Hiking to the Bottom of the Grand Canyon and Back Up Again
Arthur Frommer's Budget Travel, August, 2002 by James T. Yenckel
It's a piece of cake," said Grand Canyon National Park Ranger Pam Cox. Her face a giant smile, she was making a gung-ho try at bolstering our courage for the rigorous 9.6-mile hike we faced the next morning. Having descended to famed Phantom Ranch at the very bottom of the Arizona canyon the day before - the first leg of a three-day, five-star adventure on a tightwad's budget - we now had to climb back out again. The South Rim, our goal, towered high above. Way way above.
Maybe for her it's no big deal, I thought. She's done it dozens of times. But what about all of us first-timers? Entering the canyon, we had taken the shorter (7.2-mile) but much steeper South Kaibab Trail, and my upper thighs still screamed in pain from the experience. Outbound, we planned to climb Bright ...