Friday June 9, 21.8mi/35.1km

Squirrel Creek (NA/5480ft) to Above E Fork Virgin River (797.0/4800ft) (UT) +2.1mi GPS correction

I slept in and left camp at 7:30. I still had some uphill hiking to do to finish the climb out of Squirrel Canyon. Surprisingly I was hiking in a green tunnel for a little while!

Once I climbed out of Squirrel Canyon, the views opened up and I was hiking on sandy roads for most of the day.

There was even some water flowing in Birch Creek!

Occasionally I got to hike on some slickrock that would appear randomly. It’s been awhile since I had hiked on some slickrock!

The sandy roads continued all morning, and often the sand was soft and deep which was very slow hiking.

When I found some shade under a Juniper tree I stopped and had lunch. It was my last lunch on the Hayduke since I will finish tomorrow morning!

I turned around while eating my wrap and saw this thriving cactus. Springtime in the desert is so colorful.

I continued on down the trail/road, and after an hour I entered the Parunuweap Canyon Wilderness. Cool! Parunuweap is a Paiute word meaning “roaring water canyon.”

Finally at 3pm the road walking ended, and I started my steep descent into the Parunuweap Canyon.

I went steeply down some slickrock and talus…

… And within a quarter mile I was standing in the East Fork Virgin River.

For the next five miles I got to hike down this amazing canyon.

I mostly hiked in the river, but occasionally there were little herd paths next to it.

I had to pay attention on some of the herd paths, since this evil plant was growing next to it.

After awhile the Canyon became a narrows.

I definitely had to walk in the river here!

This would definitely be a bad place to be stuck during a flash flood. Probably the reason nobody hikes these narrow canyons during the summer monsoon season.

After four miles I came to an obstacle with a few boulders and some driftwood choking off the canyon. Hmmm…

It took me quite awhile to solve that puzzle since none of the three options (downclimbing, swimming, jumping in water of unknown depth) looked pleasant.

I waterproofed my backpack and prepared to swim, but once I got closer I didn’t like how narrow the chute was. So I played to my strengths, and carefully downclimbed the large boulder, and lowered myself into crotch-deep water. With part 1 of the obstacle completed, I now had to figure out part 2, which came just a minute later…a small waterfall! Fortunately I found a very small cave/tunnel in the left canyon wall, and I was able to bypass the waterfalls.

The waterfalls, as seen from just downstream where the tunnel emerged from the boulders:

Solving those puzzles took me an hour, and by now it was 7pm. I quickly hiked the rest of the Canyon in 20 minutes and got to the exit point, which was called “Fat man’s misery”. It started as a steep climb of a talus field, with a bunch of poison ivy to avoid.

The namesake feature of the climb was this little tunnel between boulders. I had to take off my backpack to fit through, and even then…. it felt squeezy.

After emerging through a hole in the boulders, I felt thoroughly scraped up, wet, full of sand, and tired.

But I was done for the day! And I had a great view down to the East Fork Virgin River (& Parunuweap Canyon) where I had just been hiking.

It was my last night camping on the Hayduke, and I had an amazing little camping spot.

What a surprisingly long day! Usually dirt roads are easy but these were slow and sandy, and the Parunuweap Canyon was amazing but also slow due to the tricky spots. The Hayduke kept the adventure coming, right up to the last minute! I will finish tomorrow morning after hiking what should be a quick 4 miles to the road.

Thursday June 8, 13.5mi/21.7km

Highway 389 (766.6/5160ft) (AZ) to Squirrel Creek (NA/5480ft) (UT)

I finished my laundry and resupply shopping, and checked out of the motel at 11am. I walked back through town, and I was entertained by a bunch of little things. Like this funny sign! “Adventure’s 2nd stop, Maverik is the first” Ha!

It seemed to be the last day of school, all the kids were out in the park having a catered lunch and talking excitedly.

It was a very nice park too, with tons of old leafy trees and green grass.

I went to the Main Street Cafe for lunch, and I see why it is so highly recommended.

It’s kind of hidden down a side street and didn’t look very special from the outside, but the food was excellent!

After lunch I walked down the block to the east end of town, and hitched out of Hurricane. I waited for about 30 minutes before being picked up, and it was one of the more entertaining rides I’ve had. Stacy was great to talk with, and he explained how he had invented this device that picks up all the sharp burrs (goat heads, thistle, etc) from your floor or yard.

