Hello fellow wanderers!
How many of you have visited the Grand Canyon? Did you know that nearly 6 million people visit the Grand Canyon annually, making it the second most popular National Park to explore?
Did you also know that out of those 6 million visitors, only less than 1% of them make their way down into the canyon? That is less than 60,000 people annually that venture down into the canyon's immense beauty and possibly hike rim to rim over the Colorado River.
After Chris suffered his brain hemorrhage in 2019, he started preparing his bucket list with immediate execution of the list and the number one bucket list item was hiking the Grand Canyon. He started preparing for it in 2020. It took months of preparation and filing for permits (tips below on how to land a spot in their permit system).
The above photo is our itinerary of 5 nights and 6 days. We watched a ton of videos in research of the epic hike but found that most people hike R2R in one day or R2R2R also in a day or two. We found very little research in the way of people taking their time and backpacking their way through the canyon. We did not want to rush this hike and Chris couldn't physically rush it regardless with his brain injury. We wanted to take more than enough time to enjoy it, soak it all in and have that ever-lasting memory forever engrained in our minds.
We do have videos of this epic adventure on YouTube. Check us out at Wandered Off. These videos show the campgrounds, resthouses, shuttle and everything you need to know prior to your hike.
Chris applied for the permit for several months with no luck. After talking to the rangers asking for tips, we finally figured out that if we put "any" for our dates we might luck out sooner or later. And we did. We put our itinerary (which was not going to change because we wanted to camp a certain number of nights) but we put "any" for dates and allowed them to reverse it if needed (SR to NR vs NR to SR).
AND... we finally lucked out and got a permit with our exact itinerary but the dates they gave us were the last week of June 2021. We knew we had to be flexible with dates if we wanted a permit to camp so we worked with what they gave us! But it will be hot as heck that week. So, we started preparing for that week of backpacking.
TIP: You have to be flexible and take what they give you if you want to camp!
Our itinerary:
June 25th - We shuttled to North Rim from South Rim and stayed at the hiker/biker camp area for the night. Walk up permits, no reservations. $6 per tent. North Rim is cold, freezing cold (45 degrees at night). So be prepared for that. There is a store at the North Rim Campground and food at the Grand Lodge. Pic below are the tent sites at the North Rim hiker camp area. Site pads are loose and did not hold the tent stakes, so we tied off to rocks to hold the tents down.
June 26th - We started our hike down the North Kaibab Trail to Cottonwood Campground. This leg of the hike is 6.8 miles down 4,170' in elevation.
- North Kaibab Trailhead has restrooms and water (is 0.6 miles from hiker camp area)
- 1.7 miles down is Supai Tunnel with restrooms and water
- 4.7 miles down is Roaring Springs with restrooms and water
- 5.4 miles down is the Ranger Station with restrooms and water
- 6.8 miles down is the Cottonwood Campground with restrooms and water
Pic below is our site at Cottonwood Campground. Ground was hard and bent or broke our stakes, so again we tied off the tents to big rocks.
June 27th - We hiked from Cottonwood Campground to Bright Angel Campground which is about a 1/4-mile past Phantom Ranch. This leg of the hike is 7.2 miles dropping 1,900' in elevation. This portion of the trail does not have restrooms or water stations. None! We each carried three liters in our packs with a collapsible bottle full of water and Chris carried an extra bladder with 2L of water in it just in case. This portion of the hike is through "the box" which is a narrow canyon that gets very hot, extremely hot with no wind. There is a creek along this trail that you can filter water from so have a water filtration system with you, whether you think you need it or not. We were fortunate enough to not have to use our filtration straws, but we had them just in case! The pic below is our campsite #5 at Bright Angel on the creek. Again, we tied off to rocks to hold our tents down.
