Above: Below Mather Point, the dissolution of Redwall Limestone has created multiple amphitheaters.

5

After the Hike

After completing an ascent from the Colorado River, you are unlikely to want to embark on another hike. However, if you have some spare time, there are many (nearly) armchair activities or short jaunts to enrich your visit.

My first recommendation is to visit (or revisit) at least one of the vista points on the South Rim from which you can see your journey: Trailview Overlook for the Bright Angel Trail and Yavapai Point for both the Bright Angel and South Kaibab trails. Even if you looked down before your hike, you should revisit them now. Few people will fully perceive the lay of the land and how it relates to the trail’s trajectory on their first descent into the Grand Canyon. Retrace your path, noting how the trail works its way between the rock layers. Pay attention to the boundaries between the rock layers (something that is much easier done from afar), and remember how each layer’s different environments influenced your trip. Spending this extra time absorbing the landscape will enrich and solidify your memories. In addition to its view of the trails, the Yavapai Visitor Center has great geologic displays.

If this is your first visit to the region, schedule a few extra days to visit more of the prehistoric Puebloan ruins in northern Arizona. Perhaps begin by visiting the small Tusayan Ruin (and museum) to the east of Grand Canyon Village along Desert View Drive. Walnut Canyon National Monument (6 miles east of Flagstaff on Interstate 40) and Wupatki National Monument (30 miles north of Flagstaff on Highway 89) have very impressive dwellings; visiting them takes you back in time.

A trip along the Bright Angel Trail and South Kaibab Trail will have whet the “Grand Canyon” appetite of many hikers—you may already be daydreaming about future adventures. If you have a few extra hours, you might take a shuttle bus ride toward Hermit Vista. From Hermit Vista you can view the Esplanade, a flattish shelf reminiscent of the Tonto Platform that is a sandstone layer at the top of the Supai group. And a suggestion for long after your hike: The trails you have just completed all emphasize the depth of the Grand Canyon, not its length and many side canyons. Return some day and hike a stretch of the Tonto Trail, maybe from the Grandview Trail to the Bright Angel Trail, to enjoy a different perspective.

GRAND CANYON LITERATURE

One of the benefits of the Grand Canyon’s fame as a phenomenal location is the literature available. Whether you read it before, during, or after your own adventure, reading a well-written tale of canyon exploration allows you to visualize more of the canyon than you will see on your hike. Three worthwhile reads are John Wesley Powell’s The Exploration of the Colorado River and Its Canyons, Colin Fletcher’s The Man Who Walked Through Time, and Marguerite Henry’s Brighty of the Grand Canyon. Although presented as the tale of his 1869 descent, Powell’s is an amalgamation of his two descents down the Colorado River. Fletcher describes his solo adventure as the first person to walk the length of the Grand Canyon below its rim. Brighty, a children’s story, is mostly based on historical characters, including Brighty the mule, who spent winters at the mouth of Bright Angel Creek and ascended to the Kaibab Plateau on the North Rim for summers. These stories represent different eras and modes of transport, but all take you deep into the Grand Canyon’s mesmerizing landscape.

The aforementioned activities keep you in tune with your surroundings, but technological attractions exist as well. Grand Canyon Airlines (www.grandcanyonairlines.com), Air Grand Canyon (www.airgrandcanyon.com), and Scenic Airlines (www.scenic.com), operating out of the Grand Canyon airport in Tusayan, provide a variety of aerial tours of the Grand Canyon. Their flights routes are east and west of the corridor trails, so you will not see your route, but of course you also didn’t have to listen to their engines during your hike. Second, the IMAX theater at the National Geographic visitor center in Tusayan has a 34-minute virtual trip down the Colorado River and above the Grand Canyon. See www.explorethecanyon.com/index.cfm for more details and to buy discounted tickets in advance.