Apparently after posting a video on TikTok and getting 80 million views, he started selling tons of his product. Cool guy. He was kind enough to drop me off at the exact spot along highway 389 where I had left off my hike yesterday.

It was an easy 6-mile road walk although the passing trucks made me nervous. One of the local properties had some very strange things in their yard.

“Apple dumplings and UFO transportation center” Huh?!? The porta-potty with the built-in TV antenna and the sign “ejection seat” was equally confusing. I kept walking. After a couple hours I entered Colorado City.

I stopped into Bee’s Marketplace for a snack, and I was impressed how big and modern the grocery store was.

After talking to a few employees I found out that most of the former townspeople (Fundamentalist LDS, aka polygamists) were forced out and now the town is modernizing and a ton of new stuff is being built. The milkshakes were pretty good!

I walked through the rest of town and noticed that while some of it seemed normal, there were definitely some blocks that had a creepy vibe and all the houses had the word “Zion” over their doorways.

A few times I had seen big groups of identical looking children roaming around, and all dressed in old-timey clothing. I’m pretty sure they were all siblings….7 kids is a big family! Even the post office was a little odd, I’d never seen one that served two different towns in two different states.

Most blocks of Colorado City had houses, but occasionally there was a block that was just a small farm with random animals roaming around. Weird.

After walking north for a mile, I technically crossed from Arizona back into Utah. There were no signs or anything showing the border, it was just a big empty park.

Finally after a couple hours I was leaving the town behind. As I walked up Water Canyon, I was intrigued by this little farm on the outskirts. I was totally excited to buy squeaky cheese curds, except they were closed. D’oh.

I walked further up Water Canyon and then it split off into Short Creek.

My maps were not quite accurate, and I could not follow the route drawn without trespassing on private property. But eventually I figured out the proper route and arrived at Squirrel Canyon Trailhead.

I walked for a couple miles on very wide trails (probably old Jeep roads), with a ton of soft deep sand that was slow going.

Soft sand is the worst. As I slowly climbed Squirrel Canyon, the trail became a little better. There was even a small creek and spring flowing!

I didn’t need any water since I had carried 2 liters from town, and with all the cows around It was probably a little polluted. I hiked uphill a few more minutes to find a flat spot, and then I set up my tent to camp.

It’s one of my last nights camping on the Hayduke and it’s a pretty nice spot overlooking the valley.

Wednesday June 7, 27.8mi/44.8km

Upper Hack Canyon (739.2/4600ft) to Highway 389 (766.6/5160ft) (AZ) + 0.4mi water reservoir

I thought it might get hot in the afternoon, so I started hiking early at 6:15am. The next 30 or so miles are called the Arizona Strip, and is known for being a shadeless plateau and often getting hot. I love morning miles and watching the sunrise creep down the canyon walls.

Even the moon was out! Although it was about to set.

In less than an hour I came to my first water source for the day called Hack “reservoir”. That was such an optimistic description of this water feature.

I checked it out pretty thoroughly and I couldn’t find anywhere that wasn’t a sludgy muddy mess, and also it was filled with old tires. There was even a dead cow nearby! Gross. (Cows ruin everything).

So I kept hiking all morning on a dirt two track road, and the nice cool temperatures of the morning sun.

Occasionally I would see small herds of cows just roaming around freely, and this group had a cute little calf with it.

The miles flew by on all these flat easy dirt roads. And so far, it wasn’t hot…my lucky day!

For maybe half an hour the route detoured off into Yellowstone wash.

Hiking in the wash seemed kind of pointless since there was a nice dirt road that ran parallel to it, but I didn’t know that until I had finished hiking the wash. Next time I would stick to the road! There was a small climb, and at the top was this very nice water source that was fenced off and protected from cows. Amazing!

I took off my pack, drank a ton of water, and had my lunch break there. Some small clouds even came in to provide a little bit of shade, and there was a breeze which made the temperature perfect.

From this spot I was only 11 miles from the highway and the town of Colorado City. I decided to try to make it to town and I hiked all afternoon on more lovely dirt roads.

It was great scenery, I was hiking North towards these next set of mountains in the distance.

I arrived to the big paved highway 389 just after 4pm. It’s amazing what’s possible with perfect temperatures and nice dirt roads, I hiked 27 miles by 4pm! I spent 45 minutes standing by the road hitching, and eventually an oil worker picked me up on his way to his next job (13 hours away!). I was in the little town of Hurricane UT.

