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Tonto Trail: 4 Days Backpacking Trip in the Grand Canyon · Fri. Apr. 18th, 2025 - Sun. Apr. 27th, 2025
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Start: Friday, Apr. 18th
End: Sunday, Apr. 27th
Pre-trip meeting: Thursday, Feb. 6th, 8:00 pm
Pre-trip meeting location: https://us05web.zoom.us/j/85134790937?pwd=883EJGKc2p9t4zsbXTbSXe3CyLGIPX.1
Description:
**THE LIST OF PARTICIPANT IS NOW FINALIZED. YOU CAN EMAIL ME IF YOU WANT TO BE ON THE WAITLIST IN THE UNLIKELY EVENT SOMEONE BAILS ([email protected])**
A few years ago, I had the immense privilege to thru-hike the Arizona Trail, and one of the many highlights was hiking through the Grand Canyon and camping at the bottom. This is still one of my favorite areas for hiking and I have been meaning to go back for a while! April is perhaps the best time to visit, as it's not scorching hot but still decently warm without snow and seasonal creeks still have water.
I am creating the trip so much in advance because the lottery opens mid-November for April reservations... I'll make a reservation for 5 people.
A great way to explore the canyon is to hike the Tonto trail, a 110km trail that runs more or less parallel to the Colorado river but higher up, on the Tonto Platform. Most people venturing inside the canyon stay on "the Corridor" (3 trails connecting both rims to the river), and very few actually tackle the Tonto Trail which is what's appealing to me! The sections at the western and eastern ends of the trail are extremely remote, dangerous and usually require caching food an/or water, so this adventure will be limited at what the Park calls "Primitive" and "Threshold" areas (would be the equivalent to the wilderness zone in Garibaldi). The trail itself is fairly flat once the platform is reached (it is accessed via steep but gorgeous trails), and is famous for its lack of water (most creeks are either dry, radioactive or too high in minerals...). I want to hike down (and hoperfull camp) to the Colorado river at the very bottom of the river as it's very cool, which would add a bit of elevation loss/gain. Several liters of water will need to be carried pretty much anytime and dry-camping will be necessary. As such, this trip is meant for advanced backpackers.
Rough plan:
Saturday - Drive to the Gand Canyon and Hike 6km to first camp
Sunday - Hike 25km (flat terrain) and dry camp
Monday - Hike 25km (flat terrain)
Tuesday - Hike 15km (flat and downhill) and camp by Colorado River
Wednesday - Hike 15km (uphill) and drive out
Thursday to Saturday - Explore the region, hike and/or climb in Red Rock Canyon
Who is this for:
-You have considerable backpacking experience (ideally thru-hiking experience)
-You can hike 25km with a backpack on flati-sh terrain
-You have done multi-day trips where water-management is critical and you have dry-camped before
-You are okay with heavy packs (water will make the packs heavy)
-You are a bit of a geology nerd (okay, this one may be optional)
-You can travel to the US and can come back to Canada
If you can answer yes to all of those, then feel free to sign up for a beautiful adventure in one of the most stunning lanscapes on Earth.
Logistics:
Ideally we would fly to either Vegas or Phoenix on the Friday (evening), pick up a car and head to Grand Canyon NP the same day or on Saturday in the morning. The goal is to complete the ~90km route in 4 days/4 nights although adding a night would be fine. Depending on where we fly into, we could do a little road trip with more hiking, skiing or climbing, below are quick ideas of things we can do, I'm still undecided on the landing point. I'd like to minimize the number of nights with roofed accomodation, mostly because I'm a bit cheap and because the Southwest is simply amazing and I'd like to spend as much time oustide as possible! (I'm still flexible though!)
This is the GPS track (10-15km need to be added as there's no bus stop at the eastern terminus, hitchhiking shouldn't be hard though) : Explore Paul's Tonto Trail | AllTrails
Landing in Phoenix: Hiking Phoenix Mountain, Hiking in Sedona, Skiiing/Hiking in Flagstaff (home of Arizona's tallest peak)
Landing in Vegas: Hiking/Climbing at Red Rock Canyon (will need a co-leader if climbing), Hiking in Grand Canyon's West rim (has stunning waterfalls)
Budget (a bit overstated I think): $600 for the week per person
Flight $400 per person
Car $700ish total so $100 to $150 per person
Permits $100 per person
Plannning/Timing:
November: I sign up for the April lottery DONE
mid-December: I get to actually book the campsites (or find out that it's all booked up because I lose the lottery...) DONE
end of January: pre-trip call with interested people to discuss the trip
February: Time to commit and make all necessary reservations (car, flight etc...), probably we would meet up to discuss what we want to do there once we're done with the hike
Notes:
-Due to the nature of this trip, it won't be first-come-first served, just want to make sure everyone has the required skillset
-We can discuss any extra-curricular activities at a later time
-100% of the trail is exposed to the sun, keep that in mind if you have a sun-exposure-related condition
If you missed the pre-trip meeting then no worries, simply shoot me an email if you have questions. As long as the Interested button is not greyed out, the list of participant hasn't been finalized.
Posted: 2024-10-19 14:12:02
Last modified: 2025-02-27 20:27:03