You are planning to be more than the usual tourist, solely staying at the rim of the Grand Canyon and plan a day hike to immerse yourself in the real scope of the Grand Canyon? Great choice! We chose to do a day hike and compared the two most known and best-maintained trails. Here we share our research, our selection, and first-hand experience with you.
This article is day 5 of our 15-day road trip itinerary through the Southwest of the US and California. Click on the yellow 'Show Entire Route' tab, to view our in-depth guides to each stop for an even greater insight for your own road trip through the Southwest and California.
Overview of the trails
As you can see, the Bright Angel Trail up to the Tonto Plateau is somewhat longer, and the South Kaibab Trail is a lot steeper. However, in the Grand Canyon, distance does not really matter. The only measure you should pay attention to is time. The rule of thumb is that it takes you twice as long back up to the rim as it took you to get down.
The National Park strongly advises against trying to hike to the Colorado River and back up to the rim in one day. There are multiple warning signs before and on the trails. You should take these warnings seriously, as over 250 people have to be rescued each year from the Canyon. Take your level of fitness and experience with altitude change into account before deciding on a hike.
Accessibility of the trails
You can access the Bright Angel Trail by car and park at the Backcountry Information Center at parking lot D. From there; it is only a short walk to the Bright Angel Trailhead.
You can also take the blue Village Route Shuttle bus and exit at the Bright Angel Lodge to start the hike. The blue route passes by the Mather Campground, Trailer Village, Market Plaza, and Visitor Center.
For the South Kaibab Trail, you must take a shuttle bus or a taxi service, as no private cars are allowed in that area of the rim. The orange Kaibab/Rim shuttle bus only passes by the Visitor Center.
Depending on where you are staying, you could also use the Hiker's Express bus, which departs in the early morning from the Bright Angel Lodge and passes by the Backcountry Information Center, and Visitor Center before it ends at the South Kaibab Trailhead.
Both shuttle bus routes operate year-round; however, the times of operation change depending on the available daylight. A rule of thumb is that they start running approximately every 30 minutes beginning the hour before sunrise and ending the hour after sunset. During the day they run every 15 minutes.
For up to date information on the shuttle bus service, please visit the National Park Services Homepage.
Available services on the trails
The Bright Angel Trail offers two available bathroom stops until the Plateau Point, at the Mile-and-a-Half Resthouse, and the Indian Garden. It also has three stops with an emergency phone (Mile-and-a-Half, Three-Mile Resthouse, and Indian Garden). There are seasonal water supplies at four different points along the trail (Mile-and-a-Half, Three-Mile Resthouse, Indian Garden, and Plateau Point). The most reliable one being at the Indian Garden. Do not rely on all four water stations and carry enough water for the round-trip to be on the safe side.
The South Kaibab Trail has one bathroom at the Trailhead and another one during the hike at Cedar Ridge. You can find emergency phones at the Trailhead and Tip Off. While hiking, you will not have access to water supplies along the trail. The only water source is at the Trailhead, so make sure to carry at least 5 liters of liquid with you.
The hiking distances, elevation data, and shuttle bus and services information in this article are courtesy of the National Park website.
Summary of the comparison
The Bright Angel trail is more convenient, offers more water supply, bathrooms, and more shade in the Indian Garden. It is less steep than the South Kaibab Trail, which offers no water along the trail and no shade at all. Views of the Grand Canyon are breathtaking and ever-changing on both trails. Some people describe the views from the South Kaibab Trail as slightly better.
You can find a two-page in-depth description pdf for the Bright Angel Trail from the National Park Service by clicking here.
And you can find the same for the South Kaibab here.
For a general overview of the entire Grand Canyon South Rim, you can find the Pocket Map pdf of the National Park here.
By the way, on both trails, mules are allowed, and they have the right of way! When you see/hear a mule or several mules around you, you need to step to the inside of the trail and wait until they pass!
Our choice and experience
We chose to hike the Bright Angel Trail and not the South Kaibab. The main reason for our decision was accessibility. We stayed two nights at the Mather Campground, with the blue shuttle bus stopping right at the entrance of the campground and taking us directly to the Trailhead at the Bright Angel Lodge.
For the South Kaibab Trailhead, we would have needed to change busses at the Grand Canyon Visitor Center, and we did not want to lose any time interchanging.
We did the hike in late April and started at the Trailhead at 7 am and finished it at 2 pm. We took a couple of restroom stops, tons of pictures, and one-stop of about 20 minutes at Indian Garden to eat our sandwiches and refill our water. At the time of the hike, we were both 30 and generally fit (at least three workouts a week). For us, the hike was very strenuous, with the soles of our feet burning for the last hour (also because the temperature got hotter by the hour). Maybe we would have made it, to go all the way down to the Colorado, but it would not have been enjoyable, and it would have certainly pushed our limit.
We absolutely recommend you to take the time and do a day hike down the Grand Canyon. It was the highlight of our two-week road trip. In all honesty, before arriving at the Grand Canyon, I thought all the talk about it was a hype and a pure tourism bubble. Already watching the sunset the night before from the South Rim blew me away and proved me wrong. Actually, taking a day and diving into this Natural Wonder deeper changed my perspective by 180%, and I would love to go back and spend at least a week discovering more areas of the Canyon.
Each turn in the trail, and every 100 meters that you descend, the view and the character of the Canyon changes. The flora is unlike anything you would expect when gazing down from the rim.
And then there is the Mighty Colorado. When catching a glance from the rim the night before, I actually laughed at it a bit, as it looked like a tiny stream. When approaching closer to the Plateau Point, I started hearing the roar of the rapids and started running to the end of the trail out of pure excitement.
We would recommend starting the hike earlier than we did as we hit the steepest part of the trail right around noon, which made the hike more strenuous. We would suggest beginning at sunrise.
Recommended Equipment for the Bright Angel Trail
Clothing
We started the hike wearing long zip-off hiking pants, a hiking/running shirt, a thin fleece, a wind jacket, and our light buffs, as despite the sun already shining, it was somewhat chilly in the morning. Especially on the first switchbacks, which were still in the shade. It didn't take long until we started taking off layer by layer, and one hour into the hike, we were down to our shorts and shirts.
I usually do not wear caps that often, however with the intense sun and heat in the Grand Canyon, we both wore caps and, of course, sunglasses.
We both wore day hiking boots (we recommend Salomon) and proper hiking socks from Falke.
Hiking Gear
Take a look on our gear page for camping, tech and hiking equipment that we use. Here are our favorites that we relied on in the Grand Canyon:
- Our favorite Deuter Backpacks were the perfect companion.
- You should absolutely consider taking hiking poles with you. Ours are from Leki. They will support you tremendously, especially on the way down, and will take pressure from your knees.
- We each carried three-liter water bubbles from Source, another liter each in our SIGG travel bottles and an Isostar Electrolyte mix in another smaller bottle.
- To have my Canon DSLR camera always handy, without carrying it around my neck or shoulders, I use the Peak Capture Clip, which I tie to the hip belt of my backpack.
- For safety reasons, we each carry a hiking whistle clipped to our backpack straps.
Have you done any of these hikes or are considering doing one of them? Let us know in the comments below. We would love to hear your thoughts on this.
