How to Hike the Grand Canyon - Rim to Rim to Rim

the grand canyon is a bucket list item for many backpackers but what does it take to plan a trip into the big ditch on this adventure we're hiking the grand canyon rim to rim to rim getting up close and experiencing one of the seven natural wonders of the world and it all starts right now [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] joining me on this adventure were an incredible group of backpackers eager to take on the challenges of the grand canyon hello leon hi i'm chuck the mule i'm almost with us real quick that's exactly who you are our pelton one and you're watching me i get trips on the trail [Music] a ragtag group of midwest backpackers flew into phoenix arizona where we rented a car and drove to flagstaff for some last minute provisions before driving the remaining four hours to grand canyon national park just outside grand canyon village we stopped in the small town of tucson for big steak dinner and some camaraderie before starting our adventure early the next morning arriving at the south rim well past sunset we made our way to our final destination for the evening the yavapai lodge in the grand canyon village having traveled halfway across the united states and three quarters of the state of arizona by car and with the anticipation of our adventure starting in the morning our group was ready for a good night's rest the november air was crisp as we began our day making the final adjustments to our gear in anticipation for a 14 and a half mile day ahead hiking deep into the canyon we left the lodge and traveled to the backcountry information center where we'd leave our car and catch the 6am shuttle bus to the south kaibab trailhead as we boarded the bus the excitement each of us felt as we were transported to a world that none of us had yet experienced was a feeling never to be forgotten definitely making it just in time morning everybody and welcome to the grand canyon it's uh quarter after six and the shuttle bus just dropped us off at the south kaibab trail and uh as you can see it's still dark out we made it just in time a little bit tricky to find the backcountry information center in the dark but we were able to do it at the lodge it was pretty calm and uh when we're here on the edge of the canyon after being dropped off it got got a little little nippy so we're starting out with the melee and the helium 2 jacket and hopefully that'll be enough to take the edge off as we start getting down into the canyon what we're curious on seeing is if we got snow down there so we all brought our micro spikes but not sure if we're going to need them yet so time to hit it [Applause] [Music] from the south rim the trail heads north beginning with a steep descent through the grand canyon's upper rock layers the kaibab limestone and the toro wheat formation for the first three quarters of a mile the trail cuts through the eastern side of pipe creek canyon until oo point where the canyon walls turn around yaki point and the view of the eastern canyon opens up all right well we made it to our first waypoint on the on the gaia here we got ooh point and we're just at the right time during the day as the sun's coming up the grand canyon is 277 miles long and covers a total area of 1900 square miles it's 10 miles across on average and 18 miles at its widest so the grand canyon is listed as one of the seven natural wonders of the world and you can begin to see why the views are epic and they started the moment we hit the trail this morning as the sun was coming up [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] below cedar ridge the trail continues north around the east side of a prominent supai sandstone tower named o'neill butte descending gradually through the hermit shale and supai group to skeleton point [Music] so the plan for today is south korea trailhead we're gonna head down to the colorado river along the south kaibab we're gonna have a short break at phantom ranch where we're gonna get a few snacks and who knows maybe have a beer and then it's on to ribbon falls from there which is going to be a short mile round mile detour and then we're going to be heading into cotton wood camp and cottonwood camp is about 14 and a half miles from the trailhead and mapping it out in gaia if you take all the elevation change up and down during this entire route because that's all it is we'll be doing over 16 000 feet of elevation today we've already dropped over a thousand feet of elevation from the trailhead after we were dropped off by the hiker shuttle bus they have false bottoms here instead of false false bottoms yeah because you're like there it is there's the bottom never mind there so you take what should be a quarter mile and you make it a half mile four and a half miles into the truck we just made it to the split where the south kaibab trail hits the tonto trail and this is a really good spot if you need some water to fill up it's a large plateau a nice area to take a break this is me last night and this is me today and then this is me again tonight and then i'll go back to here this is just a cyclical process for a mule here yes drink headache made it to this little shelf hydrate how far do we have to go rob uh it's a phantom ranch i think we got uh just about two miles give or take chuck what are you doing situating organization support organizing yeah your pack [Applause] my shorts like that just shy of five miles into the day here and you can just start hearing the colorado river down below the roaring [Music] there is no shortage of epic views on this hike thoughts thoughts uh for one thing i'm grateful grateful just for being physically able to do something like this seriously the the views the cameras probably don't do it justice but it's it's absolutely it's just amazing colorado river is just down there the bridge to get across it is just down there we're two miles from phantom ranch it's just epic stuff man epic stuff so we reached the spot you can see the colorado and the silver bridge which is right there that's what we're going to be taking back up on day number three the indian garden but we are going to be taking the black bridge and you can see