June 28th - We stayed two nights at Bright Angel Campground in site 5. We took this day off from major hiking. We did hike to out the Colorado River and explored that area and the Black Bridge connecting North Kaibab to South Kaibab Trail and hung out on Boaters Beach. We also spent the rest of our day sitting in Bright Angel Creek at our camp site. One of the Rangers told us "The people who die down here are the ones that refuse to get in the water". So that is what we did. All day long. It was 138 degrees at Bright Angel Camp. Bright Angel Camp has restrooms and water. We preordered dinners and breakfast from Phantom Ranch (more to come on that).
June 29th - We hiked from Bright Angel Camp to Indian Garden. This portion of the hike is 4.7 miles with an elevation gain of 1,620'. Yes, you read that right, we are now headed up and out of the canyon. There are some small creeks along this path for water filtration if needed. This is where we had a pink rattlesnake literally feet from our tents. Indian Garden camp sites have picnic shelters which was a very welcomed surprise!
- 1.5 miles to the River Resthouse with restrooms but NO water
- 4.7 miles to Indian Garden Campground with restrooms and water
Pic below is our campsite at Indian Garden. Again, we tied off our tents to rocks here too.
June 30th - We hiked from Indian Garden up and out of the South Rim completing our Rim-to-Rim hike. This portion of the hike is 4.8 miles and is probably the most challenging portion due to the 3,060' in elevation gain on the last day. This portion of the hike has zero shade. None. Direct sun the entire way.
- 1.7 miles is the 3-mile Resthouse with restrooms and water
- 3.2 miles is the 1.5-mile Resthouse with restrooms and water
- 4.8 miles is the Bright Angel Trailhead at the South Rim with restrooms and water (this is the end of the trail on the top of the South Rim)
Pic below at the 1.5 mile resthouse... just give you some perspective while you are exhausted and barely making it on this last day LOL!
Weather:
North Rim - was freezing (45 degrees at night) and we packed warm clothes just for that night that we carried the rest of the way and did not use again. Brandi did use her sweatshirt as a pillow the remaining nights.
Cottonwood Campground - was 100 degrees and we shed layers on the way down from the North Rim. It quickly got very warm. It is monsoon season mid-June through mid-September so keep that in mind. It ended up pouring on us as we were sitting in the creek cooling off and soaking our feet.
Bright Angel Campground - there is a thermometer at this campground and at Phantom Ranch. At 2pm it was 138 degrees in the direct sun and 104 in the shade. It did not drop lower than 90 at night making for a very hot and uncomfortable time to sleep. We lucked out and received no rain at Bright Angel, although, we probably would have welcomed it.
Indian Garden - it was hot and windy. Tents that were not secured enough to the ground blew around in the gusty wind. We did get rained on briefly, but the wind gusts are what kept us up this night. We were thankful for the picnic shelters at this campground.
Our last day hiking up the South Rim - there is zero shade on this trail, so we started in the dark. We got some reprieve of the intense heat as we hiked up the trail. It did torrential rain at the South Rim about an hour after we made it to the top.
TIP: Take a reflective umbrella. This umbrella will keep your head about 15 degrees cooler in the direct sun but will also keep you dry if it rains! We purchased ours on Amazon after doing some research. They were $60 each but well worth the money!
TIP: Be prepared for any AND all-weather conditions! Preparation can make or break your hike!
Pics below are us "enjoying" the down pour at Cottonwood and the thermometer at Bright Angel Camp.
Food:
We highly recommend going online and reserving dinner and breakfast at Phantom Ranch. We stayed two nights at Bright Angel, so we reserved dinner and breakfast (2 dinners & 2 breakfasts). The food was good (not great, but we were at the bottom of the Grand Canyon so...) but so worth not having to carry extra food in our packs. It is pricey. $60 for dinner (steak, potato, salad and brownie) and breakfast was $30 (pancakes, sausage, eggs and orange juice). Phantom Ranch has a store which offers iced tea and lemonade for $5 (keep your cups for $1 refills). They have a variety of candy and small items that you might need during a hike (first aid etc.).
