Author Topic: The Grand Canyon.  (Read 2605 times)

alewife

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The Grand Canyon.
« on: 07:29:24, 09/12/16 »
Anyone been/walked/done the tourist thing? Planning a trip in the new year so would welcome any hints, tips, experiences. Probably have about 3 days in the area. Thanks in advance.
Alewife


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sussamb

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Re: The Grand Canyon.
« Reply #1 on: 07:56:16, 09/12/16 »
Been there, walked half way down into the canyon ... it's a long way to the bottom.  If you want to go right to the bottom you probably need to use one of the official tours.  Otherwise if you're happy just to potter around the rim there are numerous trails you can follow.  Fraid my experience was around 20 years ago so no up to date info ...
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Islandplodder

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Re: The Grand Canyon.
« Reply #2 on: 09:22:48, 09/12/16 »
I once read Richard Fortey's description of going down the whole way on a donkey, and I got vertigo just reading it.  I'd love to go there, have a wonderful time.

midweekmountain

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Re: The Grand Canyon.
« Reply #3 on: 10:54:45, 09/12/16 »
An old trip report of mine part of HOW NOT TO DO IT on a 5 week mainly climbing road trip in the states some bits might help.

'''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''

Arriving late we found the Grand Canyon Hotels charged $200 per room luckily they were full so we had opted for a night in the car.
Clear skies at an altitude of almost 9000ft meant we woke to find 4mm of ice coating the windows & plastic inside the car that was parked in a convenient pizza hut parking lot.

Unfortunately Pizza Hut don’t do early starts so we quickly packed away the sleeping bags & crossed the road to Macdonald’s, the only place open.

We ordered coffee & a Mac Monster breakfast, despite thename it was small, greasy and not very filling but the coffee was good.
 
Dawn broke & we were first in line at the park entrance.

A couple of years ago Chuck who hails from St Louis had invested a hard earned $10 in a National Park Pass for Life deal which turned out to be a godsend as the normal entry price to any national park is $25 per car per entry. The bored kiosk Ranger did his speech, the first of a long day & allocated us our freebie handout which I normally throw away.
 
We quickly drove to the rim as the light was superb for photos & would not last long when we got back to the car we consulted the freebie deciding the best walk would be the Bright Angel Trail down to the river & possibly Phantom Ranch. The idea was that we would just have to play it by ear & see how far we got.

Now the ladies often get me into trouble & not long after we set off a couple of good looking athletic young gals overtook us, a little later we caught them up as one of them stopped for a personal break, the one on sentry duty stopped us and we found ourselves walking with them, they were locals & planned to go down the Bright Angel Trail along the river back up the Kabaib trail back to the rim.

They talked us into doing the same but as we did not have a map or local knowledge we decided to try & follow them. Our plan failed when they decided to stop for an extended siesta type lunch half way down the Bright Angel so we opted to keep going at least to the river.
Here we were a bit unsure of the layout of the Canyon so we found some shade &  had a stop luckily I had put the freebie in my sac. I found a small sketch map showing the general layout of the trails, I was now able to suss out the where the Kabaib Trail started back up to the rim.

The one thing that the freebie did not tell us was that there is plenty of water on the Bright Angel but non on the Kebaib.

The walk had now been extended to about 18 miles with about 5500 ft of decent/ascent in hot conditions. Due to lack of water on the ascent I got myself into a bit of a state suffering from heat exhaustion having to sit down & rest every 50 yards on the latter stages.

Luckily when got to the top of the canyon people had dumped water bottles, somewere even full so I managed to get some water in me, thank god for litter. The second lucky stroke was that the shuttle bus stopped at the top of the trail and took us back to our car. The down side was that it did not go directly there & we had to suffer an hour of tourist lectures on the area from various busdrivers. I just hunched up in my seat shaking & feeling very ill, wishing the drivers would shut up.

Eventually we got back to the car got more water in me, as we drove back south to route 66 I soon recovered.

We stayed overnight in the town of Winslow, great littleplace and a bitter oasis of culture, well it got a mention in a song, the highlight being one of the wackiest diners we came across on the trip & a far cry from the MacDonalds earlier on in the day.

