Fly-Walk-Hike the Grand Canyon in Arizona
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| View of Grand Canyon from South Rim |
Visiting the South Rim of the Grand Canyon, AZ used to be easy. One would fly to the Grand Canyon airport (GCN) and pick up a rental car to get around.
One could stay at any of a number of hotels in Tusayan, which is right next to the airport, or at one of the campgrounds. Then one would drive to the South Rim of the Grand Canyon National Park every day.
As an alternative, one could take a shuttle from the airport to Tusayan, then continue daily with a bus from Tusayan to the South Rim and back. That bus service was discontinued in 2021.
For a number of years, rental cars have not been available at the Grand Canyon airport, except for an offer with an exorbitant daily rate. The nearest car rental with reasonable rates is at the Flagstaff, AZ airport, about 70 miles away.
How can you then fly there and visit with minimal fuss?
Three Options
There are two ways where you fly into the Grand Canyon airport and take a reasonably priced taxi into the park:
The comfy solution: You stay at one of the hotels located within walking distance of the South Rim. A good choice with reasonable rates is the Maswik Lodge. Here, “reasonable” means relative to other hotels within walking distance of the South Rim.
Roughing it: You bring along a small tent and stay at the Mather Campground. You can buy food at the General Store of the nearby Market Place.
There is a third option that we have used: Fly into Flagstaff, get a rental car, and drive to the Grand Canyon. That option allows you to bring a significant amount of camping gear.
How to See the Canyon
Getting around the park is easy with the excellent bus system. Once you have arrived at a hotel or the campground, you can park the rental car for the entire time of your stay.
You can plan your stay like 99.9 percent of visitors: Use the bus to go to various viewpoints, walk some of the shorter distances, and just see the canyon from the rim.
There is nothing wrong with that program. But if you want to experience the scale and magnitude of the canyon, you need to hike into it.
Descending into the canyon seems a scary experience when you read all the warning signs. But there is a way to do so safely and in comfort.
You need proper hiking shoes since the trails are steep and have loose gravel here and there.
Here is the plan for a three-day stay.
Day 1
Take the bus to the eastern portion of the Rim Trail. Stop at the various viewpoints and walk some of the segments.
But most importantly, hike about 1 mile down into the canyon to the Ooh-Aah Point of the South Kaibab Trail, starting from the South Kaibab Trailhead. The Ooh-Aah point is named after a typical reaction to the view.
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| Start of South Kaibab Trail |
Look back up after the first 15 minutes of hiking. You will be surprised that you came down that steep slope during that short time.
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| First part of South Kaibab Trail |
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| Early view into the canyon from South Kaibab Trail |
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| Ooh-Aah Point in upper center of photo |
Look out for the huge California condor as it soars in and above the canyon.
Day 2
Take the bus to the western portion of the South Rim. There are a number of stops. The last one is at Hermit’s Rest.
Walk some of the segments where the trail stays close to the South Rim and offers splendid views.
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| View from Western portion of Rim Trail |
Now and then stay behind at a viewpoint when others have taken in the sights and are returning to the bus stop.
In those quiet moments, listen to the sounds of the canyon. At one point you can even hear the roar of Colorado River rapids more than five miles away.
In the early evening, take the bus again to Hermit’s Rest. With any luck, you'll experience a spectacular sunset painting the canyon. Return with the last scheduled bus.
Day 3
The first two days are designed not just to see the canyon from various points of the South Rim, but also as a training program for today’s strenuous hike: You start at the Bright Angel Trailhead and hike down to Indian Garden.
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| The upper part of the Bright Angel Trail... |
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| ... includes two tunnels, then... |
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| ... continues in a zigzag pattern to Indian Gardens. |
You only need to carry at least 2 liters of water since you can't refill the bottle at two intermediate rest stations. They do have toilets.
The stations are spaced 1.5 miles apart. The first two have a shaded rest house. At Indian Garden you sit in the shade of trees and can replenish your water supply.
Take your time; do not push yourself. Yes, there are faster hikers. Just ignore them. Take regular breaks and enjoy the changing scenery.
Going down, stop every 30 minutes. Going up, stop even more often. When you do this, you will feel relaxed and in control of the hike.
Drink plenty of water; eat some trail mix or sandwiches.
As you descend, formations of the canyon that from the rim look like small hills begin to grow. After a while they become impressive mountains. It’s a magical experience.
