On the Hermit's Trail - A Grand Canyon Adventure
September 13-15, 2003

On Sept 13 (Saturday) morning I drove from Flagstaff AZ to the Grand Canyon. In the distance as I drove there were spectacular displays of cloud to ground lightening. It is amazing how far away and how clearly you can see those out here. It was beautiful, but also worrisome, since it appeared to be near the Canyon. When I arrived a ranger confirmed that rain was likely at least in the morning. But, it let up to a light drizzle, so off down the trail I went. The temp was around 53F. I went down the Hermit's rest trail - about 9.5 miles from the south rim to the Colorado River. Only passed one person along the way, and here is a pic of the trail and him going his merry way:

Trail view - Hermit's

Although Hermit's trail was the one that the park service rated difficult and dangerous I did not have any trouble with it. None of it was a bad as some spots we had seen in the Tetons and the trail was not hard to follow. Here is another view about 2/3 of the way as I approached the Tonto Plateau (which is a plateau located about 3000 feet below the south rim and about 1500 feet above the Colorado River). In the picture you can see the trail switchbacking down toward the Tonto Trail:

Hermit's trail nearing the Tonto Plateau

After following the Tonto Trail a short bit, I went down Hermit's Creek to the river, and camped on a knoll adjacent to Hermit's Rapid on the Colorado River. Watched about ten large rafts and seven kayaks go through the rapid. It was pretty neat. As it turned out, I was the only one camped there, so the nearest person was at least two miles away. That was pretty cool. It was warm there, and I never unrolled my sleeping bag - just slept on my ground pad and under a light sheet. Also a nice breeze. Two slight misadventures: 1) I left some cookies out of my pack (but in a bag) while I went away for 3 minutes to get water, and a large raven flew down and ate my Oreos!; 2) I managed to burn my dinner - yuck - I had to eat up, but it was seriously gross to eat! Here was my camp:

My camp at Hermit's Rapid

On Sunday AM I started back up Hermit's Creek around 6:30AM. After about a half mile I slipped and fell, managing to skin my knee, my elbow and also snapped one of my hiking poles in two. Not a good start to the day, and a harbinger of things to come ... Went back up to the Tonto Plateau level and then went east to Indidan Gardens campground. The total distance was 14.8 miles with 2700 feet of ascent and 1300 of descent. Along the way, the trail would dip down and up as it passed various creeks. Here is a picture as I went through Monument Canyon/Creek:

In Monument Canyon - notice the "monument"

So, this day turned out to be very long. First, the trail was not easy to follow. Numerous times I had to really look to find the trail, and once went a short distance in the wrong direction. It was surprisingly difficult, and I do not think I could have done a few years ago without the recent Boy Scout experience. And, I ran short on water. As it was, I made it to Indian Gardens rather dehydrated, but not frighteningly so. It did teach me a lesson - namely that I must oversupply myself with water in the canyon. In this case, one gallon of water for the 14.8 miles was simply not enough.

There was plenty of fresh water at Indian Gardens, and a fair number of people. Nice camp. Talked with a couple from Canada for a bit, and also a guy from China. Here is a picture of me in my campsite taken by the Canadians:

In my Indian Gardens campsite

Woke up around 5:30 on Monday and started up the trail to the South Rim: 4.5 miles and a 3000 foot ascent, but with lots os water available. My legs were really sore from the day before, so I took it easy. Here is a view along the trail:

On Bright Angel Trail - Indian Gardens is the green patch on the left edge of the pic, about half way up

That was it. Here is a picture I had taken at the end:

Back at the South Rim