Mt Whitney Zone Forums Trip Reports Another Grand Canyon North Rim to South Rim

departed north kaibab trail trailhead @ 0538. temp about 30 w/wind. wind decreased early. only hot spot was lower bright angel trail between the river resthouse and the corkscrew. after indian garden the hike was totally shaded. arrived south rim 1835. a great hike.

pix here: rim to rim

Wow!




Another cool picture:

By the way, what is this (photo #39)? Caption is "Roaring Springs"




Why are the packs hanging? ...HantaRats? (Pic #118)



Like this sign!

hey steve, due to the geology of the area, all of the water on the south rim comes from this location on the north rim ~ roaring springs. quite fascinating, actually.

see photo #85 ~ or ~ from this location the water flows via gravity down to the colorado, under the silver bridge, and then up to indian garden where it is pumped up to the south rim.

photo #39 is a zoom of photo #37. was taken from the north kaibab trail across roaring springs canyon from the spring.

i don't know about 'hantarats' (ha-ha), but there are rock squirrels. who carry parasites. see photo #134. also saw these pack hangers at bright angel campground on the other side of the river. pretty cool.

and if you zoom in on most of the photos, there's a lot more to be seen.

The picture under Steve's "Wow" is EXACTLY what it looks like. (Imagine that.)

That section of the North Kaibab Trail is seen in my picture where I indicate "favor the right".

Smithb -- your times for the hike replicate what mine were almost exactly. (I was 5:30 AM to 6:30 PM.) What was your experience in terms of break times? How much of the 13 hours do you estimate was non-hiking?

Your hike was a few weeks after mine -- so you had those low 30's temps at the north trailhead while I had an estimated high 30's.

This IS an iconic hike.

my notes indicate we hiked 10 hrs 39 mins + 2 hrs 19 mins stoppage time for a total of 12 hrs 58 mins. that stoppage time does not include photo ops nor bilge-draining stops.

That's interesting. I didn't keep precise track, but my estimate of my own "down time" was about an hour and a half. And I'd concluded that I proabably should have spent more time on breaks (and at earlier parts of the hike). So I wonder if I'd spent, say, the time you did on breaks -- would my overall trip time have been longer or about the same (with the theory that more and better timed breaks would have had me more energized for my hiking time, and shortening it)?

Not necessarily a question with a good answer, just interesting to speculate.

~ i'm not sure of the originator of the thought but a recommendation when hiking is to take a 10 min break every hour;

~ i track my hiking times for various purposes - but not for how fast i gotter done;

~ hike your hike ~ not mine, not his or hers.

if you had a great time - mission accomplished.

All this talk about rim-to-rim is making me...well...WANT TO DO IT!!!

When, in anyone's opinion, is a good time? I'm thinking spring, or fall before snow shuts down the north rim. Summer is out for obvious reasons. Does the road to the north rim remain open as long as there's no snow? & smithb, where did you stay the night before? Because I'm pretty sure the north rim facilities close the first part of Oct.....

Thanks!

both are options, but in my opinion - fall, just before the north rim closes.

yes and no.

go here for park operating hours and seasons: park hours / seasons

we actually stayed in the grand canyon lodge on the north rim the very last night it was open - this year it was the night of oct 16th.

again, in my opinion, the first five miles of the north kaibab trail is the most spectacular. but i have not been on the south kaibab. i hear it's pretty cool, too.

make your reservations early.

Thanks for the info smithb. Very helpful...

-cat b.

CatB -- you may have already read these threads but, nonetheless, much information that both I and others posted within them addresses what you've asked as well as many more things you'll want to consider:

Grand Canyon: Rim to Rim interest?

GRAND CANYON RIM TO RIM DAYHIKE -- OHMYGAWD!

Snowfall closes the road seasonally to the North Rim every year, anytime from mid-October on. The ONLY hotel/motel on the North Rim is the Grand Canyon Lodge, which generally closes each year in mid-October. (There is another hotel/motel 11 miles north of the rim per se. Camping -- whole 'nother story (which I haven't researched). As stated previously in referenced thread(s) -- you may need to reserve up to a year in advance for the Grand Canyon Lodge. For some reason, I -- like smithb -- also lean to fall (late September/early October).