It looked like a lovely little place, they even had a little heritage House museum, just like the one in Kanab.

There was a big city park that was two blocks long and it even had a little splash park, so of course I had to walk through it and feel the nice cold water spray everywhere. It reminded me of many of the small towns in New Zealand on the Te Araroa.

After a quick Google search I determined that the Rodeway Inn was the best deal, and they even had a free breakfast.

I checked into my room dropped off all my stuff and probably went across the street to the Rooster Run cafe, and got dinner. And a milkshake, of course.

After dinner I went back to my room and showered and did some planning for my next upcoming hikes. The hotel has a nice laundry room but apparently it closed at 8pm, so I’ll have to do that in the morning along with a few other minor chores. Only a few more days on the Hayduke, and then I’m finished!

Tuesday June 6, 26.5mi/42.7km

Showerbath Spring (712.7/2680ft) to Upper Hack Canyon (739.2/4600ft) (AZ)

Good morning Kanab Creek Canyon! This was the view from my tent when I woke up.

After I packed up, I spent a little while checking out the Showerbath springs. It’s a huge dripping piece of vegetation on the cliff, with quite a surprising amount of water coming off of it.

The greenery that grows there is massive, I think 12 people could fit under there. Up close, it looks like a Dr Seuss plant.

I hiked out at 7:15 and had nice views of the cliffs, while enjoying the shade.

Further up the Canyon, I was able to use some game trails, and cut off some distance across the meandering valley. There were tons of these prickly pear cacti, I’ve never seen so many and growing so close together. I called it cacti national forest, ha.

A couple hours into the morning, I started to lose my shade. It was a combination of the cliff becoming shorter, and the Sun getting higher in the sky.

Surprisingly, Kanab Creek had intermittent water all the way up to hack Canyon. This was supposed to be a dry section of trail, but the thousands (millions?) of tadpoles I saw proved otherwise.

I had lunch at the junction of Kanab Creek and Hack Canyon, under a shady Cottonwood tree. As soon as I turned into Hack Canyon, the water disappeared and I walked in a dry wash.

A few minutes later I was passing through a fence, which I’m pretty sure meant I was leaving Grand Canyon National Park.

The wash was pretty nice to walk in, but surprisingly there were even nicer trails parallel to it, so I took advantage.

It was pretty hot in Hack Canyon, so I took a few breaks in the meager shady spots I could find. I hiked up Hack Canyon for a couple hours on horse trails like this.

I came to Willow spring, which my guidebook says not to drink because it’s radioactive.

Good thing this cow had been drinking from it all day, it ran off when I walked nearby. It sure makes you think twice about eating beef.

I soon crossed another fence and arrived at the end of a dirt road, at the Hack Canyon trailhead.

From there I had a couple hours of easy roadwalking to do, and it was quite enjoyable.

I listened to some podcasts and audiobooks while I enjoyed the scenery. It was such a pleasure to simply walk without having to watch every step I made. Because the miles today were pretty easy, I had covered 26 miles by 7pm. I started looking for a camping spot, and soon figured out that the only reasonable places to camp were in the wash that ran parallel to the dirt road. So I setup my tent in the dry wash, and enjoyed the cooler temperatures at this higher elevation (It was a little too warm for sleeping the last couple of nights).

Given that I’m only 27 miles from Colorado City, tomorrow might be a town day depending on how easy the miles are.

Monday June 5, 16.4mi/26.4km

Deer Creek Campsite (696.3/2360ft) to Showerbath Spring (712.7/2680ft) (AZ)

I woke up to the sound of water and eventually realized that it was not raining… I was camped next to Deer Creek. It’s so unusual to be camping near water on this desert trail.

I packed up and hiked out at 7:15, and Deer Creek quickly turned into a slot Canyon. Cool!

It just kept getting deeper and deeper as I walked along it on a narrow ledge.

Within a few minutes I was getting close to its confluence with the Colorado River, and I could see daylight ahead.

I emerged from the depths of the Deer Creek Canyon and got a nice morning view of the Colorado River.

After making my way down some easy switchbacks, I was at the base of Deer Creek falls.