Well, Im a standing on a corner
In Winslow, Arizona
And such a fine sight to see
Its a girl, my lord, in a flatbed Ford
Slowin down to take a look at me

- Dave -

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Re: The Grand Canyon.
« Reply #4 on: 12:21:29, 09/12/16 »
The Grand Canyon is spectacular. I think the South Rim is much more developed and touristy - we couldn't actually visit it because the national parks were closed due to a government shutdown. We did, however, visit the North Rim and watched the sunset - I'd highly recommend that. Don't underestimate the altitude either; the canyon rim stands around 10,000ft I think - I would say, if you were planning on hiking, to have some days acclimatising first before doing anything major
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White Horse Walker

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Re: The Grand Canyon.
« Reply #5 on: 14:19:57, 09/12/16 »
We went in 2000 when our girls were in their teens. Pre the viewing platform thingie. Didn't venture into the actual canyon, just had a walk along the edge of part of it, and took a flight over it. (Plane, not helicopter - helicopters go deeper but cost more - everyone except me was sick and Jo really thought we were going to crash).



~
Sue

altirando

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Re: The Grand Canyon.
« Reply #6 on: 14:37:14, 09/12/16 »
My elder daughter lives in California so on a trip out there a few years ago I took the opportunity to explore the Grand Canyon.  Have to say it is one of the great walks of the world.  I was crossing back to Chicago on the train , a great experience, and dropped off at Flagstaff. ..bus waiting to take people across to the Canyon. . Had lunch at the hotel then walked down the South .Kaibab .Trail, \I had already booked myself into the Phantom Ranch bunkhouse down in the canyon for the night.  Walked back up the .Bright Angel trail nex.t day, slightly less steep but used by people going down on horseback, not something \I would recommend.  Picked up the train again next day for the rest of the transAmerica train ride.  Certainly one of those walks everyone should do once in their lives.  And actually quite easy for anyone used to hill walking. Possible to go down and back up in the same .day.but not recommended

altirando

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Re: The Grand Canyon.
« Reply #7 on: 14:42:50, 09/12/16 »
And yes, do remember to carry a lot of water in summer.

BuzyG

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Re: The Grand Canyon.
« Reply #8 on: 17:20:35, 09/12/16 »
A wonderful place.  Been 30 years since I was there, but the memories haven't faded.  I only did the tourist thing, on a day flight in from Vegas, but wow, spectacular.  It was December, so plenty of snow around the rim.  Being the tallest guy on the plane I got the Co Pilots seat too.  Hiked up Mt Baldy a few days later.  Great memories. Enjoy O0

glovepuppet

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Re: The Grand Canyon.
« Reply #9 on: 12:45:10, 12/12/16 »
I've walked down from the South Rim to Plateau Point and back - quite a full day's outing! It was -4 degrees as we set out, but mid-20's or more at lower levels - note the altitude at the rim is 9000ft.


Also, the thing to remember is it is like hill-walking in reverse in that ALL the effort is in the second half of the day when you are more tired and have a big climb to do. You need plenty of water, too.  


Also remember that not every American is qualified to comment on the walk - especially the family with elderly parents who were going to set off as dusk in shoes and jeans and no rucksack/supplies/layers/tent, etc, and the guy with kidney stones that needed to be airlifted out having collapsed part way down (both happened when we were there!). 


It's a good walk, but not to be underestimated. However, if you are sensible it is perfectly doable for a British Hill-walker with plenty of warm clothes and sun protection.

mananddog

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Re: The Grand Canyon.
« Reply #10 on: 13:35:37, 12/12/16 »
I walked to the bottom and back out again from the South Rim with The Missus in end of October some years ago. It is eminently doable as a trip at that time of the year despite the signs saying you are going to die if you try it without a guide. And it is very worthwhile, I recommend it.

It can be very cold at the rim at that time of year but it is hot on the valley floor.

Owen

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Re: The Grand Canyon.
« Reply #11 on: 19:46:30, 12/12/16 »
Just finished reading "The man who walked through time" by Colin Fletcher. He was the first man to walk all the way through the canyon in one go, someone else had just beaten him be the first but had done it in sections. This was in 1963 with old fashioned heavy kit. Sounds very extreme, freezing at night baking by day.

Mumf

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Re: The Grand Canyon.
« Reply #12 on: 01:48:20, 20/12/16 »
Everything the Americans do is bigger and wider than everything else ...


The Grand Canyon is no exception .  ;D O0



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