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.
