I ran from the South Rim to the bottom and back once. Friends of mine just ran from the north to the south rim. If you are fit, and take water, you should have no problems hiking. Be prepared for heat. It was over 90, and perhaps 100, in the sun for most of my return trip. (I can’t remember if the Indian Springs thermometer said 96 or 106 on the way back, and that was at 8 or 9 in the morning.)
Generally, the only risk is the heat. (Although, “Death in the Grand Canyon” makes interesting, and occassionally heartbreaking, reading. Maybe your kids will want to go, after they read it.) One advantage of running was that I left the inner canyon while still in the shade of the inner canyon walls. Those that were hiking had all camped at bottom and left early in the morning to have the same benefit. You really really want to do that shade. You can replenish your water on the Bright Angel Trail, about halfway up. You also really really want to replenish. I took a 70 oz bladder, which I refilled coming and going.
If you are in shape, I’d advise hiking, not the mules. The dust the mules kick up made it hard to breathe - and I just had to wait for them to go by. Being the last one in the mule train must just suck.
It definitely wasn’t cheap (about $350 US for a half-day excursion), but they had cheaper trips (ours included lunch and champagne and limo to and from the airport). Also, there are plenty of companies that do these trips, so you could check out the competition, too. It was worth every penny for me, I’d never been in a helicopter before and that alone was really cool. You got to see the desert, Lake Mead, the Hoover Dam and the LV Strip as well as the Grand Canyon.
I’ve been to the bottom and done a couple of other trails in the canyon.
After reading through this thread, and considering your couch potato status, a couple of options come to mind. I’ll throw them out and highlight some pros and cons of each.
Mules (to Phantom Ranch). I have never done the mules, but am not a big fan of these. I’ve seen the trains on the way down, and I think it would be more stressful/scary than enjoyable. I have seen and heard them stumble and that’s a pretty scary thing - especially when you’re downhill from them.
If you’re not up to the training and rafting is out, then you don’t have much option (a helicopter would be nice, but different). Keep in mind that the mule rides are SO popular you have to book at least a year in advance for the peak months.
So I would recommend hiking. It’s not just seeing the canyon from the bottom, but also how it looks/changes all along the way. It is a lot of work, but I think it is well worth it. You will certainly feel a big sense of accomplishment, and you can wear that “I Hiked the Canyon” t-shirt with pride !
To that end:
2. Overnight plan #1: Indian Gardens. Backpack down to Indian Gardens, where you’ll spend the night. Either that day or the next, do a dayhike down to the river and back. Second day, you hike (backpack) out.
The advantage is that this is about the shortest backpack you could do and still have access to the bottom. The other big plus is that I am pretty sure you can get water at Indian Gardens. So would only need to carry the water you need for each leg. This plan also has the advantage that you do not have to backpack all the way to the bottom (and therefore have to backpack all the way out as well).
The only real disadvantage is that you will need to backpack (and condition for backpacking). If the wife’s knees are a problem, this may not be realistic.
Overnight plan #2: Horseshoe Mesa. Backpack down to Horseshoe Mesa, where you’ll spend the night. You can hike on top of the mesa, or take a trail around the mesa. But unfortunately, you can’t get all the way down to the river from Horseshoe Mesa.
The big advantage to this plan is that this is a very short hike. The downside is that at the top, this is a steep/tough hike (steeper than the trail to Indian Gardens). But it is a much shorter hike to where you’ll camp.
Although you won’t get all the way down to the river, the views from the mesa are awesome as well. You can see quite a ways down the river. And there are some cool things to check out on the mesa. Best of all, it is not all that crowded. No where near as crowded as Bright Angel trail will be.
The biggest downside is that although there is water, it is a pain to get to. There is this little spring down this one side. And it is a nasty trail (not cliff-like steep, but loose and crumbly stuff to cross) to get to. Carrying the water bags gets to be a pain.
Dayhike plan #1: Horseshoe Mesa. Being as short a hike as it is, doing Horseshoe Mesa as a dayhike is very doable. You still have the steep section at the top, but now you’ll just be carrying daypacks (highly recommend hiking poles for either dayhiking or backpacking on this trail !). You won’t have as much time to explore as it will be slow going to hike out. But you also won’t have to worry about making a water run - you can simply carry all you’ll need. Start early, and head out in the afternoon.
Dayhike plan #2: Indian Gardens. Same benefits as dayhike plan #1, but not as hairy as a trail. But you will be trading steepness with 1) lots of other people, 2) mules, and 3) a much longer hike. The other downside is that once you get to Indian Gardens, you may not want to do much else (like hike over to the viewpoint, or down to the river), as you have a long hike back out. But there is water (I’m pretty sure), so you can take a nice long break.