Pics below are of our prepaid breakfast and dinner meals from Phantom Ranch. Again, totally worth it to avoid having to carry extra weight of food in your pack and it was a nice change from our backpack meals.
We also packed our own food and boy did we over pack and not pack the right things. Well, I take that back. The issue was, it was just too dang hot to eat, especially hot food over a jet boil. We had each packed hot meals to prepare which none of us wanted to eat.
TIP: Keep your food in your food boxes (bear boxes). All of the animals will try to get your food if it is in your tent, backpack or on the table. This includes squirrels, deer, rats and ravens.
FUN TIP: Bear boxes are NOT ant-proof. We put our baggie of dried mango in the box and the baggie was not quite sealed all the way and the entire box became an ant hill. The mangos were trash after that.
TIP: We packed peanut butter packets for protein. It melted and liquified in the heat and was gross. Do not do that. It was a waste.
We ended up giving our hot meals away to fellow campers because we did not want to eat them or carry them at that point. We survived off of oatmeal (purchase the regular store bought quaker, not the expensive kind like below in the picture), protein bars, nuts, dried fruit, veggie chips and what we purchased at Phantom Ranch (again we highly recommend doing this).
TIP: We shared one jet boil that Chris carried and then we each carried a fuel container. We did not even use one entire fuel container between the three of us, so we carried two extras for nothing. Might be a different scenario if we actually cooked and ate our hot meals though.
TIP: There are no trash cans in the Grand Canyon. You pack out what you pack in. All of these food wrappers had to be cleaned and wrapped up into gallon baggies that we brought for trash. It becomes a lot when you realize these empty packages have to be cleaned, squished and stored in your pack, also keeping animals out of your food trash!
Hydration:
NUUN all the way! We met a fellow Instagrammer at Death Valley early in 2021 who is a NUUN ambassador and avid runner. After some conversation with him and further research, we decided NUUN was the way to go for our hike. We purchased NUUN sport with caffeine to consume a few times a day during the hike and the NUUN recovery for the night. We can swear by this product and highly recommend it. We kept a collapsible bottle to put our hydration tabs in. We also carried Gatorade hydration chews (which tasted like candy, very good).
TIP: Carry a collapsible water bottle for your hydration tabs. You do not want to put your hydration tabs in your camelback.
TIP: Check with the Rangers before your hike and during your hike. They will know which water stations are out of service and post the most recent water advisories.
TIP: The Rangers truly are your friends! Utilize their knowledge and listen to them! Heed their warnings! The Grand Canyon is fierce and no joke!
TIP: Carry a water filtration system even if you think you will not need it. Anything can happen out there! We carried two straws just in case, but thankfully did not need to use them as all of the water stations were working during our hike.
TIP: Having enough water is a LIFE or DEATH situation in the Grand Canyon!
Clothes:
We each had a set of warm clothes for the North Rim which we carried the entire way and did not use after the North Rim. It did drop to 45 degrees that first night.
We each packed two pairs of light weight hiking pants and two light weight SPF long sleeve shirts. Alisha and Brandi each had two sports bras and we all had two pair of underwear. We had a pair of hiking socks for each day. Brandi wore and recommended the Injinji toe socks. Having clean socks was a must daily. The underwear and bras we could wash out in the creeks and sinks (you are not supposed to do laundry in the sinks BTW).
The sinks we came across were at Bright Angel Camp and Phantom Ranch. Every other restroom was a vault toilet with no running water to wash in.
We each had a wide brim hat and a R2R buff which we kept wet as much as we could by dunking them in the creeks and soaking them at the water stations.
We each had an outfit to wear while we were not hiking, and we slept in that outfit as well.
We believe we had the right amount of clothing except the excessive warm clothes for the first night.
