Delirious Ramblings

O'Neil Butte to The Tipoff

In my previous Grand Canyon "Down and Out" post I showed the South Kaibab trail switchbacking its way down off of Cedar Ridge and O'Neil Butte. The above picture shows O'Neil Butte itself from the north, looking back towards the south rim of the Canyon. It also shows just how far down those switchbacks take you! At this point I was about four miles down the South Kaibab trail and some 3,000 vertical feet below the canyon rim. If you're measuring the hike in terms of Elden-units, that's roughly 1.5E (Eldens, get it? Heh heh.)

On the promontory jutting out there in the middle foreground is a natural arch, imaginatively named "Natural Arch" on my topo maps. Here is the obligatory cheesy picture of the arch with the moon in the frame:

From here down to the Tipoff, which is the last major viewpoint before the long decent into the river gorge itself (and another 1,500 feet of decent), it is fairly easy going along the Tonto Platform. Where the Tonto East trail intersects the South Kaibab there is a restroom with an emergency phone, which is visible in the below picture, looking north towards the river gorge and the north rim. I didn't take a compass bearing to it so I'm not 100% sure, but I think that tall butte in the middle left of the frame is Cheops Pyramid.

One thing that impressed me about these main corridor trails was how clean they were. There was very little trash - I only picked up a couple of energy bar wrappers the whole time I was down there - and the restroom facilities were all clean, too.

Next up - The Tipoff!

Skeleton Point Switchback City

Another photo from my October Grand Canyon "Down and Out" hike, this time taken from Skeleton Point, about 3 miles down the South Kaibab Trail. In this picture you can see the trail switchbacking down the side of the east side of Cedar Ridge. The trail is pretty steep here and drops some 500 vertical feet over the course of a half mile. The trail must remain traversible by mule trains so much of it from here down to the easier section is made up of big "steps" built from logs inlaid across the trail with dirt tamped in behind them.

Each "step" is not particularly high, but they are spaced far enough apart so that they get annoying after a while. It's tough to get into a good walking rhythm as you step down, take one or two partial steps, and then it's time to step down again, disrupting the flow.

It was around this time (~8am) after descending for nearly two hours that I met the first backpacker climbing up the trail. He had camped down at the river and was now headed out. He was redlining - stripped down to a t-shirt and drenched with sweat. I, on the other hand, was wearing two layers of shirts, a fleece jacket, gloves, and a hat against the cold! Needless to say, I began to wonder about my own climb out of the canyon on Bright Angel later that afternoon...

South Kaibab Trail Sunrise

Pictures of the Grand Canyon are a dime a dozen on the Internet, but I gotta add mine. The above was taken back at the end of October from the South Kaibab Trail. The sun had just come up and I was working my way down Cedar Ridge in the cold morning air. I did a "Down and Out", meaning I hiked down to Phantom Ranch on South Kaibab and then back out on Bright Angel. It was a long, tough hike, but not nearly as difficult as I thought it would be. If I had to compare it to one of the local Flagstaff hikes I'd have to say it's about like doing the full length of the Weatherford Trail from Schultz Tank or maybe hiking Elden Lookout twice in a row.

"Down and Out" is something the Park Service warns you not to do but I think if you're in decent shape and carry lots of water you can do it and still enjoy the hike. Not during the summer heat, of course. Doing it in the hot months would be stupid. Even when it's not hot it's no walk in the park (you just knew I had to work that in, didn't you?) but manageable.

I think the hardest part of the whole trip was waking up at 3am so as to be able to drive from Flagstaff to the Canyon to catch the 6am hiker's shuttle from Bright Angel Lodge to South Kaibab. There were deer and elk everywhere on Highway 180 and several times I had to stop to allow them to cross the pavement. It made for a very stressful drive. Getting to see the sun come up from below the rim was worth it, though.