every now and then and just really enjoy and appreciate the surroundings because this place is so beautiful and no matter where you go on this Canyon the sights are continually different now with that said I can't wait to get to the top I love the sign caution down is optional up is mandatory yeah that's the concern with hiking the canyon you do a mountain you go up as far as you can if you run out of gas you turn around go back Canyon the hard part is the return trip lots of times a lot of people go be down at the bottom and they realize they can't make it back out again we are at the three mile rest house right now that means we have three more miles to go the Sun is setting Canyon is still as beautiful as ever I know you don't need to say it the pace has slowed down considerably hasn't it but it's okay cuz I got my rally cap going here so I've been telling myself what the will can conceive the mind can believe in the body can achieve there it is the limit mile rest house and it's that last leg I said I need a little rest so we've been on the trail for about 12 hours mountain have to go the average hiker they say going up takes about one hour to cover one mile so we're a little bit ahead of that pace but to hung them myself I'll tell you this definitely more people passed me then I passed on the way coming up so technically we don't need to be done at a certain time but if we want to get that cheeseburger I got my mind set on at the Grand Canyon Lodge and catch the last shuttle which will take me back to the car everything has to be wrapped up by 9:30 you check that out incredible they're approaching the lower tunnel and that means we're entering the homestretch just when you thought you were done there's a aggressive go down this trail so we just moved up on that RIM I say we go for right now we got strength in numbers well thanks for watching this video hope you found it entertaining and maybe even beneficial the objective of this video is not one of those rah-rah videos it says everyone should come and try a rim to River to run hike it is very strenuous you need to be in shape and you dated all your limitations and you need to come prepared but maybe this is something you never thought you could do if I did it as an average guy you met those do it as well maybe it's something you're considering and I hope the information that has been provided within this video has been helpful to plan your trip and in a sense know what to expect oh it's dark out here now but only by the grace of God we finished this hike you can't see it although I'll take a picture of it but the famous bright angel trail head sign there it is this is also the time that I pretty much kind of promise I'll never do this again and then about a week from now I'm always dying to come back whoo what a hike what an accomplishment well that'll do it for this video thanks so much for watching remember there's always room for you our next national park adventure done so yet please subscribe to the channel can you enjoy this cheeseburger that is really [Music]

Channel: America's Parks

Views: 120,588

Rating: 4.9717894 out of 5

Keywords: Grand Canyon National Park, Grand Canyon Hiking, How to hike the Grand Canyon, South Rim, Hiking South Rim Grand Canyon, Rim to river to rim, National Parks, Bright Angel Trail, South Kaibab Trail, phantom ranch, hike grand canyon, grand canyon hiking to the bottom, south rim grand canyon hike, bright angel trail grand canyon up, hiking rim river rim one day, national parks usa, top 5 national parks

Id: M1-XYrBOZjI

Length: 19min 39sec (1179 seconds)

Published: Wed Oct 17 2018