I'm standing in a pool in Phantom Creek in water up to my arm pits. Jerry says, "How deep is it?" I say, "How would I know?" He knows very well, I dove in and swam across, without touching botom. But he says, "How deep is it?" I realize what he means is, "Walk back across the pool and let me see how far the water goes over your head." I take a couple steps and the water quickly gets "over my mouth." I bob back to my prior spot. That's as much information as I'm going to give him. He wants to step off the ledge with his pack on. He hopes he can touch bottom and walk out. It didn't work in 2001. I don't know why it would work now...Overview - April 18 – April 24, 2013
• Hike down South Kaibab Trail to Bright Angel Campground,
• Then up to Cottonwood,
• Day hike to North Rim with day packs, stay at Cottonwood,
• Hike down to Bright Angel again, wait until there is shade on the hill, hike up to Utah Flats,
• Hike west and down into Phantom Creek
• Hike east, right down Phantom Creek to Bright Angel Creek and back to BA Campground
• Hike out Bright Angel Trail
Weather – not a hint of rain, lows between 48 and 55, highs between 75 and 85. Perfect! Hooded sweatshirts were bulky to pack but made the lows quite tolerable.
Pictures – The love/hate relationship with his camera continued for Norm. Disregard all 1/1/2008 dates.
We had done all of this on two other trips
• Rim to Rim to Rim and over to Phantom Creek but flow was too high to hike down Phantom creek. We hiked back through Utah Flats. 1998
• Clear Creek and Phantom Creek, when we actually hiked down Phantom creek. 2001 Both hikes are described in this blog
Day 1 – South Kaibab Trail – Awoke 5AM at Red Feather Hotel. Big Breakfast at McDonalds. Parked at Visitor Center. Caught first ‘orange route’ bus in about 5 minutes. Walking by 6:30. Lots of people descending with just day packs. Assumed they were day hikers but none turned around. Must have cabins at Phantom Ranch or they had their duffels carried by mules for about $69.00 each. We passed no one. We met out first up hiker at 9:17, near the top of the Redwall, just two minutes after Jerry’s amazing prediction. We took off our packs and rested at Cedar Ridge and again at the Tipoff with a few shorter pauses along the way. 
After we crossed the Colorado River on the Black Bridge we met a familiar pair, who we saw coming down. Now they seemed to be going back up. We asked if they were going for the South Rim. They said, “We’re going to give it a try.” The Park Service has signs at the trail heads strongly recommending that you do not attempt this. There is no alternative, once you start back up. The only questions are when you might finish, and can you do it without being “rescued” by the Park Service. We were to soon learn that Rim to River and Back in a day is not considered much of a feat any more.
Bright Angel Campground was only about one third full when we arrived at 12:20. We were happy to find that the third site looked like it would be shady most of the day, and we dropped our packs there. Had lunch, napped, read, went up to Phantom Ranch for a cup of coffee. There we chatted with a geologist who was on a 14 day boat trip with a group of geologists, solving the geological puzzles of the Canyon. We found four other parties of Michigan people at BA Campground, some from Royal Oak. Nice talk with a father/son duo from Flint. Son on leave from Army. Had come to the Grand Canyon hoping to get a back country permit, since they had struck out by mail. Lucked into a four day trip. First day, Indian Gardens, which they arrived at via South Kaibab and Tonto Trails, for good measure. Had been to Cottonwood and were hiking out Bright Angel next day. Entertaining and informative ranger talk on Failures in the Grand Canyon, including the Spaniards, Ives, Stanton, the NPS “deer drive”, NPS burro removal by boat, and more. The ranger also took questions on about any subject of the Grand Canyon. At our site we read a story from the Vinyl Café book, and went to sleep about 9:00 (midnight Michigan time). Lots of stars once the moon set.
Day 2 – On to Cottonwood with stop at Ribbon Falls – This walk is a very gradual climb on the North Kaibab Trial. The trail is constructed on top of and to protect the waterline that runs from Roaring Springs below the North rim down to Phantom Ranch, crosses the Colorado River below the Silver Bridge, and then goes up to Indian Garden where the water is pumped up to holding tanks on the South Rim. This waterline had been disrupted by flash floods of the Bright Angel Creek, and so they have really reinforced the walls and dikes that protect it. It is all buried beneath the relatively smooth trail, which runs along the Bright Angel Creek, through the very narrow inner gorge rock and then opens up as it runs north. When you reach, Cottonwood, you are at the Tapeats Sandstone level.
