Day hike in Grand Canyon

When visiting Grand Canyon we thought that we can not leave until we have made a proper hike into the canyon itself. Unfortunately we had only one day so we looked around for a suitable hike. Close to the Grand Canyon Village there are three trail heads from where you can hike down into the canyon. There is also a trail along the rim which is about 20 km long, but this was not an option this time. Way to little elevation change, we wanted a good workout.

We chose between one hike along a ridge that looked very cool and a longer hike down to Plateau Point. We decided on the longer hike which we thought was suitable because the weather was still cold. I imagine it being a pain when it is 40 degrees Celsius. The description said it would take 8-12 hours and since we are fairly fit we thought we would make it 8 or even less.

So the day before we stacked up on some Swedish crisp bread, ham, cheese and some snacks. Luckily I had looked at the weather forecast before we left and knew it was going to be cold so we were prepared with hats and gloves and warm jackets. When we got up in the morning the car was frosty and the sun had just began to warm everything up. It was however still around 0 degrees Celsius as we started hiking. The first part of the trail was a little bit icy but we managed to stay on our feet.

At the center of the image you can see Plateau Point which is our goal.

We left the car just before 8 o'clock in the morning which we thought was early enough but there were already lots of people on the trail. A lot of people had spent the night camping in canyon and were hiking up to the rim in the morning. That is now the plan for our next visit.

It was a little bit odd to walk down first, usually we hike up mountains and once you reached the top you know that it will not take longer to walk back. Here it is more difficult to plan the time since you are not sure of how long it will take you to hike up again.

We thought we kept a fairly good pace down, faster than most people and it turned out to be right. We made it there in 2 h 20 min not 3-4 hours that the description said. At Plateau Point you have a marvelous view of the Colorado river and the canyon. We spent almost 1.5 hours at the lookout, having lunch and enjoying the view. The temperature was now about 15 degrees and very pleasant.

Our lunch spot

The view from Plateau Point

Before noon we thought that it was time to start heading back. We were going to drive back to Phoenix in the evening so we did not want to get back too late. We were able to keep the same pace up as down so we made it back up to the rim in 2 h and 10 min. This was supposed to take 5-8 hours. The fitness program we have been doing the past month seem to have had an effect... We came back up much sooner than we thought so we had time to enjoy the view and the sun some more at the rim before we got into the car and drove back home.