May 8, 2019
The 800-mile Arizona Trail (AZT) is one of 11 National Scenic Trails in the United States. Running north from the Mexican border, it passes through four national forests and two national parks. Over a two-week period, we hiked 13 stages, totaling 200 miles, along the northern-most section of the trail.
The highlight of this section is trekking rim to rim through Grand Canyon National Park. But before we arrived at the Grand Canyon’s South Rim, we hiked about 100 miles in two national forests. We also trekked through a ranch area along winding dirt roads. It is a relatively dry terrain, and much of our daily distance was dictated by the availability of water.
Arizona Trail Map (our hiking route is highlighted in blue)
After a bus trip from our home in Southern California, we arrived in Flagstaff, Arizona (population 70,000). The city is located just below 7,000 feet in elevation. Since we would be climbing to near 9,000 feet on our first day of hiking, we wanted to acclimate before we started. So we spent a rest day buying some last minute groceries and items at REI, as well as walking around the Northern Arizona University campus.
Leaving Flagstaff and Heading into the San Francisco Peaks
We left our hotel at about 7:40 am the next morning and began to walk north along a busy street. A section of the Arizona Trail runs right through Flagstaff, but it was temporarily closed due to forest logging work. This meant we needed to take an alternate series of paths to join the main trail north of town.
The urban paths wound through a series of city parks before we reached some more rural neighborhoods. Local residents were friendly and encouraging when we passed by them. Finally, in the late morning, after hiking about eight miles, we reached the Arizona Trail junction in the Coconino National Forest.
We had steadily climbed from Flagstaff to reach this intersection, and the AZT continued to ascend as we hiked through the pine forest. The last two miles were the steepest, and even with the acclimation day, we could feel the altitude as we trekked above 8,000 feet.
We finally reached our stopping point for the day, the Alfa Fia Tank. Even though it was called a tank, all we found was a lake. This was our first water source since leaving Flagstaff. After 16 miles of hiking and about 3,000 feet of total elevation gain, we were happy to remove our packs, holding six days of food, and set up camp.
We found a nice site nestled amongst some aspen trees and overlooking the water. Except for a few day hikers passing by in the late afternoon, we were the only ones there.
From the lake we could look behind our tent to see the San Francisco Peaks and Humphreys Peak, the tallest mountain in Arizona (elevation 12,633 feet). Even though our camp was at about 8,800 feet, it wasn’t too cold, and we slept well that night.
from the lake
Hitting some Snow and Hiking a Dirt Road
In the early morning we hiked up to a little over 9,000 feet as the trail traversed through several small snow patches. We then descended through a grove of aspens to lower ground.
We also saw the first of the trail signs counting down the distance to the Utah border.
The next water source was a cache 10 miles away, so we timed our arrival to coincide with lunch. By then we had dropped down over 1,000 feet in elevation, so the weather was pleasant for our break. Soon after lunch we came to a relatively flat section of dirt road walking.
With the next water located 12 miles from our lunch break, we ensured that we filtered enough for the evening. Our campsite that night was a short distance from the road at about 6,900 feet. The total distance for the day was 17.7 miles.
Our plan the next morning was to hike 4.7 miles to the water source and make coffee and eat breakfast there. The dirt road descended a few hundred feet, opening up an endless plateau vista before us.
Many of the water sources on the AZT consist of cattle or wildlife tanks. The East Cedar Tank was a 1/4 mile climb off the trail, and when we arrived our first impressions were not good. Fortunately, we knew from the crowdsourced trail app on our phones that we could filter directly from the metal pipe without having to use the actual (yucky) tank water.
We had also purchased a pre-filter to treat the water, with the hope of lessening the chances of our water filter becoming clogged with any particulates. The extra effort of pre-filtering and filtering paid off, and the water looked and tasted fine.
We left the Coconino National Forest and spent the remainder of our 17.9 mile day hiking along the dirt road in a ranch area. At the lower elevation we came across occasional blooming flowers adjacent to the trail.
