TL;DR
Get a taste for the Grand Canyon without doing the full descent down to the Colorado along the Tonto Trail. We started from Grandview and made our way 28 miles westward toward the Tip Off and finished on South Kaibab, still managing to do 3900ft of elevation change each way. This trail involves a dry camp! We did this hike over 3 days/2 nights, crossing one water source at Cottonwood the first day and a second water source at Grapevine the first night. For the remainder of the trip there was no water. Second night’s camp was at Cremation. The trail is rugged but you’ll be rewarded with blissful solace, a luxury at this popular park. We did this trip in mid-October. Be sure to check with the backcountry office regarding the status of water sources. Grand Canyon backpacking is no joke.
Permits
Grand Canyon National Park probably has the most warnings I’ve ever seen for a backcountry permit and rightfully so. The land is rugged, at times dangerous, and the arid hot climate will take its toll. A no water situation can quickly become a dire. Make sure to do your research and understand what you’re getting yourself into.
The Backcountry Permit website has a table at the bottom of the page showing when to apply based on your trip date. In general, application period is about 4 months prior to the month of your trip. Applications can be faxed or mailed. In person requests can be made but only starting 3 months prior to the month of your trip. Permits are $10 per permit + $8/person/night making this the most expensive permit we’ve ever gotten. Permit costs are non-refundable. This also seems to serve as a way to prevent groups from submitting multiple applications.
Despite being limited to one application, you are allowed to submit seemingly unlimited itineraries. For example, we submitted four itineraries. I just filled out two request forms, wrote page 1 of 2 and page 2 of 2 in huge letters on each page, and faxed them one after the other. Ironically we didn’t get any of the itineraries we wanted. However, the ranger was kind enough to suggest a route that was still available, thus we ended up on the Tonto.
One of the slightly confusing parts of the permit request form was figuring out the “use area” for the different itineraries. You need to know which zone you’ll be in for each night.
This map has an overlay of the different use areas along with the various trails.
Camping regulations will vary depending on which trail you’re on. In the corridor, you’re more limited to specific established campgrounds. On the Tonto, where its at-large camping and more typical of wilderness backpacking.
Note: This was the process when we applied in 2019.
Itinerary & Logistics
Our trip was a thru-hike starting from the Grandview Trailhead and finishing at South Kaibab. It was actually sort of difficult finding information on this route. I couldn’t find many blog posts or trip reports. Probably the most useful information was from the national park website. I always find the park websites to be pretty confusing to navigate and find information. Grand Canyon has a page for Backcountry Trail and Use Areas. From there, they have a nice PDF summary of the main trails in the park, including the section of the Tonto from Grandview to South Kaibab. There’s a good section that gives an overview of the possible water sources and whether they are perennial or seasonal. We also called the Wilderness Information Center the day prior to our hike in to confirm where we could find water.
When we went in October, almost everything was dry. We were able to find water at Cottonwood, downstream near the Tonto junction. When I say “find water”, its little holes in the creek bed that people had dug that will naturally fill with water. We were also able to find the spring in the east arm of arm of Grapevine, about 15 minutes downstream from the trail and campsite area. It involved a little bit of scrambling and navigating the rock. There was a third option at Lone Tree but the Wilderness office had said it was 1 hour downstream which we weren’t interested in trying.
Figuring out the logistics for a thru is always a little difficult. First thing is where to park. We did see overnight parking spots at Grandview but there weren’t many. We ended up parking at lot D next to the Wilderness Information Center. This sounded like it was the only lot in the village you could leave your car over night. Since the shuttle system doesn’t run to Grandview, no matter where we parked we would need to taxi either at the beginning or the end. Beginning is easier to time so we called a taxi (928. 638.2822 under Transportation) that picked us up at the Wilderness Information Center. You can’t arrange the taxi in advance, you only call when you’re ready to go and need to have cash on hand to pay. The response time was pretty quick actually. Within 10 minutes of calling we were on our way. To end our hike, we took the Orange line from South Kaibab to the visitor center and then the Blue line back the Wilderness Information Center.
