hiking Grand Canyon

A backpacker hiking the Tonto Trail from Hermit Canyon to Boucher Canyon in the Grand Canyon.

The Grand Canyon’s Best Backpacking Trips—A Photo Gallery

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By Michael Lanza

I returned to the Grand Canyon yet again in April, my ninth backpacking trip there in the past 17 years. Any psychologist, behavioral scientist, or criminologist would describe that as an established pattern of behavior. I confess: I can’t get enough of that place. This time, a group of family and friends, including my son, Nate, spent five days hiking about 54 miles from the Tanner Trailhead to the Grandview Trailhead off the South Rim, including a route with a reputation as one of the canyon’s most difficult: the Escalante (photos in the gallery, below). Four of us, all accustomed to difficult backcountry terrain, found it matched its reputation for loose sections and a lot of steep uphill, including one scramble up a cliff; we spent about seven hours covering nine miles on it. And our last day consisted of hiking more than 12 miles and about 5,700 feet uphill. A typical Grand Canyon adventure.

But our entire hike also delivered the typical, incomparably Grand Canyon-scale vistas from start to finish, culminating with the long ascent of the Grandview Trail, overlooking a huge swath of the canyon.

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A hiker on the Tonto Trail by Monument Creek in the Grand Canyon.

One Extraordinary Day: A 25-Mile Dayhike in the Grand Canyon

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By Michael Lanza

There’s not another hiker in sight as my friend David Ports and I start down the Hermit Trail on the South Rim of the Grand Canyon, even though it’s nearly 8 a.m., hardly an early hour to hit the trail. And that’s just the first conspicuously unusual circumstance at the outset of our hike. The second obvious oddity this morning is that it’s overcast—a welcome sight here—and actually chilly enough that we’re wearing the light jackets we brought.

But most unusual aspect of this hike is that we’re only carrying light daypacks—and cruising along almost effortlessly—for a walk of nearly 25 miles, with some 4,000 feet of elevation gain and loss. That’s because we’ll do it all today.

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A young girl backpacking on Horseshoe Mesa in Grand Canyon National Park.

A Matter of Perspective: A Father-Daughter Hike in the Grand Canyon

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By Michael Lanza The New Hance Trail starts out hard, and then gets really tough. The rugged footpath drops off the South Rim into the Grand Canyon like a ball rolling off a table—4,422 vertical feet in 6.5 miles from the rim to the Colorado River. Most of that relief comes in the first five miles, as the trail wiggles …

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Backpacking the Grand Canyon Grandview Point to the South Kaibab

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By Michael Lanza

Hiking down the snow- and ice-covered Grandview Trail into the world’s most famous canyon, I’m thinking about time. It’s not such an odd thing to think about when you’re walking on rock that’s 270 million years old, while looking out at geologic layers that make the stone under your feet seem adolescent. But I’m thinking about a much, much shorter period of time: 11 years, actually.

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