NPS Backcountry Updates. Spring / Summer 2014 Backpacking Season date posted Mar 21, 2014 If you would like to make an advance reservation to camp in the Grand Canyon, we need at least three weeks' notice. If your planned hike is less than three weeks away, come in person to the Backcountry Information Center and request a walk-in permit. Availability of last minute permits is dependent on the season. The South Rim Backcountry Information Center is open year-round. Spring has arrived at Grand Canyon and in this dry year, all South Rim trails are clear of snow and ice. March: Bright Angel and Indian Garden Campgrounds are full the last three weeks. April: Spring is a delightful time of year for overnight hiking, and consequently most corridor and threshold use areas are at capacity.
May: Corridor campgrounds are full. June, July, and August: Hiking outside the Corridor is not recommended due to extreme heat. WARNING FOR JUNE, JULY, AND AUGUST: Elevated hiking risk due to extreme summer heat. NPS Hiking FAQ. Moon calendar September 2013. Grand Canyon Weather Patterns. Grand Canyon weather is divided into three zones: South Rim (about 7000 feet above sea level) North Rim (about 8000 feet above sea level), and the Inner Gorge (about 2000 feet above sea level). The arid South Rim is pleasant, even in the peak of summer. It gets nippy in the winter. The forested North Rim is generally cool in summer and receives so much snow that it is closed during the winter months. Pleasant summer temperatures on the rims give no clue of the inferno atmosphere of the inner gorge.
What's the inner gorge like in the summer? Desert adaptation. How does your body react to desert conditions? Manage fluid intake. You must learn how to manage fluid intake so you stay hydrated. So, What's the Best Time of Year to Hike the Grand Canyon? DO: Hike below the rim during the Canyon's Temperate Months (October through April). Inner Gorge temperatures in December through March are also very pleasant. UltraRunning: Logistics. By John Medinger The Grand Canyon is almost perfectly set up for ultra runners. The classic rim-to-rim-to-rim double crossing is between 41 and 48 miles long, depending on the route. It’s all trail, has fantastic scenery, and only has two hills! Mid-pack runners can expect to be able to almost the entire run in daylight during the long days of late spring.
The scenery on this run is like nowhere else. You’ll see vast vistas of the red-rock canyon from every turn in the trail. Planning your own double crossing of the Grand Canyon? First, of course, you need to decide which rim you are starting from. Leaving from the south rim there are two basic routes: the South Kaibab Trail or the Bright Angel Trail. The South Kaibab route is shorter, steeper and rockier. The Bright Angel route is a more gentle way down to the bottom, though plenty steep enough in places. Trail quality is generally pretty good. Water is a major issue on this run. From Roaring Springs to the north rim is 4.7 miles. Trail Running Club (R2R2R) If you’re looking for advice on how to run in the Grand Canyon keep looking because this isn’t it. I wrote a quick recap of my May 11, 2013 R2R2R run and you can read it here if you’re interested. It’s just like all the others you’ll find using a Google search so don’t get too excited.
While writing it I was torn between basic information my non-running friends and family would be interested in and the real information I wish I’d had prior to my run. In this article my goal is to give you the real information to make your trip a little better. With that said here are the things you won’t find in other R2R2R recaps but wish you had. The Drive from Phoenix to the Grand Canyon (and back) According to Google Maps from the I-17 / 101 interchange in Phoenix to the Grand Canyon is approximately 3 hours 20 minutes. Montezuma Castle National Monument near Camp Verde, AZ. Sedona, AZ. Flagstaff, AZ. Located in the Safeway parking lot you’ll also find two other quick lunch options. Maswick Lodge.
Beyond the Corridor. Jason HenrieOctober 22, 2013LIKETWEET Rob Krar and Christina Bauer run next to a big dropoff on the Tonto Trail above Hance Rapid. Photos by Ken Etzel. As I stumbled to the shoreline and collapsed next to the thundering Hermit Rapid, I took stock of my body, contemplating its ability to withstand our daunting return to the rim. We had just descended 8.9 miles following the steep, rough and remote Hermit Trail, dropping a staggering 4200 feet of elevation, rim to river. My friends for this adventure, John Doskicz, 40, of Flagstaff, Arizona, who owns Flagstaff Climbing Center, and Matt Kelly, also of Flagstaff, were used to this kind of travel. I was not. I inhaled an energy bar and guzzled water, allowing the breeze to cool my beet-red face. Suddenly, the breeze brushing my cheeks turned into a howling wind, swirling sand high into the air, pounding us with sheets of icy rain.
The same narrow confines we used to access this rocky beach would be our retreat. Andrew Skurka - Info & Planning. During a 4-day slideshow tour through Arizona in early-April 2008, I was fortunate to have a day-off in order to actually experience—as opposed to just talk about—some of Arizona’s abundant backcountry. Grand Canyon National Park seemed like the obvious place to go, and running from RRR (that is, from the South Rim to the North Rim, and back), which is a distance of 41.8 miles with 21,420 feet of vertical change, seemed like the obvious thing to do.
At least I thought so. While perhaps a touch extreme, running Rim-to-Rim-to-Rim (RRR) is not uncommon: within trail running circles, it’s regarded as a classic, a must-do. And I was not at all surprised to pass two other groups running the Canyon that day, including a threesome from Vancouver, B.C. But within hiking circles, this trek does not seem to garner much attention, incorrectly I believe: there are few trips, mile-for-mile, hour-for-hour, that compare. This is a fantastic undertaking for hikers who: