October 2022 – My two brothers turned and will turn 50 and my birthday present was a tour to Grand Canyon, including a hike down to Colorado River. Neither of my brothers had hiked that far, neither horizontally or vertically. I did the hike a year ago with my son, and was pretty sure they would both be able to. In one day.
We flew into Los Angeles, got a rental car, stayed first night in Hermosa Beach close to the airport and headed for Grand Canyon early next morning. Our jet lag made it easy for us to be out east of Los Angeles and connected towns before rush hour kicked in at around 6 am. We arrived at Grand Canyon village around 2 pm and hiked the rim trail for some 8 kilometers before taking the free shuttle bus back.
Next morning, right at sunrise, we started the hike down Grand Canyon along Bright Angel Trail. The trail to Colorado River is approximately 13 kilometers and we spent a little less than four hours on this leg.
Down at the river we followed the connection trails to South Kaibab Trail, crossing the river twice via Bright Angel Trail Bridge and Black Bridge. This leg was about four kilometers long.
We followed South Kaibab Trail back to the south rim some 5 kilometers east from where we started in the morning. South Kaibab Trail is a little bit steeper, only around ten kilometers long.
All in all, the loop trail is 27 kilometers long, 1450 meters down and 1550 meters up. We had freezing temperatures in the morning and during the day the temperature risen to around 25 C.
This was my second descent into Grand Canyon all the way down to Colorado River. One of may favorite hikes. This was also my 9th 1000+ hike in 2022 (hikes with a elevation gain of more than 1000 meters).
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