Judging by the amount of footprints in the sand, I think most rafting groups probably stop here for a view. I had a nice second breakfast break at the waterfalls, and realized that I had just hiked the last official trail on the Hayduke… from here onwards everything was either bushwhacking or roadwalking. Today’s adventure would be 7 miles of boulder hopping along the Colorado River. Let the games begin…

It started off fairly easy, with sandy patches and some game trails to follow.

After a mile, I came across the only rafting group I would see all day. They said once they had finished packing up they would find me somewhere downstream and give me a ride.

For an hour I hiked well above the banks of the Colorado River, on a shelf of Tapeats sandstone.

There was a very good game trail in this section and it was marked with many cairns. Eventually the shelf ended and I made my way back down to the riverbanks. There were boulders and talus everywhere.

I think I had figured out who made some of the game trails. These bighorn sheep!

I still hadn’t seen that rafting group go by, so I waited on this tiny little sandy beach.

Within a few minutes, I realized how hot it was, and then I walked a little further to have lunch and wait under the shade of a big boulder.

About a mile from the end of the riverbank walk, I came across endless fields of talus…it took awhile.

The last half mile before my departure from the Colorado River was a little easier, because I found a series of game trails right along the riverbanks and was able to avoid much of the rocks. With a quarter mile to go, the rafting group finally went by, and offered me a ride.

I said “no thanks” and 5 minutes later I was at the mouth of Kanab Creek.

It was now 3pm, it had taken me 7 hours to hike 7 miles. Talus hiking is sloooow. The next eight miles would prove to be much more enjoyable. I walked up Kanab Creek, in a nice shady gorge. Usually I would hike on the banks but often I would cross it and walk in the shallow clear water.

Big fish!

It was really fun, and it reminded me of the creek-walks that we used to do in middle school, up Salmon Creek or its tributaries. I hiked around a corner and saw this massive wall just covered in ferns and dripping water. A maidenfern spring! Cool.

Pretty soon Kanab canyon became much narrower and almost like a subway tunnel.

That overhanging cliff was dripping onto the sandy ground, making his cool little formations.

Kanab canyon weaved back and forth for 8 miles, and mostly it was easy walking on small stones or sand.

There were half a dozen “boulder chokes” that would seemingly block the canyon and I would have to solve the maze and scramble my way through. Those were fun but also very time consuming. I really enjoyed walking along the shelves of the Tapeats sandstone, it was like a sidewalk.

I arrived to Showerbath spring just after 7pm, and decided to camp there.

It is such a unique spring! It drips from this vegetation covered cliff and really does feel like a shower. So cool!

Sunday June 4, 27.0mi/43.5km

North Rim at road FS223 (NA/8060ft) to Deer Creek Campsite (696.3/2360ft) (AZ) +23.7mi Tapeats detour

I started off at 7am and had a nice bushwhack for a mile.

It was mostly open forest and only a couple spots were dense and slow-moving. The rest of the morning was on dirt roads, and I even passed a couple of springs. Water is hard to come by up here, so I refilled my bottles from this cattle trough.

It was a sunny and cool morning up here at 8,000 ft elevation on the north rim. Perfect for making miles!

After lunch I had a couple more miles to get to the Bill Hall trailhead, and I was surprised to see this random group of portable toilets in the middle of nowhere.

Almost to Monument point!

One of the other alternates I had researched for getting around Tapeats Creek was called the Crazy Jug route, and I’m guessing it would have emerged from below the rim around here. Now that the road was traveling right next to the edge of the Canyon I had pretty spectacular views to the south.

I made it to the Bill Hall Trailhead at 1pm, and I heard rumbles of thunder from the clouds behind me. Time to descend into the Canyon!

The clouds were getting darker.

But the flowers on the ground looked just as cheerful as ever.

All of a sudden the trail seemed to have disappeared, and then I noticed this little sign with a down arrow. Down I go!

Looking to the east, across the North Rim. The gathering clouds made the photo much more interesting.

And looking to the south:

The trail descended steeply at first, and then contoured around a cliff band. Some spots were a little narrow but mostly it was a reasonable trail.

I thought this little grassy section was unique for around here.

After I had finished the first part of the descent, I was on a bench called the Esplanade. The desert life and cacti started reappearing.

The Bill Hall trail joined the Thunder river trail, and I had some easy hiking on all the slickrock benches.

The storm clouds to the northwest didn’t look too happy. But I like when the clouds are around, it keeps the hot sun away.

