Grand Canyon Rim-to-River Hiking with Little Kids
(PART I)
"Leave it as it is. You cannot improve on it. The ages have been at work on it, and man can only mar it."
These are the words of president Theodore Roosevelt during his visit to the Grand Canyon in 1903.
When I think of that period in human history, tourism and nature conservation aren’t necessarily the first things that come to mind. Yet, somewhere along the way, someone somehow must’ve started the process of protecting the wilderness from the growing appetite to control, develop and reshape these remarkable landscapes across the US.
The history of The Grand Canyon National Park is not only fascinating in that regard, but it gives some more context for the decisions we made while planning a backcountry camping trip to the bottom of the Grand Canyon with very young kids.
In This Post, I’ll Cover:
PART I — Planning the Trip
PART II — The Adventure
→ Selecting the route — continued
→ Trail map and stats
→ Our experience on the trail
→ Itinerary summary and technical details
→ Bright Angel Campground and Phantom Ranch
→ The road trip back home
The Permit.
Grand Canyon Rim-to-River hiking with kids
Here are some of the resources worth bookmarking if you are considering an overnight trip below the rim:
A tradition Neli and I have developed over the years dictates that this is a kind of trip due around the end of May. This, and the fact that late spring is the most desirable time to visit what we loosely call “the deserts”—the unique landscapes stretching across the broader Colorado River Basin.
Making this trip, though, couldn’t be done on a whim as it turned out.
It took us several years to obtain the permit for camping at Bright Angel Campground, and even that wasn’t the main variable we had to consider in the planning process. Neli and I were also in the process of growing our family, which left us with some rather important unknowns: Would we have children by the time we finally got a permit? How many? And would they be old enough to come with us?
Four people in our group had been submitting permit applications through Recreation.gov year after year until, finally, this January, we got the news: we had a permit.
After years of trying, we could actually start planning an adventure into one of the hottest—both literally and figuratively—places on Earth.
This timing caught us with a six-year-old and a four-year-old. Not exactly the ideal scenario for hiking to the bottom of the Grand Canyon.
However, we also saw it as an incredible opportunity for a bonding family challenge. We were still riding the excitement of successfully hiking Half Dome with the kids, and that experience had given us confidence in what we could accomplish together. So, we decided to push ourselves physically once again and if planned right that was going to be another unforgettable family adventure.
Rim-to-River Trails
For our camping trip, there were really only two trails worth considering: the Bright Angel Trail and the South Kaibab Trail.
These are the park’s primary maintained rim-to-river routes and the trails most hikers use to reach the Colorado River and the campgrounds at the bottom of the canyon.
A handful of other, far less traveled backcountry trails also reach the river in certain areas of the canyon, but these are not maintained corridor trails. They are considerably more difficult, remote—and overall, not great choices with our two little companions.
Additional trails:  |
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South Kaibab Trail Is One of a Kind
Unlike many of the Grand Canyon’s other trails, which trace routes used by Indigenous peoples for generations, the South Kaibab Trail did not exist at the beginning of the 20th century. Its origin is surprisingly practical—and a little ironic.
Here’s a quick brief of how it came to be:
The Bright Angel Trail was already a well-established tourist route when Grand Canyon National Park was created in 1919, and the National Park Service wanted control of it. Within weeks of the park’s creation, the federal government began negotiating with Coconino County, which controlled the trail at the time, in an effort to acquire it.
The numbers were striking:
Coconino County’s initial asking price for Bright Angel: $150,000
NPS’s initial estimate to build an entirely new trail: about $30,000
Eventually, construction of a new trail was underway. The project went considerably over budget, but the final price tag was still roughly half of what Coconino County had initially asked for Bright Angel Trail.
More importantly, this new trail was designed specifically with tourists in mind.
South Kaibab Trail
The ironic twist is that not long afterward, the park ended up owning both trails anyway.
Although Bright Angel and South Kaibab descend to the same destination only a few miles apart, they are almost opposites in character.
Bright Angel follows a more practical, time-tested route, taking advantage of the canyon’s natural fault lines and offering more shade and access to water along the way. South Kaibab, on the other hand, was deliberately routed along exposed ridges, maximizing panoramic views while creating a shorter and more direct path toward the river.
That contrast is very much reflected in the advice hikers commonly receive today: descend the South Kaibab for its spectacular views and climb back out on Bright Angel, taking advantage of the shaded rest stops and perennial water access at Havasupai Gardens.
Selecting a Trail
We had set aside two nights for camping in the Canyon, and our original plan wasn’t far from the common recommendation.
We would spend the first night at Bright Angel Campground near Phantom Ranch and the second at Havasupai Gardens, splitting the 9.5-mile climb back to the South Rim over two days on the longer but more gradual Bright Angel Trail.
Little did we know that by the time our trip came around, not all sections of the trail system would still be open.
The Silver Bridge and River Trail—the connection we needed to begin our climb up Bright Angel—were closed following a rockfall. A bypass was possible via the Tonto Trail, but it would add roughly two more miles to an already demanding hike.
With a three-day permit and the River Trail unavailable, our plans suddenly meant three consecutive days of serious hiking.
Something that, you would probably agree, doesn’t sound particularly exciting to the average five-year-old.
At first, we were disappointed. The closures had taken away the more relaxed itinerary we had envisioned and forced us to rethink the trip.
As it turned out, though, those unfortunate circumstances ended up working in our favor.
How?
The full itinerary—and how we managed to keep two young kids motivated, comfortable, and safe while hiking Grand Canyon rim-to-river—is the story for Part Two.
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