We started at 6:50. Jerry’s pack crossbar was quite askew. He attempted to “adjust” it with a large rock, but couldn’t get it to budge. We were in the welcome shade until about 10:30. We were passed by some Michigan people who had hiked down Grandview and over to S. Kaibab on the Tonto. Norm had considered that hike a few times but never pursued it due to concern about dependable water sources. These folks said water was available at 2-3 locations and was not an issue. This lead Norm to conjecture about a Grandview to maybe Hermit trip. (Later consideration lead to visions of full days in the sun on the debilitating and pretty boring Tonto trail, and abandonment of this potential trip.) As we were resting in the shade we were caught by a young fellow, who had only a Camelback/daypack. He had come all the way from the South Rim, was going to the North Rim, and then planned to go back to the South Rim, ALL IN ONE DAY. He had started at about 4:30AM with a headlamp. He passed us at about 9:00AM and then passed Cottonwood going the other direction at about 2:00PM, so was maybe on pace to finish by 8 or 9PM, with his headlamp and the moon. We were impressed.
We reached the Ribbon Falls bridge about 11:30, so dropped our packs and went over for lunch. Always beautiful and cool. No one was at the falls while we were eating. A lone woman hiker arrived as we were leaving. There was a single woman hiker at Cottonwood when we arrived at 1:00PM. A few other parties joined us, but the campground was only about half full. We rinsed clothes and cleaned up in the creek by the ranger’s house. The flies at Cottonwood are relentless, so we were back in long sleeves, and long pants. Norm even completely (almost) zipped up his bivy sack to keep the flies out. After dinner we played trivia on the benches down by the creek. Norm slept poorly and frequently read his Kindle in the middle of the night. He inadvertently learned that he could magnify the font to be large enough to read without his glasses, this because he forgot to put them on.
Day 3 – To the North Rim and Back – day packs only. The whole idea behind this route in 1998 was to see if we could be the first to the North Rim before it opened for the season. In ’98, there was about 40 inches of snow with snow extending at least a mile down the trail. There were two sets of foot prints ahead of us, so we were confident we were numbers 3, 4, and 5 to the North Rim in 1998. This year, the trail was full of trail runners going South Rim to North Rim to South Rim in a day. By our count, at least 38 people beat us to the North Rim just on the day we climbed up. We, of course, don’t know how many made it on prior days. By our count, a total of 60 people got to the North rim on April 20 alone, all except the two of us started on the South Rim. All but 6 made it back, as far as we know. They started as early as midnight the night before and as late as 7:00AM that morning. One of the best trail runners in the country was among them. He had no shirt, and carried about 1 liter of water, no food that we could see. We were, of course, impressed by the endurance of these runners. We were amazed that no one took a header off one of these rugged and narrow trails.
We left Cottonwood at 6:20. We met National Park Ranger, D. Yorick, somewhere in the Muav Limestone. When we said we were coming up from Cottonwood, she said, “Oh, you are normal people.” She was also amazed by the runners. We discussed the issues they raise for the Park Service, and commiserated on the lack of means to manage or control their use of the park. No one yet knows how many rescues are required for these folks, but one can guess at the additional resources they use, along the corridor trails. Ranger Yorick was carrying an automatic pistol and a tazer pistol, and an umbrella for the sun. An interesting combination. She had ferried a car over to the North Rim and was walking back to her job on the South Rim. What a life. She told us about the “Cattle Trail” over to Phantom Creek. It comes off the North Kaibab Trail at the first bridge going south from Cottonwood. We paused there the next day and saw what looked like some “action” at a creek crossing and maybe a bit of a trail. She said it was tedious, and we knew it would be exposed to the sun, so we stuck with our plan to go via Utah Flats. On our way from Utah Flats to Phantom Creek, we looked for a trail on the North side of the creek. We couldn’t see one, but at that distance it wasn’t surprising. There might be one.
There were approximately 10 points where noticeable damage had been done to the North Kaibab trail by falling rocks. At one point a rock had impacted and dislodged a great deal of reinforcing rock and left the trail about 10 inches wide. No mules down that section for a while. The most obvious impact was at the Supai Tunnel. The rock above the North entrance to the tunnel had collapsed leaving about two thirds of the tunnel mouth filled with rock. It is easy to scramble over, but once again, no mules through there for a while. There was no water at Supai Tunnel or at the North Rim trail head. Norm melted some snow in a zip lock bag.
There were a few runners at the trail head when we arrived at 11:40 and a steady stream followed. Eventually a fellow in a 50 Mile race shirt came up and made a big deal about an injured young man who would be up soon. We were to tell him to wait, and Mr. 50 Miles would be getting help. Eventually a ranger car and a ranger ambulance arrived. We had seen the young man in question on the way up and doubted that he could get back to the South Rim, but he did not look injured, just very tired. The ranger discussed his condition and all potential options. It seemed that the “best” option for the young man was an ambulance ride to Kanab Utah. Mr. 50 Miles also got permission to bring the other 4 of his party along. I guess this would be considered a preventive rescue. The young man was going to need some sort of assistance, somewhere. Better on the rim than at the bottom of the canyon.
While all of these considerations were being pursued, one of the rangers took a few people over to a water source. Those people filled bottles for the rest of us. Jerry and I would have made it back to the pump operator’s house but it was more pleasant with ample water. Most of this hike was in the shade due to the narrowness of the canyon. The temp at the Supai Tunnel thermometer was a wonderful 65 degrees. We left the North Rim at about 12:40 and arrived back at Cottonwood at 5:00PM. 5 hours going up and 4:20 going down. 15 miles round trip.
Day 4 – Back to BA Campground and then up to Utah Flats – Left at 6:40. Arrived BAC #17 at 10:40. Only 3 runners. Met about 12 day hikers on their way to Ribbon Falls. One was a lone fellow in all black, with no water, who was disappointed when we said he had a couple hours to go. He was doing this day hike before he had to climb out S. Kaibab to the rim. Wise? Probably not.
Rinsed out clothes, and shaved at the rest room. Took our lunches up to Phantom Ranch intending to have them with a beer under the shade trees. The rules required us to keep the beers inside the air conditioned building. OK, we want to be within the rules. We lounged around, shifting locations to stay in the shade. Jerry made a friend, a fellow who was staying at BAC for 3 days while his companions hiked out Clear Creek and back. He had run out of books and was quite bored. He was discussing GPS map coordinates with Jerry when Norm walked up.
There was shade on the hill by 4:00PM, so we quickly packed up and headed up to Utah Flats. This is a huge transition from the wide, well travelled, well maintained trails of the corridor, to very rugged, vertical, demanding trails in the “wilderness”. These trails only exist because people have walked them, and they are marked by infrequent cairns, stacks of rocks. 
The trail leaves right from the northern most site at BAC. It goes horizontal for about 30 feet and then heads up the slope. There are few cairns but plenty of “action”, i.e. it is easy to see where many other people have gone. We practiced the “rest step”, resting for a second after about every step. The sticks were very helpful on this climb. There are several large rock outcroppings. Jerry was sure we were supposed to go towards one on the left, but the trail clearly went down a bit and around the right most outcropping. We followed the trail. It leads up to a couple of flat spots and follows the spine upwards. Eventually the trail is right at the bottom of the Tapeats, and follows the Tapeats to the left and towards the opening in the Tapeats. It crosses the opening and goes up the far left of the opening through and over the limestone “pianos” of Piano Alley. In 1998 and 2001, there was no trail here, and we had to find our own way. It’s worth the work to stay on the trail. We lost the trail in the Dox Sandstone of Utah Flats. We found a way and then found a reasonably flat spot to camp at 6:50. As the water was heating, Jerry wandered off and found a cairn that would lead us up and out in the morning. Probably would have saved us some time to stay on the trail the whole way.
The freeze dried chicken with potatoes and gravy was like potato soup with gnarly vegetables; not good. Too much water, too little time? After dinner we played Trivia, by head lamp. Jerry asked, “What are we doing?” “Sitting here in the Grand Canyon, playing trivia.” “How cool is that?” We were probably only a mile from Bright Angel Campground but we were totally alone. Norm saw two satellites and five shooting stars while not sleeping.
Day 5 – Utah Flats to Phantom Creek – The cairn got us out of the Dox of Utah Flats. We lost the trail again and found our own way through Cactus Flats for a while until we stumbled onto the trail again. We should have worked harder at following the trail, but we just assumed there was no trail, as there had been no trail in 1998 or 2001. The trail now gets you through Cactus Flats, over the limestone break and all the way to the descent into Phantom Creek. We stopped in the same shady spots we had used in the other years. We missed a junction in the trail at the descent. The trail is going up and continues up to a destination we could not guess. There is also a trail that goes to the right and down to the creek. There are two cairns at this point but we misinterpreted them to mean the upward trail was THE trail. We went up about 50 yards before Jerry said he thought this was probably wrong. Norm agreed. Eventually, Norm went back down, without his pack, to look for a cutoff. He found it and we backtracked and then took the cutoff down to the creek. This is quite steep and somewhat loose. Again, the sticks were very helpful. The trail comes down about 100 yards above the falls, to a nice shady spot with sandstone shelves right at the creek. We rested and rehydrated there. We started at 6:50 and were to the creek by 10:20.
Norm had vivid memories of the camping spot under the big overhang, where it would be shady all day. We had to cross the creek twice to get upstream, but then the overhang was not where Norm remembered it, i.e. just past the second stream crossing. We found some big cottonwoods that we thought would shade us all day. We read and napped but Jerry got bored, so we walked upstream a little, then found a pretty decent trail, followed it until, eventually we found the overhang about 30 minutes further up than Norm had remembered. While walking upstream, look for the huge chimenia shaped rock on the left. When you reach it, you are almost to the overhang. We went back, ate lunch under the cottonwoods and then moved to the shady overhang site.
For dinner we had beef stew. It called for even more water. Based on the how the chicken had turned out, we cut the water and let it soak for another two minutes. The vegetables were soft but it looked awful and didn’t taste very good. We ate it all, though. Soda crackers helped. The overhang kept us out of the sun all day and out of the direct bright moon light at night. Both were appreciated.
Day 6 – Down Phantom Creek – We left the overhang at 6:50 and arrived at the foot of the climb at 7:30. The climb starts on river left just above the falls. There was quite a bit of “action” but no cairn at the foot of the trail. There are cairns up above. The trail up is not too hard to follow but it is pretty vertical; that is, Norm was hitting the back of his head on his pack frame frequently. At the top, the trail continues to the right, over the top to the down climb, which has cairns and quite a bit of “action”, but is harder to follow. We had to stop a three or four times and really search for the next cairn. This is no place to free lance though, so we worked at staying on the trail. Near the bottom, there is a pretty vertical pitch. Norm lost his hand hold and most of his weight went down onto his aluminum pole. When he saw it flex, he thought he was in for big trouble. It sprung back, and he managed to get a bit of a grip, enough to recover. We seemed to be the only ones in the use area, so a rescue would have been long in coming. We were down into the creek at about 9:00AM. We rested in a shady spot.
A Phantom Creek descent is sort of a scratchy puzzle. Scratchy because there are few sections of any real trail, so you are forcing your way through Tammies and squeezing by cactus and agave plants. A puzzle, because you are constantly asking, “Is it better walking on the other side of the creek?”, “Is this side going to cliff out?”, “Is it better to just wade the creek, or better to “go high””? At three points, we were faced with a very narrow canyon, with a pour off going into a pool that seems to be (and actually is) over your head. Then the puzzle is how to get you and your packs across. Norm went first, by climbing along the wall, or just diving. Jerry threw each pack as far as he could. Norm pulled them via rope or just grabbed them and pulled them out of the water as fast as possible to minimize the water they would take on. We had wrapped much of our stuff in plastic bags so damaging our stuff was not much of a worry. The extra water weight we would have to carry was more of an issue.
We avoided the first “over your head” pool by going high to the right.
Because of the O.Y.H. pools and the pour offs, we cannot figure out a means to hike UP Phantom Creek. We met two fellows who were going to attempt it after we were past the final O.Y.H. pool. We wonder if they found a way or turned around. Maybe you could swim a pool and then crawl up the pour off? Then pull the packs across like we did? The other problem with going UP Phantom Creek, is it would seem to mean you would descend the “trail” from Utah Flats. It is steep enough that the footing is pretty loose when going down. We receommend UP to Utah Flats and Down the Creek.
Norm had made reservations at Phantom Ranch for our final meal below the rim. We had beef stew, vegetarian chili, salad, corn bread and chocolate cake. It was all very good food and you could have as much as you could eat. The people at our table were all hikers, some from the campground, and some from Phantom Ranch dorms or cabins. We swapped stories. The lady next to Jerry said that we were an inspiration. We have heard that on almost every trip and hearing it again makes a trip complete.
