Grand Canyon: Rim to River on the Hermit Trail

When our friend Randy called Paul and I in late October 2020 to say he was heading to the Grand Canyon, we jumped at the opportunity to join. We’d both taken the month off work to head out on the Sky Islands Traverse, but after getting absolutely cooked in the Chiricahuas and then the Rincons, we bailed on the desert and headed to Colorado.

Staying with a friend in Carbondale, we figured we could go hike the Maroon Bells loop. However, since the last time we were there, the permit restrictions had gotten much more stringent and quite competitive, so those plans were also foiled. We did some day hiking in the area and headed to Bryce Canyon, this time intending to hike the Below the Rim Trail for a few days. Permits secured, we no sooner stepped onto the trail when a ranger approached from the opposite direction and said the trail was being closed for a search and rescue mission. We again did more day hiking, still having a good time, but nothing was going according to plan. Heading to the Grand Canyon was our last attempt to salvage a successful backpacking adventure out of this month.

This would be our first time venturing off the main corridor trails – the Bright Angel Trail and South Kaibab Trail. These trails are located nearest Grand Canyon Village, they are well developed and heavily used by both people and mule trains, heading to Phantom Ranch at the bottom across the Colorado River. We’ve been up and down these popular routes a handful of times, and were eager to take a rim to river route that was a bit more remote. The Hermit Trail turned out to be a great introduction to these alternate routes to the river.

Back in the early days of the development of the Grand Canyon, before the National Park, the Bright Angel Trail was privately controlled and charged a toll for usage. Most of the other trails to the river were built in efforts to avoid this toll while exploiting the commercial opportunities the canyon provided – namely mining or tourism. The Hermit Trail was built for tourism, circa 1910, heading down to Hermit Creek, where a luxury camp served visitors in the days before Phantom Ranch was built. Imagine the labor that went into constructing this sidewalk through the rugged terrain of the canyon!

Despite the impressive remnants of footpath along the upper reaches of the trail, things fall apart pretty quickly, claimed by erosion after 90 years of neglect. Typically, when hiking in a National park, one can expect well manicured trail, but that is not the case here. It is nothing like the constantly maintained corridor trails and offers a few instances of exposure that might challenge one’s comfort with heights. It is used enough to remain generally easy to follow, but it is steep and rugged. The views are expansive and probably some of the best among the south rim trails, made all the more impactful by the lack of crowds so common on the main trails. We saw only a handful of other hikers out during the entirety of our trip.

It was just under 10 miles to the river, so we made it down to Hermit Rapids around midday. As we looked around for the best places to set up camp, Randy had an unfortunate realization. He’d brought 2 shelters, unsure which one he wanted to carry in his pack, figuring he’d decide before we headed out. Problem was, he’d left them both in his truck, now ten miles away and thousands of feet above us. He could hike back out, but then he’d not be back until after dark and having hiked 30 miles. This did not seem like a wise option, despite the fact that he is physically capable of the task. Problem was, there were clouds teasing rain. I told Randy he could squeeze in under our tarp, but then he remembered he had a poncho tarp – a perfect emergency shelter! We still had a few problems – no stakes and no guylines. We improvised. Paul and Randy both had some paracord on their packs, so we untied them and used them for guylines. We found a small stick to serve as a tent pole, and we used rocks in place of stakes, as the ground was sandy anyway.

Satisfied with our makeshift shelter, we returned to exploring and enjoying the river. We spotted a couple Bighorn Sheep across the river, the first time any of us had seen them in the canyon, so we felt lucky. Then it got better, as we realized there was a Bighorn on our side of the river, much closer to us, and we got to watch him up close for a few minutes. I’ve seen a few more Bighorns in the Canyon since then, but not nearly so close.

Of course it rained in the night, and it was crazy windy. I worried our tarp might fall over, and I worried about how Randy was staying dry. In the end, everyone’s shelter stayed up and everyone stayed dry in the night, even if the wind woke us up a few times.

On our second day, we traveled upriver a few miles to Granite Rapids. It might sounds straightforward, but traversing through the canyon is a meandering affair. You can’t just follow the river, as it if often surrounded by cliffs. You have to use the Tonto Trail, located high above the river on the Tonto Platform, a relatively flat shelf that separates the upper canyon from the lower gorge.

The views from the Tonto Trail are the best in the canyon. From the inner gorge, you really can’t see the upper reaches of the canyon, and from the rim, you can’t usually see the inner gorge or the river. And so from the middle, where you can see both, you get a better sense of scale, and you start to feel really small. It’s so quiet, and so expansive. There’s no water, and no shade. The vastness and starkness of the landscape can feel almost oppressive with its utter indifference to your presence. This place will kill you if you don’t respect it. It might kill you even if you do respect it. And yet, once you get a taste of this place, it draws you back.

And so, we left camp and climbed back up out of the inner gorge to the Tonto shelf, heading east toward monument creek. Despite being flatter than the rest of the canyon, that doesn’t mean the terrain is truly flat or the hiking is easy. There are numerous side canyons cut into the main canyon, and so the Tonto Trail meanders deep into these side canyons as it navigates across the main corridor of the canyon. Monument Creek has cut one of these side canyons and it is quite scenic. Our route would follow the Monument Creek Trail down to Granite Rapids, but first we had to travel deep into the side canyon to meet the trail that would descend back to the Colorado River. There are so many colors in the canyon – I’m no geologist but I believe we were in the Bright Angel Shale layer of rock, which is quite colorful and dramatic.

We found Granite Rapids to have much better camping than Hermit Rapids. The downside of a well-established campsite in a heavily used area is that the critters are pretty wise. The squirrels wasted no time going through our things, so we made sure to keep our food well-secured.

We watched kayakers and rafters as they navigated down the rapids. One rafting party pulled up at the beach near our campsite and we visited with them for a short while. They gave us a few beers before pushing back out, and we watched them go down the rapids while we enjoyed the beer they gave us.

It was a rain-free night and our sites were well sheltered from the wind, so we were all well rested for our climb back out of the canyon. We climbed back to the Tonto Trail, back to the junction with the Hermit Trail, and back out the way we came in. We passed a few parties heading down as we made our way up the section fittingly called the Cathedral Stairs. I like climbing, Paul doesn’t. Randy usually falls somewhere between us, but some days he can really leave me in the dust. This day though, I was feeling great, so I made it to the top of the stairs first and waited for Randy and then Paul to catch up before we continued. We stayed together for the rest of the ascent and were back at the rim by lunchtime.

In the end, we were finally able to call one of our adventures that month a success. This was a great introduction to some of the alternate routes to the river and opened our interest in hiking more of these other trails to the canyon floor. And every time I get on the Tonto Trail, I dream about coming back to it. The Grand Canyon really never disappoints.