Competing with the Bulls for Water
During our first three days of hiking we had seen just a handful of other people. The next day we ran into two men who were trekking the entire 800-mile trail in day hiking segments over a couple of years. They were shuttling two cars to cover their miles, so we spoke to them several times as we walked.
The next water tank came with a warning from our app that there may be bulls present in the area. When we approached, the bulls were in the distance but curious about our presence. We quickly collected water into our collapsible bucket and moved away before they came too close.
While we were filtering our water a short distance away, several of the bulls began drinking at the tank. Watching their aggressive behavior toward each other made us glad that we had collected all the water we needed for our next section of hiking.
After a few more miles, we entered the Kaibab National Forest. At this point, the dirt road walking finally ended and we were back on a trail. We pitched our tent that night in a pine forest after completing a 17.5 mile day.
The Excitement of Arriving at the Grand Canyon
At this point we were only 33 miles from the Grand Canyon’s South Rim. We woke up early the next morning with a plan to hike a little further to put us in position to arrive at the canyon earlier the next day. Being back on a trail didn’t disappoint as we weaved through the beautiful forest and along a small lake.
Our excitement grew as we soon began to get glimpses of the Grand Canyon itself.
The canyon got closer with every hour we hiked, and we found a nice overlook to enjoy our lunch break.
We had phone service while eating lunch, so we checked the weather. Thus far, it had been dry during our hike, but the weather forecast called for rain over the next few days. With the forecast as extra motivation to keep moving, we used a late afternoon break to cook an early dinner. Having a warm meal allowed us to continue a few more miles afterward and then set up our tent just as it was getting dark. We were pleased with our progress and the 19.1 miles we had covered during the day.
The weather already looked threatening when we woke up on day six of our trek. It was only eight miles to the town of Tusayan, located on the road to the Grand Canyon, and we made it there by 10:15 am.
We headed to Wendy’s and ate an early lunch as a rainstorm moved in. The weather forecasted a gap between the current rain and another storm, so we started hiking again as soon as the precipitation stopped. We had seven more miles to reach the Grand Canyon Visitor Center, so we walked quickly on the paved path.
We arrived at the Visitor Center at about 2:15 pm after a total of 103 miles of hiking from Flagstaff. Since it was not raining yet, we went directly to Mather Point to get our first views of the canyon in the park. Grand Canyon is the second most popular national park in the country. After seeing virtually no one during the past six days, the number of people at the overlook was a little daunting to us.
Below our view we could see Phantom Ranch, located in the green cottonwood trees at the bottom of the canyon. We had the great fortune of getting spots in the ranch’s hiker dorms during a lottery that took place 14 months in advance of our trekking date. Straight up the canyon from Phantom Ranch was the trail to the North Rim. It was hard to believe that we would be down there in just a couple more days.
We could also see rain falling in the canyon, and kept an eye on it as it moved slowly towards us. After we snapped a few photos it was time to get to some shelter before the next wave of rain hit.
A shuttle bus took us to Bright Angel Lodge, where we spent the next two nights, giving us a rest day before hiking down into the canyon. We made it to our room after only getting a little wet from the rain.
A Concerning Weather Forecast
After settling in, we checked the weather forecast again. We were dismayed to discover that, not only was it going to rain for the next four days straight, but the accumulation on a couple of those days could be as much as a 1/2 inch. We were committed to hike down from the South Rim to Phantom Ranch, but the current forecast gave us pause about what to do after that.
While the South Rim is open year-around, the North Rim was not going to be open for another week, on May 15. If we hiked into any adverse weather conditions there, we would not have official park resources to help us out if needed.
It had been an eventful week of hiking from Flagstaff through the scenic forest and of filtering water from the various cattle and wildlife tanks along the trail. But we now needed to spend our rest day researching our options to make the best decision for the remainder of our Arizona Trail trek going forward.
