Steve,

The South Kaibab trail starts at 7260ft, it is shorter than the Bright Angel by 2.5 miles. There's no water on that trail, so one must carry accordingly. Distance to Bright Angel campground 7.0 Miles, elevation 4780ft.

From what I remember, there's no parking at the trail head, one must leave the car in the parking lot by the road , then take a free shuttle. Service may not start until 7AM.
You can walk from the parking area, I don't know the distance.

The Bright Angel trail head is at 6860 ft, 9.5 miles to the
Bright Angel campground, 3 possible places to get water.

I got this info from the flyer sent to us with our permits.

For us either of the trails would work to go up on. The free park shuttles will take us to our vehicle, we would need to know where it is.


The key exchange on the trail may work however, we should have the spare key with us, in case we miss each other on the trail, or we can leave it at the Phantom Ranch ranger station.


We're planning on doing some side trails to waterfalls during the Friday stay at Phantom Ranch.


Julius