Ok so let's talk about shoes shall we. Brandi wore her North Face hiking shoes for over a year prior to this hike with no issues. Same with Alisha. But hiking down 5,000' over very few miles in the beginning was torture on the feet, especially the toes. Alisha lost both of her big toenails and Brandi has lost both of her little toenails (one of them she has lost twice now). Somehow, Chris was fine with no feet issues. By the time we got to Cottonwood Campground, our feet were done. But we put our shoes back on the next day to Bright Angel Campground, which was a mistake. Alisha and Brandi never put their hiking shoes back on after that. Brandi wore her Tevas the rest of the time, including the hike out of the canyon with toe socks on. Alisha wore her Chaco Sandals out of the canyon from Bright Angel as well.
Sandals are a must since you are spending so much time in the water, and they are nice to have to wear around camp anyways.
The Rangers told us they all wear trail runners in and out of the canyon. It is too hot to wear hiking shoes or boots on that trail.
TIP: If Brandi did this hike again, she would wear her Tevas (keep her toes free) down the canyon and her new trail runners up the canyon.
TIP: Do not over pack clothes. They take up a lot of room and add a lot of weight to your pack.
Pic below is Brandi's pack and contents.
Gear:
Now, let's talk gear. We each had a lightweight tent, sleeping bag and sleeping pad. Alisha had a sheet instead of a bag. We each had a lightweight backpack. Osprey is the brand Alisha and Brandi had. Chris had an REI backpack. The sleeping pads were annoying as they squeaked every time you moved. Brandi also had a yoga mat that she placed under her sleeping pad which she is not sure she would carry again.
TIP: Tent stakes were not used. The ground the was either too soft to hold them or too hard and the stakes broke pounding them into the hard ground. We tied off our tents the entire time to big rocks found at the campsites. Do not carry tent stakes, it is added weight that you do not need, and they take up room! Just make sure you have enough rope to tie off to rocks with.
Waterproof bags for toiletries. Q-tips, Band-Aids, first aid, small bottle of sun lotion, tissue, face wash, deodorant and whatever else you need.
We each had our phones and Chris had the GoPro. So of course, how did we keep our batteries charged? We each had a portable charger that was solar operated. We kept those on the outside of the backpacks as we hiked so they charged while we hiked and then left them on the tables in the sun. They worked, but they were pretty slow. Chris also had one solid portable charger that he used for the GoPro batteries that we bought off of Amazon.
We only used our phones (no service at all) to track our mileage and time and of course to take photos and videos. Alisha also downloaded some audible books to listen to or read at night.
We hiked every day between 5am and 11am at the recommendation of the Rangers. That meant that we were up at 4am and 3am on our last morning. We had headlamps and flashlights with extra batteries. We ended up carrying more batteries than we needed, and they can be heavy to carry.
TIP: If you wear long pants and long sleeve shirts with SPF clothing and a hat or use an umbrella, you do not need sun lotion. We never used it and carried it for no reason.
TIP: Deodorant melts in the heat. It will be unusable anyways and it made a mess when you opened it. Do not carry any with you. Besides, we would have smelled regardless after 6 days of no showers and sitting in the creeks. Leave your deodorant at home! Not worth the mess and you cannot throw it away after it melts.
TIP: We carried baby wipes to clean ourselves with.
TIP: Gallon baggies, empty. You have to pack out what you pack in. Have bags to seal up the trash that you create (food wrappers, wipes, etc.). There are no trash cans in the canyon and the Rangers do not want you throwing anything away down there because they have no way to carry it out of the canyon.
TIP: Women who are menstruating (Brandi started the day we shuttled over), have tampons or whatever you use because you will not find any to purchase anywhere once you leave the North Rim store. Have a way to dispose of them in your backpack. Pack out your waste.
TIP: We each carried a wag bag. Thankfully, we did not need to use them but just in case you cannot get to a toilet fast enough, carry a wag bag for emergencies, pack out your waste.
