We spent two great weeks at the North Rim of the Grand Canyon in October 2024, staying at a few different campsites at the North Rim campground and heading into the backcountry for a few adventures. For our first adventure, we headed onto the Walhalla Plateau. We started by driving the Cape Royal Road all the way to Cape Royal, where we joined lots of other tourists in checking out the views of the canyon and Angels Window. Then we backtracked to the Cape Final trailhead, as I had secured a permit for a backcountry campsite at the end of the trail and right on the rim. The hike is only two miles, with about 200 feet of up and down, but the one catch is that there’s no water, so you have to carry all that you need for the entire trip. Only one permit is issued per night, so after the last day hikers left, we had the entire place to ourselves.

Our second adventure was another rim-top backpack, this time to Widforss Point. The hike in was a bit more challenging, at 5 miles with 400 feet of ascent and descent, but also more interesting, as we traversed the rim of the Transept for the first two miles. We camped in the ponderosa forest just above the point, and headed down to the overlook to enjoy dinner with the sunset and breakfast with the sunrise.

After we got back from Widforss, I started the process of trying to get a walk up permit for Cottonwood Campground on the North Kaibab Trail. This can sometimes take several days, but I lucked out and got it on my second day. The permit was for the following night, so after getting it I headed off for a great hike of the Saddle Mountain Trail down to the first half mile of the Nankoweap Trail and enjoyed amazing views of Marble Canyon and the Nankoweap Basin.

My third adventure was a one night backpack down the North Kaibab Trail to Cottonwood Campground. I did this one solo, as it is 6.8 miles and 4,200 feet of elevation change each way, and Sue didn’t think she could do that on back to back days. I started at daybreak, as I wanted to get to camp with enough time to head down to Ribbon Falls in the afternoon. The hike down in the early morning light was spectacular and I was glad to get to camp by mid morning before it got too hot.

I set off for Ribbon Falls at noon and by then it was hot. I soaked my hiking shirt once before I started and a second time in Wall Creek on the way there. And I didn’t mind getting wet up to my knees when I crossed Bright Angel Creek. I got to the falls around 1:15 and was amazed to have it all to myself. After spending fifteen minutes taking lots of photos, I set up my chair on a shady ledge across from the falls and enjoyed the solitude in this amazing place for over an hour.

For my hike out the next day, I chose to start at 7 AM, which is relatively late by Grand Canyon standards. I was trying to time it to meet up with Sue, who was hiking down to the Supai Tunnel to join me for the rest of my hike out. One challenge of the hike out was the sheer number of people hiking down the trail (it is peak rim to rim season right now), many of whom have no respect for yielding to uphill hikers. The other challenge is that the sun hits the trail by mid morning and it gets hot, so I carried extra water to soak my shirt repeatedly. I made good time up the trail, connected with Sue at the tunnel just after 11, and we finished the hike together in the blazing sun.

I’m glad I had to opportunity to camp at Cottonwood and see Ribbon Falls, but I think I’m done with corridor trails – there are just too many people. Fortunately, there are lots of other parts of the canyon to explore, with far fewer people to disrupt the solitude.

After I got out from Cottonwood, I took a day off from hiking and we headed over to check out the Rainbow Rim mountain biking trail. And then I did the bone rattling drive over to Swamp Point to check out Powell Plateau.