There is an optional, seemingly short hike from Indian Gardens to the rim of the gorge of the Colorado River.
The trail appears to be level across the mesa, but don’t be fooled. The trail goes up and down, and you would be hiking it during the hottest part of the day.
For that reason, you may want to forego that additional effort and instead stay at Indian Garden for an extended period in the shade of trees before hiking back up.
A Strenuous Hike
If you are in truly good shape for hiking, you can undertake an 11-12 hour hike. It starts at the South Kaibab Trailhead and proceeds to the Ooh-Aah Point as described above. But then it continues and after 1.5 miles reaches Cedar Ridge.
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| Descent to Cedar Ridge |
The trail continues to Skeleton Point and then Tip Off. Toilets are available at Cedar Ridge and Tip Off.
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| Tonto West Trail from Tip Off of South Kaibab Trail to Indian Garden of Bright Angel Trail |
The trail is mostly level, but also has some gentle slopes up and down. After 4.5 miles you reach Indian Garden of the Bright Angel Trail. At that point, you can get additional drinking water for the first time. This means that you have hiked 9 miles without any water supply. At a minimum, you should start with 3 quarts of water. Be aware that the temperature on the Tonto Plateau can easily rise beyond 90 degrees F.
Weather
Photos typically show the Grand Canyon in bright sunlight. Yes, there may be some picturesque clouds, but the lighting of the canyon doesn't seem to be affected.
Don't be fooled. In spring and fall, the canyon may have snow or hail.
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| Hail in Mather Campground of Grand Canyon |
Violent thunderstorms may unleash heavy rains. . .
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| Thunderstorm over the canyon near Bright Angel Trail |
. . . and turn hiking trails into mud baths.
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| Bright Angel Trail after heavy rains |
Sandstone rock formations glisten.
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| Sandstone formation of Bright Angel Trail |
The experience is terrific if you are properly equipped with rain gear, and absolutely miserable if you are unprepared.
Planning the Departure Flight
The entire park, including the trails into the canyon, has excellent cell coverage.
Flight planning is easy. If you don't have WiFi, as is the case in the Mather Campground, create a hot spot with your cell phone and use your iPad or whatever to check weather and plan upcoming flights.
If you just use paper charts, get the special Grand Canyon map before you leave home. It displays four routes across the canyon. If you use electronics, the Garmin Pilot and ForeFlight display the special chart correctly as you expand the VFR map.
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| VFR routes across the Grand Canyon |
The four VFR routes have specific endpoints that you must adhere to. They lie at the end of narrow corridors that mandate a VFR altitude for each direction.
The altitudes of the corridors are different from the accustomed VFR altitudes of odd-thousand plus 500 for eastbound flight and even-thousand plus 500 for westbound flight.
You must follow these rules to avoid collisions in the narrow corridors.
It’s best to use the autopilot so you can concentrate on the marvelous vistas below.
On the day of your departure from the Grand Canyon airport, you may want to fly one of the routes and continue to Page, AZ. After refueling in Page, embark on the home-bound flight.
South Rim Versus North Rim
You may wonder why the emphasis is always on the South Rim of the Grand Canyon. Where does this leave the North Rim?
There are two reasons for the South Rim’s popularity.
The northwesterly flowing Colorado River doesn't divide the canyon into two evenly sized north and south regions. Instead, the canyon portion north of the river is twice as wide as the one to the south.
The South Rim offers an expansive view of that wide northern portion, while the North Rim only provides a foreshortened version.
During most of the day the sun is behind the viewer on the South Rim and produces colorful illumination of the canyon. For the North Rim, the viewer looks into the sun and sees the canyon in a persistent haze.
Train Adventure
If you want to experience how earlier generations of visitors came to the Grand Canyon by rail, book seats on the Grand Canyon Railway. It connects Williams, AZ with the Grand Canyon.
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| Grand Canyon Railway: Two engines pull eleven carriages. |
Lastly
The Grand Canyon of Arizona is one of the wonders of the world. You can fly-walk-hike there, but it takes a bit of planning.
This post is designed to help with that. It’s based on recent visits where we were not aware of all the ins and outs, and sometimes learned the hard way how we should have done everything. This post summarizes that hindsight.
Have any questions or feedback about this post? Please share your thoughts in the comments.
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