that right down over here and that mule train that passed this this morning is heading up the trail towards phantom ranch right here [Music] so to prepare for this hike of course i've been watching lots of youtube videos on people that have done this rim to rim to rim before me and nothing compares to actually being here i mean this place is just so vast and you feel so tiny as you're hiking along the trails [Music] [Music] [Applause] you can see above and around me we've gone from the uh more light-colored coconino section of the canyon to this red rock and that's got a lot of iron ore in it the grand canyon is made up of numerous rock layers that have formed over millions and millions of years with the youngest layers at the top or the rim of the canyon and the oldest at the bottom the primary layers that you're able to witness as you travel throughout the canyon are the kaibab limestone at the top the toro weep formation the coconino sandstone hermit shale supai group red wall limestone mauve limestone bright angel shale tepeet sandstone and the supergroup made up of numerous igneous and metamorphic rocks including vishnu and brahma schist [Music] the acronym dude is an excellent way to remember how the grand canyon was formed the deposition of sediments the uplifting effects of plate tectonics the down cut of water as it makes its way back to the ocean and the erosion of sediments and rock by way of water freezing and thawing landslides floods and earthquakes dude that's pretty cool i just got on the black bridge and i gotta say this thing is an engineering marvel this thing was built by ward weber back in 1928 one year before the stock market crash and the 522 tons of material that it took to make this bridge were carried down by hand by people and of course mules coming down the trails that we just came down now in fact 46 havasupai indians carried this immense suspension cable all the way down from the rim what an incredible incredible bridge and the views are equally as incredible so this is your view looking off to the east of the colorado river the average depth of this river is over a hundred feet deep and they don't recommend that you swim it here's the colorado looking off to the west and you can see just down river there the silver bridge and this is where we're going to be coming in on day number three you can see this boardwalk elevated boardwalk there's some rough hewn timbers that are having bolted to the bridge and that's for the mules that come up here daily and what you don't want is the mules destroying the floorboards so they put these thick rough-hewn boards on here and you can see how they've been kind of eating away as the the mule trains make their way back and forth all the time on this trail so before this bridge there was actually a cable suspension that went across and there was a small box that people would ride this cable system across in fact president roosevelt was here at this very location and took this cable suspension pulley system across the colorado river and part of it uh disassembled and he made it across okay and apparently he was quoted as saying let's do that again when they got to the other side so a lot of history here in the canyon uh as well this was one of the favorite stomping grounds of president roosevelt the park itself wasn't made in national park until 1919 and ever since then the visitors to this area have just multiplied in fact now this this national park it's over four million visitors a year and you can see why [Music] all right [Music] that's pretty cool so that group was on day number eight of 20 floating down the colorado they basically park it and camp and man what a what an awesome adventure had it been a little bit warmer i might have considered dunking in but it's uh it's only 61. so that ain't probably gonna happen [Music] so just up ahead of me here is phantom ranch and the only way to get to phantom ranch is by walking in or you got to ride a mule the other side of the bright angel creek here is bright angel campground we originally tried to get into this campground but we were not able to so we have to go on to the next one which is the cottonwood campground and that one is also on bright angel creek however it doesn't have the amenities obviously that phantom ranch does so the plan is is to take our lunch here the guys are way ahead of me i've been filming and uh i think chuck really wanted to get a beer so as you can see on the other side of the river here um your water source is bright angel creek and they have all these nice little camp spots each of them have a a picnic table you have the cottonwood trees behind me all kinds of really lush vegetation down here what's up guys did you guys have a rough day did you have a rough day today hi hi well you guys are very friendly you climb up these mountains every day is that what you do do you mount climber well if you're the one that brought chuck's beer down he says thank you because that's probably what he's doing right now drinking a beer [Music] [Applause] [Music] oh so he's just stopped here at phantom ranch for a little bit of lunch they have some nice picnic tables underneath the cottonwood trees and the really cool thing is you can get some lemonade here freshly squeezed lemonade is super good right up here at the service counter and the really neat thing is you can actually buy a postcard they have a couple different ones to choose from and you can fill that out and buy a stamp and they'll actually mail it via mule the mules will pack it up to the south rim and they'll go out in the u.s mail so i sent trips a postcard so in the next day or so she should be getting that so pretty cool this is a great place to stop and take a break if you want to stay here you got to make sure that you reserve your spot months and months and months in advance because you can get a small cabin here they do have breakfast and lunch and summer but it's by reservation only so we're just stopping for a short time and it's another seven miles this is our halfway point to cottonwood camp for the evening [Music] so on the north side of vayner ranch there's an elevated bathroom and just down underneath some of the bushes was a