(OARS “Rim to River” guided tour puts the unparalleled experience of hiking down to the bottom of the Grand Canyon – 7 miles by the South Kaibab Trail, and a full mile in altitude – within reach. After hiking the spectacularly scenic 7-mile South Kaibab Trail, we come to Phantom Ranch where we will overnight. Our adventure continues from 4/1, 4/8 columns)
Phantom Ranch is the only lodging below the Grand Canyon’s rim and can only be reached by mule, on foot or by rafting the Colorado River. It was built in the 1920s (just after the grand Canyon became a National Park, and the South Kaibab Trail was built) and was designed by Mary Jane Colter. who also designed many of the other structures of the Grand Canyon.
It is wonderfully rustic, and after hiking for about six or seven hours down the South Kaibab Trail – as spectacular as the experience was – arriving the Phantom Ranch is like a godsend. It might as well be the Ritz.
Wet and tired, we march ourselves into the canteen where dozens of other hikers have already taken up just about all the seats. They will throw us out at 4 pm, to prepare for the two dinner seatings.
Here we meet people who have come off the OARS rafting program –they have spent 5-6 nights rafting and camping on the Colorado River, then will hike up Bright Angel, or, they are a second group that has done the trip in reverse, having hiked down and will exchange places on the rafts, spending about 8 nights on the lower half of the river.
I meet Wayne Ranney, practically a legend here after more than 40 years guiding trips. He is guiding a trip for the Grand Canyon Field Institute, part of Grand Canyon Association, a nonprofit that fundraises for the Grand Canyon. Ranney, who titled his book “Carving Grand Canyon- Evidence, Theme and Mystery” tells me that geologists don’t really know how old, or how the Grand Canyon was formed.
We settle into one of the charming stone cabins. Our cabin accommodates 10 in bunk beds (we have our own toilet and sink and there is a very comfortable building with showers). It reminds me of my summers in camp.
Several of us gather under a Sycamore tree for a 4 pm Ranger talk by Linda Kelley, a volunteer National Parks Ranger, about the California Condors who have been resettled in the Grand Canyon in order to bring their species back from the brink of extinction. It is absolutely delightful and fascinating even if she steers her commentary for an eight-year old.
The weather report calls for thunderstorms, and right on schedule, there is a major downpour with thunder and lightning and we are just delighted being so cozy in our stone cabin.
We go for dinner at 6:30 pm, sitting at long tables and dig into our meal, served family style, of beef stew (or vegetarian chili), cornbread, salad, and chocolate cake. It is a perfect.
“At Phantom Ranch, our meals are mule-assisted,” this evening’s server tells us. “They start at break of dawn, pack up. The fresh and frozen get here at breakfast. We give the mule drivers breakfast sandwich and send them back up with the trash. The mules that take people get to spend the night here with the guest.
“14 workers live together in an 8 bedroom bunkhouse. We have 10 days on, 4 days off. We have to hike in and out for our shift. The workers rotate around doing all the jobs – maid, making beds, washing dishes. We rotate through 10 jobs. If one of us gets sick in the bunkhouse, surely others will too, so need to know how to do all the jobs.”
When guests first started coming to the Phantom Ranch in 1923, they would have found the canteen and four cabins; four more were added later. Over the years, Mother Nature required other changes: they re-routed the creek after a massive flood in the 1960s that took out the trail, the crew bunkhouse and most of the pipeline that supplies water.
She invites questions, and one asks who was the most significant guest at Phantom Ranch?
“[Former Congresswoman] Gabby Giffords and her husband, the astronaut Mark Kelly and 14 others came for Thanksgiving. The Park Service flew her in by helicopter. She had been here with her family right before she got shot, so the Park Service accommodated her request to return by flying her in. Then, while they were here, the Ranch got fogged in and they had to stay on. Since the ranch was fully booked, Giffords and her family had to eat with the crew.” (At the time, Mark’s twin brother was still flying above on the International Space Station, and looking up in the nighttime sky at one point during our time in the Grand Canyon, we watch it fly in its orbit above us.)
Another prominent guest she recalled was Oprah Winfrey. “She was on her fitness kick.”
There is no telephone service. No television. No computer. Not even a VCR and the selection of books available in the canteen is pretty meager. And since I didn’t want to pack any extra weight, I am without my own book. At first, I feel the anxiety of sensory deprivation.
Thankfully, the rain clears up, the stars come out, and we gather outside our cabin, mop off the water and sit around the picnic tables there and watch for shooting stars while we shoot the breeze.
The Phantom Ranch is more like a hostel (or summer camp) than the inn I had imagined it would be (The Phantom Ranch offers cabin accommodations as well as dormitory-style). But “ranch” is apt, since the mules that brought their guests stay the night in a corral.
We are up at 5 am the next morning. It’s raining but some of the hikers are headed out in the dark.
The Grand Canyon has sustained people “materially and spiritually” for thousands of years. They were drawn here by the availability of water. Clovis hunters found large mammals (now extinct); ancestral Puebloan people, related to the Anastazi, relied on agriculture. This place is still considered sacred by Native peoples who come for pilgrimages and much of the surrounding area is still managed by the Hualapai Tribal Nation, the Havasupai people and the Navajo Nation.
We are reminded of this at breakfast, at 5:30 am.
“For Southwest American Indians, this is the holy land. Many make pilgrimage every year,” Alfredo tells us. “Coming to Phantom Ranch, there is no more telephone, computer. But then you turn on the light and the faucet – that is civilization enough. A week ago, we had to give the guests buckets to get water because they were working on the pipe.”
“You are lucky to get reservations here,” he reminds us (reservations go on line 13 months in advance and accommodations can book up a year in advance). “The average time spent looking at Grand Canyon is 15 minutes – ‘Been there, done that, got the T-shirt.’”
Being able to stay at Phantom Ranch (or the adjacent camping area) – which is another advantage of booking with a tour operator like OARS – enables us to join the 1% Club – the one-percent of the 5 million visitors who come to the Grand Canyon each year who actually get to the bottom and have that extraordinary view looking up at the full scale, not to mention all the views on the way down that simply take your breath away at every turn.
“Everything that is here come by mule – the eggs come scrambled,” he jokes. “Some are nervous about hiking out. Rejoice, rejoice, you have no choice.”
“You are at the bottom of seven oceans. It tells the history of earth – each layer a different epoch. Here is the oldest exposed rock on earth. Primordial life, great air you take back with you. Once where you live was like this, too. Hopefully, it will whisper to you to take care of that place.”
He finishes, “We only have one set of dishes, so pass them down” so they can be washed in time for the next seating.
Then we are shooed out, after picking up the bagged lunches that OARS has arranged for us.
(For a slideshow, visit https://www.examiner.com/slideshow/overnighting-at-historic-phantom-ranch-at-the-bottom-of-grand-canyon-national-park)
Next: Hiking back up to the South Rim on the Bright Angel Trail
OARS’ 4 Day Grand Canyon Rim to River Hiker is offered April through October. The trip meets up and departs from the DoubleTree by Hilton, Flagstaff, Arizona. Prices range from $1499 to $1649, based on double occupancy, single supplement $200. See: www.oars.com/grandcanyon/hiking/grand-canyon-hiking.html
Contact OARS, Angels Camp, CA, 800-346-6277, 209-736-4677, oars.com, info@oars.com.
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