What It's Like To Hike The Grand Canyon | Travel Tips

12/10/2020

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We did was Plateau Point which stems off of the Bright Angel Trail. The trail is a 12.2 mile heavily trafficked out and back hike.

The path right in the center on the bottom is the Plateau Point Trail

It is best to start your hike early because of the Grand Canyon’s depth the temperatures at the top and bottom can differ.

As air sinks down into a lower elevation, it gets compressed and compressed air releases heat as energy. This causes the air to become even warmer and is why you can see temperatures in the 90's at the top of the Grand Canyon but temperatures 20-30 degrees hotter at the bottom of the canyon.

We started our hike a little after 6:00 AM and it was cool to start but you have waves of heat that warmed it up a long the way. By almost an hour in the long sleeves came off and we were comfortable the rest of the hike. When we got down to the bottom of the canyon and were in the sun it got pretty hot even in the middle of October. Start early to avoid the sun exposure!

Going down was relatively easy as you navigate the nearly 100 switchbacks on a gradual decline. It does put a lot of pressure on your knees but this was still the easier part for sure.

During your hike there is a bathroom and water station every 1.5 miles which is nice to refill your water and take a quick break.

Once you make it to the Indian Gardens you are about 3,000 feet below the rim and have a 3 miles out and back walk on the bottom of the canyon to a lookout of the Colorado River from about 1,300 feet (400 m) above it.

They way back up is pretty brutal because will have 3,156 ft of elevation gain. But it wasn’t until about the last 1.5 miles that we started taking a break on the trail just to give our legs a little bit of a rest.

Most places say the hike should take 8-12 hours but we did it in just under 6 so that is possible to go at a faster pace.

We didn’t stay over night after our hike so this meant we got to pile in our car and made the drive back home. The next few days are legs were pretty sore but it was helped with some stretching!

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