TIP: We cannot say this enough! Talk to the Rangers. Chris called the back country permit office quite often prior to our hike to pick their brains. One Ranger recommended we bring reflective umbrellas. We quickly got on Amazon and purchased three for our hike. $60 each. But so worth it. When you are in direct sun, the umbrellas keep your head about 15 degrees cooler. AND we used them when it rained too. You can see the umbrellas in the photo above. Seriously though... the Rangers will help you and guide you. They told us we were crazy to hike that week, but they did give us a permit to hike that week, so we prepared for the heat and the Rangers helped us! TALK TO THE RANGERS!
Preparation:
We hiked a lot. We hiked in the heat of the desert and in the elevations of the Sierra Nevada. Squats, lunges and leg exercises, stair climbing. Highly recommend that.
Talking to the Rangers for months prior. They can tell you everything that you need to know and are happy to help.
Blogs and YouTube. Tons of information is literally at your fingertips. Again, we did not find a lot in the way of people backpacking for several nights so we hope this blog and our videos help you in your planning process!
Grand Canyon National Park website! Phantom Ranch website. It is all there! Reserving the shuttle, meals etc. Check the park websites!
TIP: Trans Canyon Shuttle does fill up quickly. As soon as you have a set itinerary, go online and reserve your shuttle. $90 per person one way from one Rim to the other Rim. We called and talked to them as well. Very friendly and helpful. The drive from South Rim to North Rim was about 4.5 hours and we made three stops. Two stops at small stores with restrooms on the Navajo Nation Reservation and one stop at Marble Canyon as shown below in the pic. Marble Canyon also had restrooms and a small native souvenir shop.
We parked our fifth wheel at the KOA Circle Pines in Williams, AZ for two weeks. You can see a tour of this RV Park on our channel at Wandered Off. We drove down a week prior to our hike and picked up Alisha in Phoenix a couple days prior. We had gone to the South Rim and explored the route; shuttle pick up area and talked with the back country Ranger's station, again, talk to the Rangers!! Checked the weather and water advisories and bought our "we hiked R2R" gear.
TIP: Although we lucked out and had working water stations throughout the entire hike, the week after our hike, the water stations on the North Rim side were out of service. You need to check the day before your hike and be prepared for anything!
There was a wildfire in Williams at the time and the KOA was up for evacuation, but we were not giving up our permits to hike so we told the KOA if evacuation becomes mandatory, the RV will burn, and we will be ok. We were not giving up our adventure and we can always buy a new RV. Thankfully, it was still there when we got back.
Back country campers like us are supposed to park in Lot D at the South Rim next to the back country permit office. Then you walk over to the Bright Angel Lodge where the Trans Canyon Shuttle will pick you up. You need to reserve the shuttle in advance. It was $90 per person one way. They dropped us off at the North Rim Campground.
We did not venture off the beaten path during our R2R hike due to the weather and our blisters. We did end up hiking 42 miles overall when you include the hiking, we did at the North Rim prior to starting the R2R and hiking around Bright Angel Camp and the Colorado River.
TIP: The Rangers told us to not hike during the hours of 10am and 4pm. Those are the hottest times of day. We were up at 4am every morning to be on the trail by 5am and we did our best to be at the next camp by 11am at the latest, which we accomplished. Our last day we were up at Indian Garden at 3am and we hit the top at the South Rim by 7:30am, just as the sun was getting direct and hot.
TIP: Sit in the water. Dunk your hats and shirts. Get wet! Stay cool!
Please check out our video on YouTube. We show each campground and a provide a ton of info to help you plan a successful Rim to Rim backpacking hike in the Grand Canyon. Please let us know if you have any questions that we have not answered here or in our videos.
TIP: The Grand Canyon National Park Website has all of the information that is needed and what you do not find there, the Rangers can help you with as well if you call the back country permit office.
We wish you the best on your Grand Canyon adventures and we hope that the info that we provide will help you along the way!
Thanks so much for wandering through the Grand Canyon with us!
Wandered Off
Chris and Brandi and Alisha
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