23 October 2024
Wildforss Trailhead to Phantom Canyon Saddle
(6 miles, +900/-900 feet).

Half Cookie and I were thrilled to hike from the South Rim to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon back in 2016. In fact that is the trip on which Half Cookie got her trail name!

But we took two days to hike the 23 miles from one rim to another.

My friend No Breaks wanted to do it in one!

Er, one half. He expected it to take “only” about 7-8 hours.

I offered to drop him off on the South Rim and pick him up on the North Rim. This is no short trip! It takes about 4 hours to do the drive. But that still gave me enough time to do a short hike of my own.

We started before sunrise.

Then he headed north on foot and I headed east by car. It’s a wonderful drive with lots of opportunities to see stunning views of the canyon.

It was nice to revisit the Vermillion Cliffs, where I did a trip to Buckskin Gulch and Paria Canyon back in 2017.

I eventually made it to the North Rim. The ride in was beautiful, with a few inches of snow covering all the meadows along the road. I poked around the Lodge for a bit (it was already closed for the season) and then drove over to the Wildforss Trailhead.

A brief climb took me to my first view of The Transept, a side canyon that feeds into Bright Angel Canyon.

I followed the trail as it stayed near the top of the canyon moving west and then south.

At my turn around point I found some fantastic pinnacles to scramble up for an amazing final shot of the canyon. It was a little sketchy but worth it!

The rock here was full of fossils, with lots of signs of people chipping out a souvenir (boo!!!!).

Then I turned around and headed back. When I reached the trailhead I went to wait for No Breaks.

Unfortunately I did not get a picture of No Breaks at the North Rim because he finished an hour faster than expected!

He was waiting for me at the road, so I picked him up and we drove up to our next stop, Bryce Canyon.

We celebrated his 6 hour 25 mile run of the Grand Canyon Rim-to-Rim with a late dinner at Ruby’s Inn.