The Grand Canyon in Arizona has hiking trails for all levels, overseen by the National Park Service. Corridor trails are recommended for beginners, while primitive and wilderness trails are for experienced hikers.
Located along the Colorado River in northern Arizona, the Grand Canyon offers a wide variety of hiking trails for outdoor enthusiasts of all levels. The canyon is located primarily within Grand Canyon National Park. The United States National Park Service oversees all hiking trails in the Grand Canyon, which are called backcountry trails and are located on both the North and South Rims of the Grand Canyon. Backcountry trails are divided into four use areas based on their size, camping availability, ecological sensitivity, and history of use.
Corridor trails are Grand Canyon hiking trails recommended for beginner hikers as well as hikers who have never been to the canyon. The corridor’s three routes – Bright Angel, Cottonwood, and Indian Garden – are the only maintained inland routes. They include paved roads for trailheads, purified water stations, public restrooms, emergency phones, and ranger stations. Corridor trails also offer campsites for hikers.
The National Park Service recommends threshold trails for hikers who have already visited the Grand Canyon. Threshold trails are Cedar Spring, Clear Creek, Hermit Mesa, Granit Rapids, Hermit Creek, Hermit Rapids, Horn Creek, Horseshoe Mesa, Monument Creek, Point Sublime, Salt Creek and Wildforss. These trails are unmaintained and offer very little water and pit toilet facilities. Only dirt roads lead to the trailheads.
Other inland Grand Canyon hiking trails are primitive trails. The eight primitive trails have no amenities for hikers, and the trailheads can only be reached by four-wheel drive vehicle. Primitive trails are Boucher, Cremation, Grapevine, Hancecreek, Outlet, Robbers Roost, Swamp Ridge and Walhalla Plateau. Only very experienced hikers, especially those familiar with the Grand Canyon, should attempt to explore the primitive trails.
The final type of hiking trails in the Grand Canyon are wilderness trails. Like primitive trails, wild trails offer nothing but the beauty of the landscape. Only highly experienced hikers familiar with the Grand Canyon should tackle the wild trails, which include Cheyava, Greenland Springs, Phantom Creek, Scorpion Ridge, Thompson Canyon, Trinity Creek, and Vishnu.
Wild trails are undeveloped and offer little or no water resources. The National Park Service, in fact, recommends that hikers avoid wild and primitive trails during the summer due to the extremely high temperatures that contribute to the lack of water. Hikers attempting the wilderness trails need to be skilled at finding trails, because trails for trailheads aren’t marked well and in some cases don’t exist.
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