Grand Canyon Girls
Ribbon Falls
Of all the amazing days and beautiful views we experienced in the Grand Canyon, I think my favorite hike and favorite view came on Friday, March 11th, on our round trip to Ribbon Falls. I’ve always loved a waterfall, and this 12-mile trek (including out and back fordings of Bright Angel Creek) more than exceeded its billing.
-Tracy
We left Bright Angel campground early, passing by Phantom Ranch just as the sun was peaking over the South Rim. Sans tents, sleeping bags and cooking gear, our packs felt (and were!) much lighter, as we carried only enough food and water for the day. We wore our rain gear for warmth, as we left camp with temperatures just above freezing. Our hike followed the North Kaibab (“ki-baab”) Trail, the cross-canyon route to the North Rim.
Our first glimpses of the North Rim showed yesterday’s inner-canyon precipitation had fallen as snow at the higher 8,200’ elevation.
Thinking of our around one mile per hour pace the previous days on the Hermit and Tonto Trails, we were concerned about making it back to camp for our planned beef stew dinner at Phantom Ranch.
Turns out we had nothing to worry about, as the North Kaibab Trail was a lot more gentle than the trails we had hiked the rest of the week. I put away my hiking poles for most of the day, and just enjoyed being in ‘The Box’ of the canyon walls surrounded on all sides by the 2 billion year old pink Zoroaster granite and black Vishnu Schist.
We brought our Merrell water shoes, knowing the bridge to the falls was out and we would have to ford the creek, expecting it to be higher due to the recent rain and snow.
We also had to do some creative rock climbing and butt sliding to get to the falls.
Ribbon Falls didn’t disappoint, with its flow more like a torrent than a ribbon from all recent precipitation.
The return hike was a relaxing, quiet stroll back to camp mostly by myself, as Jessica and Cynthia decided to go on and try to get back to Phantom Ranch and Kim and I were enjoying our solitude on this beautiful spring day in the canyon. I was enthralled by the litter of rainbow colored rocks on the trail coming from all the layers of the canyon walls above.
We saw very few people on this hike as the North Rim is still closed and the only campground is a few miles past the falls at Cottonwood campground. One solo woman hiker we met coming from there said everything she had was frozen solid from her overnight stay there!