The second part of the descent was down into Surprise Valley, which I could see about 1,000 ft below me.

Once I was down in Surprise Valley, I was back on the main Hayduke route. I took a quick side trip over to see Thunder River. It was really cool, this massive spring gushes out from the middle of the cliff. It made a huge waterfall and below it, a sizable stream.

If I had been able to hike Tapeats Creek (it was flooding), I would have hiked down this canyon.

Looking West across Surprise Valley, to where I will be heading.

I easily crossed Surprise Valley in 30 minutes and then started hiking downhill one last time, into Deer Creek Canyon.

The trail started off gently, but soon enough became steep switchbacks and had a couple narrow sections against a cliff.

I stopped and hung out at upper Deer Creek falls for awhile. It was similar to Thunder River falls, it was a massive spring that seemed to just come out of the middle of the cliff.

I refilled my water bottles (which were basically empty), drank a ton of ice cold water, and rinsed off my feet from all the dust. It felt so good. I hiked another 15 minutes to the designated camping area for Deer Creek.

There were some spots in the soft sand, which I passed by for this premium spot under an old cottonwood tree. What a long day, it was 27 miles and almost 6,000ft of descent, I’m gonna sleep good tonight.

Saturday June 3, 26.2mi/42.2km

North Rim near Milk Creek (662.3/8280ft) to North Rim at road FS223 (682.7/8060ft) (AZ) +5.3mi Tapeats detour, +0.5mi GPS correction

It was a pretty cold night and I woke up with some condensation on the inside of the tent. I decided to let the sun dry that a little bit so I didn’t leave until almost 8am. Today was mostly easy roadwalking.

Pretty soon I came to a viewpoint overlooking Crystal Creek canyon. Somewhere in the distance it connects to the Grand Canyon.

I listened to some podcasts as I roadwalked, and it was a very enjoyable morning. I encountered this junction which seemed like a funny juxtaposition of place names. I turned right towards Swamp Point…. But Point Sublime sounds much better!

Halfway through the morning I came to my only water source all day, Kanabownits Spring. It was flowing pretty strong!

I continued on, and the miles flew by as the scenery changed from pines to aspens.

Yup, still heading towards Swamp Point!

At that junction the route took a hard left and headed west, and the forest soon changed back to pines.

I hiked another couple hours all the way to the end of the road. The time flew by as I listened to my Obama audiobook. At the end of the road is the North Bass Trailhead.

Usually, hikers would go down this trail to Moav Saddle, and then down Saddle Canyon and Tapeats Creek. Unfortunately, Tapeats is still flooding from snowmelt, so I have to do a road walk detour around, and rejoin the route at Thunder River. The views from Swamp Point were pretty amazing though. Looking north down Saddle Canyon:

And directly west down into Moav Saddle:

I had to backtrack on the road about a mile, to get around this little side canyon that was blocking me from heading north.

After that short backtrack, I bushwhacked a mile to connect to the next road. It was a super easy bushwhack through open ponderosa pine forest.

Because I had gone upstream a mile, that side canyon was now just a small grassy valley, and very easy to get across.

I quickly climbed up the hillside, and got to the plateau on the opposite side. The bushwhacking was still quite easy, and now the open forest also had some grass.

Surprisingly, for the first (and hopefully only) time of the entire hike, I encountered mosquitoes….insane amounts of hungry mosquitoes. I kept moving quickly through that area, and as soon as I was back on the next dirt road, they were gone. Weird. After a mile on that dirt road, I decided to set up camp. The spot seemed too perfect to pass up, it was in the ponderosa pines, flat, and mosquito-free.

Tomorrow I will start off with one more short bushwack, and then roadwalking most of the day. I love these easy days where I can just hike and listen to audiobooks.

Friday June 2, 19.7mi/31.7km

Cottonwood Campground (649.1/4060ft) to North Rim near Milk Creek (662.3/8280ft) (AZ) +4.8mi Old BA Trail alternate, +1.7mi General Store

I left my little campsite just after 7am, it was a nice spot, and the only one I’ve had (on this trail) with a picnic table. The first mile was easy, hiking on the North Kaibab Trail.

At the Manzanita rest area, I left the Kaibab Trail and turned onto the Old Bright Angel trail. The Kaibab Trail was closed for construction, and there weren’t many other ways to get to the North rim. I could see the ranger station below me along with the helicopter landing area.

