Winter Hiking and Backpacking in Grand Canyon: Rim to Rim

Meet your guide between 4am and 7am at the Little America Hotel in Flagstaff and begin your Grand Canyon adventure on the South Kaibab Trail, a popular hiking route that offers spectacular views both up and down the Grand Canyon. You’ll hike along a well-maintained trail to the Bright Angel Campground, your camping spot for the first night of the trip. This camp is one of the most charming in Grand Canyon National Park as it’s situated at the bottom of the Grand Canyon near the Colorado River and adjacent to Bright Angel Creek. Campsites are shaded by tall, spreading cottonwoods, piped drinking water is available, and nearby Phantom Ranch offers a snack bar if you feel like a treat. After you’ve settled into your tent, join your group for a hearty dinner.

After breakfast, break camp and join your leader and group for the hike up the North Kaibab Trail, to the Cottonwood Campground. Along the way you’ll make a detour to a fantastic waterfall – Ribbon Falls. The water tumbles down the 100 foot rock face in delicate ribbons and has created a travertine spire beneath the falls due to its high mineral content. In warm weather, many people go swimming in the ice cold pool at the bottom of the falls but at this time of a year a walk behind the falls is more tempting. Cottonwood Campground will be our staging point for the next day’s hike to the North Rim.

After a hearty early breakfast, you’ll start your hike towards the North Rim. This hike is fantastic for natural history buffs as you’ll hike up through a semi-arid High Sonoran desert environment at mid-canyon to a dense mixed conifer forest on the rim. Keep an eye out for rare flowering plants such as redbud trees and stream orchids and squirrels and coyotes along the way. If you think the views are incredible near the bottom of the hike, wait until you get to the top! Once you arrive, you’ll have plenty of time to enjoy the view before the hike back along the same route to camp.

After breakfast, you’ll break camp and retrace your steps to Bright Angel Campground. What goes up must come down so - unlike your previous walk along this trail - you’ll mostly be heading downhill this time around. Enjoy a different perspective on the stunning scenery that surrounds you as you hike to your camp for tonight.

After breakfast, break camp and set off on the Bright Angel Trail alongside the Colorado River and arrive at Pipe Creek where you’ll enjoy a rest. From here, you’ll hike up Pipe Creek past its junction with Garden Creek to Indian Garden – a spring site that watered seasonal Havasupai garden plots for centuries. After you’ve enjoyed a break, it’s a short final hike to our camp for the night – Indian Garden Campground – another enchanting Grand Canyon camp with shade and water.

A relaxed morning and delicious breakfast will precede a beautiful hike as we continue our ascent via the Bright Angel Trail to the South Rim where we’ll look back over our trip and reflect on the beauty of this place and our accomplishment in achieving something that few hikers have experienced. On arrival, you’ll be transferred back to Flagstaff where your adventure began and your Grand Canyon hiking tour will come to an end.