BEAUTY AND SOLITUDE:
SCRAMBLING DOWN THE GRAND CANYON
Contributing Editor, The ARS Sojourner
For many years I have been fascinated by an access to the canyon bottom called the "Old Bright Angel Trail". This trail also goes from North Rim to Roaring Springs, but takes a different side canyon than the tourist trail. It was opened in 1902 and used until the North Kaibab trail was blasted from rock in the late 1920s. The old trail is more than twice as long and is less dramatic than the new one, but since it has not been maintained in many years it offers the appealing possibility of solitude. I have searched for traces of the trail in the canyon many times but have never been able to find it. Last June while hiking a dim trail along the rim I discovered that the Park Service had marked the "Old B A" trail. I schemed through the winter, and captured three young family members to explore the old trail with me as soon as the park opened this May.
The trail head is well marked, but the trail itself is rough and overgrown.
A half-mile later we were delighted to cross a beautiful stream which trickled out of rock, bubbled along the surface a few hundred yards and then plunged over a cliff. We stopped to drink, cool our feet, and eat an early lunch before moving on.
From this point the trail became increasingly dim, often disappearing altogether. The hike became a scramble from cairn to cairn down a steep, rocky hillside.
At last we reached a delightful creek at the bottom of the gorge. Here we lost the trail altogether, and had to search until we spotted three small stones stacked on top of a huge boulder that indicated a creek crossing to the left side of the canyon.
The last mile or so of the trail was extremely dim, more like a game trail than a marked route. It led across rockslides and through overgrown bushes and scraggly trees. I would have a great deal of trouble finding the trail if I were to start from the bottom and try to climb out of the canyon using this route.
At last we reached the confluence of our little creek with the larger Bright Angel creek and bushwhacked our way upstream to Roaring Springs, an incredible oasis in the desert canyon. There we stopped to eat, nap, and to play with the radio while we waited for shadows to cool the hike out of the canyon.
I pulled my KX-1 from my backpack and threw an antenna into the tree. Roaring Springs is in a narrow canyon thousands of feet deep, but signals on 40 and 20 meters could still be heard from neighboring states. I have made contacts with Utah, Arizona and California from this location in the past, but on this occasion no one answered my CQ. (Operating from the rim is another experience altogether!)
It's worth remembering that calling the weakest stations on the QRP frequencies often results in the most satisfying and interesting contacts. I routinely call the weakest stations I can hear, even if I am only running one watt, and have had some incredible experiences as a result.
On the way out we admired a great view of Roaring Springs, which is a small river gushing out of a hole in the limestone cliffs.
We took our time climbing the North Kaibab trail and reached our vehicle by about 8 p.m. The total hike was about 16 miles with an elevation change of roughly 3,500 feet. We experienced snow and cactus, chilling cold and exhausting heat. The greatest part for me was the absolute solitude of the rugged historic canyon route.
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Dr. Bob Armstrong, N7XJ, an avid QRPer, builder and expert outdoorsman, is a contributing editor to The ARS Sojourner. He is a physician living in Manti, UT.