Bright Angel Trail to Plateau Point
Grand Canyon National Park

April 3, 2004


This was a day hike by my brother Russell and myself. He had last visited the Grand Canyon in 1970 when our parents took us on a several week car tour of the United States.

We hiked on the Bright Angel Trail from the South Rim to Indian Gardens and then out to Plateau Point, which is a promontory on the Tonto Plateau that overlooks the inner gorge and the Colorado River. The roundtrip distance was 12 miles, with 3100 vertical feet up and down. The up of course came in the last 4.5 miles when we were starting to get a little tired. This was my second hike to Plateau Point - the first was 21 years ago with my good friend Ravi.

Russell and I actually arrived at the canyon the day before our hike in time to see a rainstorm roll in, complete with a rainbow. The colors in the canyon were incredibly vivid.

The day of the hike started out with ... SNOW. Yes, there was a dusting of snow at the rim, and the rim was pretty much fogged in, but after going down the trail only a few hundred yards or so, it started to clear. The views were great, as a lot of springtime greens were appearing, along with some flowering trees.

We reached Plateau Point in about 3 hours, and had wonderful views of the river and the portion of the Bright Angel Trail that goes from Indian Gardens to the river. A mule trip arrived at the point shortly before we headed back up. We also had a runin with a squirrel, which slipped into our lunch bag that I had taken out of my day pack. Imagine two grown men chasing the squirrel which had our pack of saltines between its front feet and was dragging it toward its den. Luckily for us, just before the den, the crackers were dropped. Not so luckily for us, we realized a few minutes later that we were missing an apple - apparently the squirrel had gotten away with an apple before we noticed it. It seems that the attempt to get the saltines was a "second helping".

After the chase and eating our lunch, it was back to the rim, which we managed in another 3 hours. It was a terrific day!

A rainbow (South Rim)

A little snow to start

Ready to head down

Our goal (trail in distance)

E & R at Plateau Point

Colorado River

Inner gorge trail

Some mules

Looking back to the rim

Blossoms!

Rays from above

Where we came from


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