Arizona

 

Maps:

• Software - Topo! Arizona or Backroads Explorer

• National Geographic Trails Illustrated map of the Grand Canyon

• USDS Map of the Kaibab National Forest

Books:

• Hiking the Grand Canyon Loops.  Adventures in the Backcountry. A Falcon Guide.  George Steck.  2002

• Guide to Arizona's Wilderness Areas, including the Grand Canyon.  Tom Dollar, photos by Jerry Sieve.  1998
• Hiking in the Grand Canyon Backcountry.  J. D. Green, Jim Ohlman editor.  1995.  Not sure about the contents of the book, but the maps are useless and the photos are pretty bad. Amature book.

Note:

• This is the page with the lowest quality traces.  There are 3 reasons for that: 1st is that this trip was combined with the Utah trip and the GPS that I had at that time had only 2,000 trace points.  I had to set the interval between points to a very large number not to run out of them.  2d reason was that the reception was very poor due to large pines blocking the sky, my old GPS having inferior reception and the walls of the canyon blocking the sky.  As a result I cannot have elevation profiles.  I didn't record the description of my waypoints either and had to guess when I described the trace. 
• There are 3 hikes in 1 trace: first on the rim in Kaibab Forest is very short, ~1mile one way.  The second is a classical way down and up the Grand Canyon.  The third is a very good hike on the rim with multiple overlooks.

 

Hike 1-3.  Kaibab National Forest and the Grand Canyon

 

 

Club: my scouting

Date: 05/22-24/2005

Parking: good parking, but it's worth to go there half a month later, since there is still snow on the ground and some of the roads and trails were closed due to that.

Topo! Arizona Trace: GrandCanyonNP_KaibabNF_GPS0522_24_2005.tpo

Description File: GrandCanyonNP_KaibabNF_GPS0522_24_2005.doc

GPS TrackMaker Trace: GrandCanyonNP_KaibabNF_GPS0522_24_2005.gtm

Photo Album: GrandCanyonNP_KaibabNF_GPS0522_24_2005

Notes: It's impossible to get a backcountry permit for the Grand Canyon NP, but you don't need any permit for the Kaibab NF, which is only slightly less exciting then the Grand Canyon.  North Rim is much less commercialized than the Southern.  It's also a 1000 ft higher. 

Warnings: some of the trails are very dangerous (none of mine).  Do your homework.