Rebecca M. Douglass, Author

Last week we took a walk along the South Rim. This week, we're hoisting our packs and heading down. Since I'm not currently able to hike and make more exciting photos, I'll probably take it nice and slow through this trip report and share lots of photos over the next few weeks. Below the Rim, Day 1: BA and Tonto West to Horn Creek With cool temperatures and a reasonable mileage, we made no effort at a crack-of-dawn start, planning to meet at the Backcountry Office Parking (where it's okay to leave a car for days) at 8 a.m. Eventually, we actually met about 8:15 at the trailhead itself. Close enough.   Traction devices at the ready, we started down the trail. There were already quite a few smart dayhikers out, making sure they got down and back up before it got too warm. Even with frosty overnight temperatures, the Canyon was warming up. Within a couple of hundred yards we had to stop and put on our microspikes to deal with the icy trail. Many dayhikers were doing withou

Along the South Rim Although the main point of my recent trip to the Grand Canyon was to hike in the canyon, I arrived a day early and thus had time to walk the South Rim Trail as well, in part as a scouting expedition: I wanted to know how far the ice extended down the Bright Angel Trail. The afternoon I arrived, I walked a short stretch of the trail east from the BA trail. Late-afternoon sun makes for an extra-special shadow-and-light show. Yes, that's snow. There was a lot of it around; the campground, though open, was still melting out. Low light on the Canyon. The large side canyon directly across on the right side of the photo is where the North Kaibab trail runs.   The paved trail is marked of in millions of years, with signposts here and there to describe what the place was like at that time. The next morning I had time for a longer hike, and headed west along the rim from the Bright Angel trailhead for several miles. Conveniently, when you get tired of walking, you can gra

 ... To the Grand Canyon, that is. Time for the spring desert trip, and a return to the big hole in the ground. Just for fun, here are a few books I've read about the Canyon, some of which you might enjoy. Oddly, I don't seem to have reviewed many of them. The Man Who Walked Through Time, Colin Fletcher. An absolute classic, the account of the first person to walk the length of the Canyon, below the rim. The Promise of the Grand Canyon: John Wesley Powell's Perilous Journey and his Vision for the American West. John F. Ross.  A good account of Powell's journey and a thought-provoking look at his all-too-accurate assessment of the ability of the western lands to sustain agriculture. The Exploration of the Colorado River and Its Canyons. John Wesley Powell. The man's own account of the trip.   The Emerald Mile. Kevin Fedarko. The story of 3 crazy river guides and the fastest trip ever through the Canyon, on the waters of the 1983 flood. Also tells about that flo

I'm back with the final set of photos from the Grand Canyon... thanks for your indulgence! (If you really like to drool over amazing rocks, the first three episodes are Into the Canyon , The Search for Chevaya Falls , and Rainbow Falls ). Our final day was the hike back out of the Canyon on the Bright Angel Trail, probably the most heavily traveled route in the whole canyon, and also probably the most engineered. There's a reason it's almost three miles farther than the South Kaibab, down which we came to start the trip. I was pleasantly surprised by both the easy grade and the morning shade over most of the route. Fearing a hot and exposed climb, I made another early start. Each of us left on our own schedules, so I hiked alone again. Heading to the Silver Bridge--the Bright Angel bridge--in the early light. This bridge also carried the pipe that moves water to the South Rim.  The same bridge from below, one year earlier. Taken on my raft trip April 2021 Once across the