I hiked the GC two years ago…and beleive you me, it isn’t for the faint of heart. We went down the Kaibab trail, which is pretty steep and bleak, with no available water. It’s a great trail for dscending because you get to the bottom fairly quickly, without compromising on the awesome views. I had gone after labour day so it wasn’t quite as hot as summer, but hotter than it will be in the spring I would imagine. After a little lunch break, we came back up the Bright Angel trail. This one’s easier, with a rest stop half way to the top. It’s also a very nice hike with a stream criss-crossing the trail for much of the way. Some awesome views along this one too (goes without saying). We were pretty tired by the time we neared the top and really slowed to a crawl (exhausted doesn’t even begin to describe my condition), but the up side was that we hiked the last 30 minutes in the moonlight, which is quite an experience.
I read some of the posts saying you need to be fit - I’ll second and third that point. I was 25 at the time and fairly fit. I was definitely low on endurance, not having hiked any great distance for quite a while, and it showed towards the end. So make sure you do practice hikes before, avoid the summer heat, and keep hydrating with water and gatorade.
If you start early (6:00 a.m at the rim), you’ll avoid the worst part of the day. Try even earlier if possible. If you plan to stay at the bottom, I have heard there’s a waiting list of 3-6 months for the permit. If not, you can rest a couple of hours (or more if you get there early) at the bottom, recharge, have some food and hike back up. All in all we hiked about 20 miles that day (9 miles going down, 10.5 coming up - if I remember corectly) and an elevation change of about 5000 feet each way, so 10000 feet in all.
psst,Winston Smith, see my post. You can drive it. Well, you can’t, but you can be driven. The tour company I gave a link to above has a permit with a local reservation that owns the only route down. It was a blast, although the helicopter was fun, too.
The Forest Service really, * really * discourages people from trying the rim-to-river-to-rim trip in one day. Young, fit people have died trying it. It’s easy to underestimate just how debilitating the heat and dry air can be. The temperature at the bottom of the Canyon is often many degrees hotter than the Rim which is at 8000 feet, so you can start out in the morning in 60 degree weather and wind up hiking in 100 degree desert a few hours later.
I will say that the trails, in general, are much friendlier than the equivalent trails in the Northeast. In the West, they have switchbacks. On the East Coast, trails seem to just go straight up the darn hill.
I’ll second Horseshoe Mesa as an excellent daytrip. But bring lots of water, even if you have to cache some on the trail for the trip back.
I did the raft trip about 8 years ago. I was in my Forties (then) and hiked down with a guide. Wasn’t too bad, but I was in excellent shape. After 5 days of rafting, I rode a chartered helicopter back up to Bar-10 Ranch. I’d recommend the raft trip as the way to see the inside of the canyon. Guides, food, booze, plenty of time, and an easy trip back out.
On the last day of my rim-to-rim-to-rim trip, we started at Phantom Ranch at maybe 4 in the morning, to try and make sure we hit the last ascent before it got too hot and it was still a brutal climb up. I don’t know what people are thinking trying the rim-to-river-to-rim trip in one day.
I have hiked it, spent the night at the bottom, and hiked back up the next day. I’ve also done the mule ride, which is neat. I believe you can go down, have a nice lunch on the canyon floor, then go back up the same day, on mules which have been rested, and timing it so you get to see the sunset when you’re just about to the top. Or you can spend the night. It is a popular trip, though, you can’t just waltz in and hop on a mule without a reservation.
If you hike you have to carry lots of water. Another tip–which I had never heard before but was recommended by the ranger–is every half hour take a 5-minute break and sit with your legs up. (This would be for the trip back up.) I’m thinking you need to reserve this, too, though.
It is all a matter of preparation. It is dehydration, or the related ills of heat stroke and heat exhaustion, that usually kill the young and fit. If you have plenty of water, start early in the day, and use a well traveled trail like the Bright Angel trail, which has water at the Indian Springs campground, you will have no problems. The Kaibab trail is much more demanding, but I thought it was very pretty. (I’ve only been about halfway down that one.)
I have been to the bottom twice (both times for magazine stories) once hiking and once on raft and then hiking out, and I will say I loved the raft trip. There is a gradual sliding into the grand canyon. It impreceptably grows around you until, “Wow, there it is!” Very cool.
In some ways some might find it to be boring because you are not traveling very fast and the gradual change of the scenery is not staggering. But I found it great fun. There were some great rapids, some great camping spots and the food is fantastic. You do get dirty however and the water is ice cold so you don’t tend to do much voluntary bathing in the river.
My photographer and I hiked out the Kibab Trail which was steep and seemed never ending but a great challenge. By the way, my experience with bad knees is that going down hill is the painful part. Uphill tends not to be that bad.