pretty big mule deer just kind of hanging out we'll see if it's still here [Music] okay [Music] hmm [Music] so we're in this spot in the canyon called the box where the canyon walls rise up on both sides of you and it makes you feel like rising up you're in a box back on the street it just makes you want to sing it's nice because it's shaded in the sun whew it gets warm shady even in november [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] oh [Music] [Music] [Music] so [Music] [Music] you're a good friend [Music] simple physics things in motion stay in motion so just shy of 11 miles into the day just out for a little break there along bright angel creek in the shade even though it's the middle of november it's still blazing out out here i was projected at 82 at phantom ranch and i think we're feeling it so our next stop within the next two miles is going to be ribbon falls we just packed up a couple of hikers who said that the waterfall is flowing really good and there's some other people there that said that it was one of the coolest things that they've ever seen hiking so pretty excited to see that today and then another two miles after that to round out the day to cottonwood campground and that should do it for this 14 and a half mile day through the grand canyon so we get a helicopter coming in straight through the canyon here and it's got a real long line with something hanging on it probably a drop of some kind wow that's neat that's cool look at the drag on that thing wow we just reached a split to ribbon falls and you can take it one of two ways right now the bridge is actually closed so there's this little bypass trail that you can take but you have to cross bright angel creek there it is ribbon falls man it's like a little oasis in the desert out here just water everywhere [Music] so ribbon falls is considered a sacred site for one of the local native american tribes in the area the zuni people consider chimikyanakayadeo or riven falls their place of emergence into the world in their creation story the zuni people were the first beings emerged from the earth to become people of the upper world at ribbon falls once the people left the waterfall they left behind glyphic and structural signs that the zuni people still recognize today being in this location you can immediately feel the power and sacredness of the site riven falls is truly an oasis in the desert and should be respected if you choose to make the journey here [Music] [Music] why can't we take the bridge seems perfectly safe to me rob you just gotta change your definition to save yeah [Music] so piece of advice don't do what chuck does [Music] god so chuck was asking me when you're in the grand canyon like this and you look up and you see these tall what look like mountains obviously you're down in the canyon what do they call those which is a good question they call those buttes so if you look behind me this one that looks like a large cathedral that one's called ozabute oz-a and all these pinnacles out here have different names to them it's kind of neat i use the gaia app g-a-i-a and if you download that app it has all the trails through the grand canyon it'll show you what each of these different uh features in the landscape are [Music] [Applause] 14 miles hot wood campsite we made it just enough time where we got about an hour and a half two hours until uh dark time we should be able to set up camp and get some food going [Music] so we just passed the ranger and we decided that uh we're gonna take the group spot he said we could stay here as long as nobody else comes in so if we have a group of seven or more that come in we're going to have to vamooska but this is a really nice spot it's shaded and plenty of open spots for tents and to relax it's a good day hiking good day hiking so at cottonwood creek all the water has been shut off for the season because the potential for freezing exists just a couple weeks ago it got down into the single digits out here and uh so we have to go down to bright angel creek to get our water that's how we get water what's up brother man let's see them pretty feet oh look at those these are water feet right here those are water feet so not good how you know you've done it right you guys are mattresses he's not in the hammock anymore there's no intent this isn't a permanent thing only when i have to [Music] [Music] what are you doing we're sending it here getting your sticky-ass feet in our food [Music] box wow oh dude [Music] how freaking cool is that huh it's very that is cool [Music] cool well guys it's eight o'clock and i think it's about time to turn in for the day everybody else is uh in bed already i've been out here doing some astrophotography and looking for scorpions we found a few as you saw it was a really good day first time in the grand canyon hiked from the south rim all the way to cottonwood camp which is three quarters of the way through the canyon so tomorrow is a elusively easier day we do have to ascend the north rim so that's gonna be fun and uh i have to decide whether or not i'm gonna take the alternate route which apparently is five hours longer and adds three miles the old bright angel trail so we'll see it's tiring day a lot of elevation today knees and feet are feeling it for sure so looking forward to tomorrow in the next few days grand canyon it's awesome you guys got to see it it's a pretty magical place all right y'all see in the morning [Music] [Music] why is everything it's the story of the day right there i don't recommend this trail to like anybody don't get a booboo that's a big [Music] [Music] hey

Channel: Miyagi on the Trail

Views: 9,886

Keywords: How to Hike the Grand Canyon, Hiking the Grand Canyon Rim to Rim to Rim, Phantom Ranch, Ribbon Falls, Cottonwood Campsite, Indian Garden Campsite, Geology of the Grand Canyon, Drone shots of the Grand Canyon, Backpacking the Grand Canyon, Old Bright Angel Trail, Midwest Backpacker, Robert Pelton, rptelton1, Miyagi on the Trail, Camping in the Grand Canyon, Backpacking in the Grand Canyon, South Rim, North Rim, Yavapai Lodge, Rim to Rim to Rim, Chuck the Mule

Id: qSQ4TxMi2iY

Length: 34min 40sec (2080 seconds)

Published: Tue Dec 22 2020