Day 8, Grand Canyon South Rim to Baaj Nwaavjo I’tah Kukveni

Mather Campground was a quick walk down the road from the store. The park’s laundromat was located there. I took advantage of my time doing laundry to organize and repack my food.

Just as I was finishing my laundry, my CDT friends Hush and Side View arrived at the laundromat. They told me they hiked through the canyon with their daughter, Emma, and spent the night at Bright Angel Campground. After climbing out this morning, they drove her to a point south of the canyon. She will slackpack north and meet them again later today.

It seemed likely I would see Hush and Side View again, and perhaps meet Emma. They intended to spend a few more days with her as she continues south on her thru-hike.

I left the laundromat at 12:15 p.m. and followed a path out of the campground to the trail.

The Arizona Trail followed a route out of Grand Canyon National Park that was dissimilar from yesterday's hike in every way possible. Instead of making a steep and rigorous climb with a hot sun beating down on my head, I was strolling on along a flat, paved footpath surrounded by pine trees.

Walking on the paved walkway was easy, though more than once, someone sped past me on an e-bike without any warning.

The temperature wasn't as hot as yesterday, but it wasn't long before I stopped and pulled out my umbrella. Despite the trees along the trail, there wasn't enough shade to stay cool, and the asphalt paving made the heat even less bearable.

In a short span, as I headed out of the park, three helicopters flew overhead. These were probably tourist helicopters. They took off from an airfield just outside the park, near the town of Tusayan.

Tusayan is a gateway community for the park. It exists only because of tourism, and has several hotels and restaurants. Until I found a room at Bright Angel Lodge, I considered stopping there. It would have been easy to walk directly into town from the trail.

My pack was considerably heavier today than yesterday. I was carrying seven days of food and three liters of water. The extra weight quickly became comfortable, and I had to stop three times to shift the contents until my pack felt right.

During my third stop, I took a break to drink water and eat a snack. A park ranger who appeared to be walking to work stopped when she saw me at the side of the trail. She asked if everything was okay. I reassured her that I was only taking a break.

I crossed the boundary of the national park at 2:30 p.m., then followed the paved walkway under a highway.

The sidewalk ended on the other side, and the Arizona Trail became a single-track footpath. This led around Tusayan and its small airport.

Besides the helicopters I saw, several small planes took off and landed there. Some of these were likely taking tourists over the canyon for sightseeing.

I knew when I left the laundromat this morning that three liters of water would not be enough for the entire day. I also knew there were only two options to get more. One was to walk into Tusayan. Now that I had already gone to a grocery store, another town stop was unnecessary.

A better option for more water was a commercial campground adjacent to the trail. It would be an easy stop to make. Or so I thought.

When I arrived there, I discovered that a barbed-wire fence surrounded the place. A single gate provided access from the trail, and it was locked. 

There weren't any "No Trespassing" signs posted, and I was desperate for water, so there was only one thing to do. I crawled under barbed wire, then walked to a bathroom building. A sink with a faucet was attached outside the building for campers to wash their dishes, which I used to top off my water bottles. 

I returned to the trail the way I came, and I don’t think anyone saw me. Even though I was certain no one would complain about me taking a liter or two of water, I couldn't help feeling like I was creeping around to get it.

The rest of the afternoon was spent walking on a dirt road that doubled as the trail. It meandered for no apparent reason, as there were no hills or other obstacles to navigate around.

There were also no signs to tell me I had entered Baaj Nwaavjo I'tah Kukveni – Ancestral Footprints of the Grand Canyon National Monument, perhaps because it would take a huge sign to fit all of those words. 

The national monument is three parcels of land maintained by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, and was established by President Joe Biden in 2023 under the Antiquities Act of 1906. Until then, much of that land was already protected and managed by the U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management, but the administration of it was uneven and incomplete.

Before Biden’s proclamation, much of the land was open or could be open to mining, grazing, and other extractive activities. The chief concern was uranium mining, which could have serious consequences for Grand Canyon National Park. The land was permanently excluded from new mining claims, and indigenous tribes were given greater oversight over its uses.

The two Native American names given to the national monument, Baaj Nwaavjo ("where Indigenous people roam" in Havasupai) and I’tah Kukveni ("our ancestral footprints" in Hopi), recognize the cultural importance of the land to the tribes living here while also giving it lasting protection.

There was little variation in the landscape. Perhaps I was feeling a letdown after two days of stunning scenery, but my mind shifted into neutral gear, and I coasted along the trail, listening to podcasts but barely paying attention to them.

At 5:15 p.m., I came upon a large sign, so large it seemed out of place. For sure, it was unnecessary. This was near a trail junction, but a simpler sign could have made sure I was heading the right way. And if I had wanted to know how far I had walked from Utah, I could have looked it up. I did, and the sign was three miles off.

The sign provided one service, however. It broke me from my hiking stupor, and I realized I needed to start looking for a campsite. Sunset would come in less than an hour.

The ground was so flat that, really, I could have camped just about anywhere. I kept walking for about 30 minutes more until I came upon a spot among ponderosas. It wasn’t marked on the FarOut app as a site, but there was a fire pit. Hunters probably used this spot. 

As I was setting up my tent and preparing for dinner, I heard an elk bugling in the distance.

Bagette, my friend from the CDT, warned me that the AZT south of the Grand Canyon was a long stretch of boringness. I was beginning to realize today she wasn’t kidding.

On the other hand, the flat trail was a nice change from the long descent and climb in and out of the canyon. And though I didn’t start walking until after noon, I completed nearly 13 miles. I wasn’t complaining about that.