Thoughts
I was a bit nervous about this trip. After Wonderland, my left knee took a long time to recover and any trip in the Grand Canyon just screams elevation change. On top of that, we were trying to be as prepared as possible for the dry camp on day 2. The climate is dry and not what we’re used to coming from California. How much water do we actually need for two days? How much do we use for dinner? For breakfast? What do we carry it in that won’t make our packs lopsided? There were many questions that we could only guestimate answers for.
On a standard trip in the Sierras, we’re only carrying about a 2L carrying capacity with one or two refills during the day and a pretty much guaranteed water source next to camp. For this trip, we each had a 7L carrying capacity. We used 1.5L Smart water bottles for the majority + our standard Nalgenes + two 1L BeFrees for filtering + a 3L CamelBak (which actually made the water taste heinous). While collapsible water bottles pack better when empty and are lighter, I was a bit weary of having to pack multiple soft side water containers along with every single piece of vegetation trying to stab you. Hard sided bottles seemed more reliable and I was pretty happy with this set-up. We did day 1 with only 4L each. Enough to comfortably do the hike and have water for dinner in case we weren’t able to find the water source at Grapevine.
We started off pretty slow. It took us a while to first find the parking lot and then taxi over to the trailhead. Grandview trail wastes no time and you start descending immediately, and it is steep. The views are instant though and you can look out into the canyon and see jaw dropping views in either direction.
You can also see just how far you have to go down. We took it slow and eventually made it to Cottonwood. By that point we were ready to be done with downhill. The trail meanders back and forth across the drainage. We didn’t actually find water until we came across some holes previously hikers had dug in the dry creek bed. We topped off our reservoirs and then pressed on to Grapevine.
Very quickly after we found water, we hit the Tonto trail junction. A literal sign that our downhill journey was over. From here on the trail would be mostly flat until the the Tip Off.
The trail itself was pretty rocky which I’ve found common across the few desert hikes I’ve done. Grand Canyon takes it to the next level and provides an unending supply of plants that stick out across the trail and stab you. Brush you expect to sort of bend out of the way simply doesn’t and you’re left with nice group of scratches. This is the first time I’ve ever thought that hiking pants would be useful.
By the time we hit the inlet to Grapevine canyon, we were about ready to be done. It was warm and a constant dry wind had picked up in the afternoon. Frequent gusts threatened to blow our hats off into the abyss and a few were strong enough that we had to brace ourselves or risk getting blown off our feet. Around this time we came across a part of the trail that I had not read anything about. On the eastern side of Grapevine, the trail is quite narrow and drops off instantly into nothing. This is probably the most exposed I’ve ever felt backpacking. We’ve done trails on the side of mountains and snowfields where you wouldn’t want to fall but nothing where a mere slip or trip could send you plummeting. Take care in this area, we were all pretty sketched out and hyper-aware.
We reached the back of the drainage as the sun began to set. A debacle with the water source led us to camping on the western arm of Grapevine, not near water, but with a nice wind buffer. At first glance, it didn’t seem like the water was accessible but you just needed to assess and find the best way down to it. Its about 15 minutes downstream from the trail.
We were up early the next day, to top of the rest of our water, and get as far as possible before the sun hit us. You don’t appreciate shade until you’ve spent the entire day hiking in the sun. Its relentless. Day 2 consisted of meandering in and out of side canyons. Despite being flat, our water-laden packs were heavy and as we approached the Cremation drainage we decided the plateau we were on was as good as any to camp. The wind wasn’t too bad, there were areas that looked used, rocks to stake our tent, and nice views in all directions. We came up about 1 mile short of the drainage but turned out to be for the best. As you get closer, you end up losing all views of the canyon. We successfully carried enough water for our dry camp and had more than enough for the hike out the next day.
With zero clouds in site, we set up our tent sans rainfly. We were treated to the Milky Way and numerous shooting stars before the moon rose and illuminated everything. The wind died down completely, making our camping spot even more satisfying. We awoke the next day, ready to be done being stabbed by all the plants and motivated to wrap up our trip. South Kaibab was not nearly as steep as Grandview but probably 10x as crowded. But the views never stop.
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