It’s an old trail that hasn’t been maintained in years, but it still was reasonably easy to follow if you were paying attention.

This was a unique view that almost nobody else will ever see, since nobody takes this old trail.

I contoured above the Bright Angel creek for a half mile.

And then I came to the crossing of the creek itself. It was running very strongly with all the snowmelt, and it took me quite a while to find an optimal spot to cross it.

The crossing spot I chose was just flowing quickly, but the depth was just below my knees so it was manageable. Once I was on the other side, I took a nice long snack break in the sun and dried out my shoes. Of course, less than a mile later, but had another creek crossing. I could hear in the distance and see the little waterfall nearby.

It was a very easy crossing, only ankle deep, but I still had wet feet.

I had hiked in the Grand Canyon a few times in the past, but never had this unique view before. Looking back behind me, down the canyon:

Occasionally the trail was a little brushy and overgrown with manzanita bushes and scrub oak.

The trail slowly climbed higher and higher, and pretty soon I was at the layer of rock known as redwall.

I was getting close to the top of the climb, I could see the layer of white rock which meant I was almost on the north rim.

The last mile was extremely brushy and overgrown, and it took 45 minutes to push through all the thorny scratchy bushes. I stubbornly kept hiking in my shorts and managed to only give a little blood by the time I was done. I was very happy to see the trail junction!

From the junction, I had about an hour of hiking on the Ken Patrick Trail to reconnect to the original Hayduke route at the North Kaibab Trailhead. It was a nice little trail through a ponderosa pine forest.

At the Trailhead, I met a ranger who was stationed there to enforce the trail closure that I had just detoured around.

I like that they are doing more to acknowledge the ancestral lands of the native people. Signs like this were extremely common in Australia and New Zealand, and I’m just beginning to see them here in the US.

From the North Kaibab Trailhead, It was a short walk to the ranger station.

I asked the backcountry ranger about the upcoming section, specifically the Tapeats Creek. She said she was certain it would still be in flood stage and to avoid it. So I’ll be hiking a detour around that in a couple of days. Next, I walked the 10 minutes down to the general store and got myself some snacks.

Today was opening day for the North rim, and the general store was still getting organized. I talked with the store manager who was very friendly, and whom I may have met previously on the PCT, when she was managing the store in the little town of Stehekin WA. Small world! After I finished my microwave pizza, ice cream, and chocolate milk, it was time to hike on a few more miles. The next 30 miles of the Hayduke are on old dirt roads, nice easy hiking.

At one point the forest opened up into a prairie, it was such unexpected scenery for the North rim.

I was very surprised to see a herd of bison. I had heard that they lived up here but that they were very difficult to encounter.

I hiked on for another hour and then set up camp at a random spot in the forest. It gets cold in the evenings up here at 8,000 ft elevation so I got in my tent pretty quickly after dinner. What a tiring day.

Thursday June 1, 14.7mi/23.7km

South Kaibab Trailhead (639.9/7175ft) to Cottonwood Campground (649.1/4060ft) (AZ) + 4.4mi South Kaibab Trail, +1.1mi GPS correction

I spent the morning getting ready for the next section, which should take 7 days. I took a shower, ate breakfast at the cafe again, and went to the general store and bought some more food. I had met a few Arizona trail hikers, and one of them wanted to hike with me for the next day across the canyon. I waited for an hour at our meeting spot, but she never showed up, so I eventually got on the shuttle bus to the trailhead. I started on the south Kaibab Trail at 2pm, and reversed what I had hiked up yesterday morning.

At a spot called Cedar Ridge, I met these three hikers at a viewpoint. They are from France and we were talking about various hikes to do in Europe, and they gave me a bunch of advice for one of my upcoming trails this summer, the Haute Route Pyrenees. Cool.

(Left to Right) Bastille, Milla, Paul. I continued hiking down into the canyon, and I saw a familiar scene, the Tonto shelf, that we had been hiking for the last 4 days.

I continued further down, and the trail started to make a series of big switchbacks.

I was getting very close to the Colorado River again!

Trail junction with the Black Bridge in the background.

It is one of two pedestrian bridges across the Colorado River in the park.

And to get to the bridge, the trail travels through a blasted tunnel.

It actually wasn’t that dark inside, and it was only a couple hundred feet long.

The bridge itself was much longer, and surprisingly solid, I thought it would be a swingbridge that I could bounce on, ha!

