Tolbert Travels

We were married in June 2022 and enjoyed a two-part honeymoon. Part 1: Sandals Resort – Barbados // Part 2: Hiking to the bottom of the Grand Canyon & camping below the rim for 2 nights! This post includes our detailed itinerary for Grand Canyon National Park.

First, we submitted our backcountry permit here (screenshot below of how we filled it out in case this part is confusing to you).

Note: To give your request the best chance, submit it by 5pm MST on the 1st of the month that is four months before the proposed start date. See the table below to see when you need to submit your permit request.

Day 1: PHX –> Mather’s Campground

On July 19, 2022, we flew into Phoenix, rented a compact blue car we later named Harley, and drove to Site 047 (Aspen Loop) in Grand Canyon National Park. We arrived after 8pm, so we used the machine to pay the $30 fee. Note: Camping fees do not include the park entrance fee.

We set up camp, and K realized he left a piece of our hydration bladder at home, so we needed water or a water system for our backpacking trip. Praise God that there was a gas station nearby, as we found a gallon of water there (so much for weight disbursement haha). We slept amazingly, though we were anxiously excited to get started the next day!

Day 2: Mather’s Campground –> Bright Angel Campground

The next morning (July 20th) we packed up camp, but left our car at the site. From Mather Campground we took the blue shuttle to the Visitor Center, and then took the orange shuttle to the South Kaibab Trailhead.

We got to the trailhead at 7:10AM and started our hike down. Yeah … we should have woken up earlier! 3 miles later, we arrived at Skeleton Point.

Another 1.4 miles later, we arrived at Tip-off (at roughly 7,520 feet elevation). It was a saving grace on the hike down South Kaibab because it offered SHADE and benches to lay on. We took a 20-minute break here before continuing on. At the Tipoff, the trail essentially makes a major transition: you’re leaving the upper canyon behind and heading deeper toward the Colorado River.

The striking part is that 4.4 miles down doesn’t mean you’re halfway to the river in terms of effort—the steep descent and increasing heat make the lower portion considerably more demanding. We soon found this out for ourselves, as we peeled ourselves off the benches at Tip-Off and continued on. We barely saw other souls on this trail, though a mule train carrying supplies did pass us.

After 7.3 miles in all, we arrived at Bright Angel Campground around 11:45AM. The last hour of this hike was extremely difficult because of the intense heat, so if you do this hike in July, start an hour or two before we did 🙂 We were SO grateful to make it to the cave & suspension bridge. Total Godsend right when we needed it most. Hiking is physical, but also mental, and our bodies are incredible to be able to do what they can do. This trip showed us more of what the human body is capable of. In the photos below, you can see the suspension bridge, and the bottom right is the Tip-Off structure! We felt so happy.

We spent all afternoon playing in Bright Angel Creek!! I could have stayed in it for the rest of my life. I only left it to pay $5.50 for a cup of lemonade. Thanks, Phantom Ranch! Peep the mama deer and fawns in the photo on the right. Amazingly, they can survive in the extreme heat and were quite happy by the creek. We learned a lot from them.

Thankfully, we had reserved the 6:30pm stew dinner because it was delicious and included salad, cornbread, and dessert. Our favorite thing about supper? ICE!! We had super cold water in our water bottles that night. Praise Jesus! It was so spectacular having cold water and a delicious dinner waiting for us.

We mailed a postcard home to our family via mule train that night and watched the stars. Finally, we said it was time to go to bed, so we climbed into our backpacking tent to go to sleep. We heard a raccoon climbing the pole where our packs were hanging to check them out & the cow elk were causing rustling too. The heat was stagnant and difficult to breathe in. We had a difficult time falling asleep. We slept the best from 1am – 5:30am because it cooled down a bit. If we went now, I would bring our Hatch Go Portable (battery sound machine), but we didn’t own this baby item then haha. We had already said, “goodnight,” but then a few minutes later I asked, “Want to get up and get back in the creek?” Kristoff didn’t hesitate when he replied, “YES!” The creek was never not refreshing. We would have slept in the creek on an inflatable if we could have.

Note: It cost us $58 for 2 nights in the backcountry ($10 + ($12 x 2 people x 2 nights below rim). We found out on March 8, 2022 that we had been granted the backcountry permit and we were SO thankful + excited! Below is a photo of our tent setup on this trip.

Links to a few items we ordered: Orange sleeping pads // Lightweight backpacking tent // camping pillow // waterproof camping backpack

Day 3: Bright Angel Campground –> Indian Garden Campground

We ate a delicious breakfast at Phantom Ranch at 6:30AM and began hiking back up around 7:40AM. We took Bright Angel Trail up, and not only were the views different, but this trail has shade, natural creeks for hat-dipping and shirt-soaking, but also water stations and rest houses. South Kaibab had NO water and very little shade, so we definitely selected the right trails to do down/up.

We began at 2480ft elevation, and 4.7 miles later we arrived at 3800 feet — Indian Garden Campground! We set up our backpacking tent & attended the 4PM ranger program on “soundscapes.” We were told we should go to Plateau Point that evening for sunset. THEY KNEW THE SPOT. We ate beef jerky and fruit snacks for dinner and hiked 1.5 miles back to our tent. No raccoons bothered us at Indian Garden, but cow elk foraged and the heat still blistered (not as bad though as the previous night). The sunset was worth every step of the 3mi. hike, and I’ll remember it forever.

Day 4: Indian Garden –> South Rim

The rim looked so far away when we woke up at the crack of dawn. I felt nauseous from the heat upon waking, and I was sore! Standing up wasn’t fun for the first few hours & I took lots of breaks. Kristoff was super supportive and helpful. Photo below that he snapped to remember.

We started hiking by 5:40AM with our final 4.8 miles ahead of us. The views were amazing, and it was so fulfilling to look down and say, “Did we really start this morning off down there at the grove of Cottonwood trees?” The 3 Miles and 1.5 miles Resthouses were well needed/appreciated. At the 1.5 miles resthouse, we got to talk with 2 NPS rangers who were in their 70s. They said that they wished everyone planned their hike out the way we did, as fewer rescues would be needed.

You can tell from the photos above that one of us had more energy than the other! 🙂 During this portion of the hike, I lost our backpacking pillow, as it slipped out without us realizing. Whoops! We used clothes for pillows on our last night camping.

We finally made it back to the rim! The picture below was taken within minutes of us getting our bearings. There were visitors everywhere, and we felt such a sense of pride at what we had accomplished together. We both had adrenaline pulsing through us. WE DID IT!!! My parents set out this same journey decades earlier, and now we had done it too. Most people take beautiful photos from the rim and marvel at the layers of rock, but I think it is less than 1% of park visitors who actually hike to the bottom of the Grand Canyon. As people swarmed all around us … taking photos … getting food/drinks/souvenirs … we just stood there, looking back at where we had walked, together. Looking back at what we had accomplished together offered its own reward. “We made it!” — three words I’ll never forget. We bought lunch and sat there … just taking everything in. We were back to civilization and noise, but we both were remembering the days prior when it was just us on the trails for miles and miles.

After lunch, we got on the blue shuttle and headed back to our site on Aspen Loop. We paid $2.50 for a five-minute shower (HEAVENLY) and then read the 4th book in the Court of Thorns series. I remember we went out for Mexican food that night and slept amazingly in our backpacking tent after all the hiking.