Yep, the Colorado River is just as big as ever.

Now back on the north side of the river, there were a bunch of interpretive displays explaining the history of the area. The bridge was built in 1928 and is a civil engineering landmark.

These old ruins were from a native civilization here about 1000 years ago.

When I got near Phantom Ranch I started seeing more signs of development, like this little farm that housed mules.

Phantom Ranch is a sprawling complex with a campground, cabins, a dining hall, bathrooms, a ranger station, and probably a few more things. They even had a welcome sign!

I stopped by the Ranger station to ask for advice about one of my upcoming river crossings, but no one was there. So I signed the guestbook and browsed through the little library.

The cabins all looked really old, but also really sturdy.

I stopped up at the dining hall briefly, to check it out and buy a snack.

To get a meal requires reservations, but anyone can walk up and buy a drink or snack from the menu at the outside window.

I bought an ice cold lemonade.

I chatted with some of the other hikers there, and several of them commented on my legs, haha. After hiking this trail for over a month, they’re quite tan and muscular, so apparently it was a topic of conversation. I still had 7 miles to go to get to my campsite at Cottonwood Campground, so I hiked on up the North Kaibab Trail.

I followed Bright Angel Creek the entire time, on a trail that looked like it had been built by stonemasons.

A few times, it had to cross the creek on a metal bridge, which I was happy to have since the creek was roaring with snowmelt.

At one spot the canyon was particularly narrow, and it was quite loud with the echoing of the roaring water.

The trail is pretty flat, and climbs only 1000 feet in the 7 mile trek from Phantom Ranch to Cottonwood campground. I arrived to the campground at sunset, and setup my tent on the assigned spot. There was even a locking metal box to keep your food safe from critters!

Mileage-wise, it was a short day but it felt long due to all the elevation change hiking down into the canyon.

Wednesday May 31, 6.7mi/10.8km

Cremation Creek (637.6/3640ft) to South Kaibab Trailhead (639.9/7175ft) (AZ) + 4.4mi South Kaibab Trail

We were awake early once again, and hiking at 6am. There was about an hour of hiking on the Tonto trail, and I watched the sunrise.

The Tonto trail crosses the South Kaibab trail at a junction called the Tipoff, which was quite busy.

There was a group of 15 loud hikers hiking down the Kaibab Trail, which was a little jarring.

The longdrop toilets were a nice feature though.

These signs are always entertaining, showing how much elevation to hike, and the temperatures at each level.

We had a short break at the shade shelter, and then started our 2 hour climb up the South Kaibab Trail.

The view from below Skeleton point:

The Colorado River is way down there somewhere!

It’s fun to look down upon all the switchbacks you just hiked up.

We kept hiking steadily uphill…

…and the views kept coming.

Skeleton point.

Every once in awhile it was neat to look behind us, and see a different perspective.

Near the top, the trail goes into the shade of the ridge.

This little point had a hilarious name. Ooh Aah point!

Just minutes before the top, we met 3 other Haydukers, Peter, Zelzin, and Elina. They are doing a bunch of filming while they hike, and super fun to talk with. I hope to catch up to them later in the next section.

We got to the trailhead, and waited at the bus stop for the next shuttle bus to the Grand Canyon village.

While we were waiting, Shadow ran into an old friend of his from the PCT, “Weapons Grade”. It was really cool to see two people slowly recognize each other, ha!

The bus was pretty crowded with all of the dayhikers.

The bus dropped us off, and the first thing we did was get a breakfast burrito. Next we headed over to the backcountry office, to get our permit updated, as we are a few days ahead of schedule.

I love geology, and this cool chart showing all the layers of rock in the Grand Canyon. The mnemonic device for remembering the layers: “know the canyons history, study rocks made by time”. (Kaibab, Toroweap, Coconino, etc).

After the backcountry office, we walked over to the cafe and had a first lunch. Since Shadow has completed that Hayduke, he will be departing and going back to California. I have a seven or eight day section to get to the next town, so I went to the general store and bought a bunch of food. We set up our tents at the hiker/biker site at Mather Campground, and then hung out all day in the cafe charging our various electronics and catching up on online chores. After dinner we hung out with a fun group of three AZT hikers, and stayed up a little too late eating ice cream and joking about hiker culture.

Great day, tomorrow I will go back down into the canyon!