South Kaibab Trail, Grand Canyon National Park

I love this trail! It is well maintained, and not too terribly difficult! It is a good way to get to the Colorado river! Unfortunately today we only had time to make it to OOH AHH point, but the first part of the trail was awesome! I would highly recommend! If you are going all the way to the bottom, make sure you are prepared, and in shape, it is easy to hike down, but the hike back up is a lot harder! Don't underestimate the difficulty of getting back up the canyon, especially from the very bottom. Enjoy the trail!

The South Kaibab Trail was one of the most beautiful hikes I have ever been on. Snaking your way down the canyon, over ridges and down switchbacks with incredible views all around you, this hike will take your breath away, literally and figuratively. Unfortunately, you're gonna need your breath if you decide to do this hike in its entirety, because although the hike down isn't too bad, what comes down must also come back up, and the way back up is orders of magnitude harder. Hiking the entire trail all the way to the Colorado River is not for the casual hiker or people who aren't in great shape. Getting here requires a round-tip hike of nearly 14 miles, nearly all of which is hills. Doing this hike, even if you are a fast hiker, will take you at least 7-8 hours. And make no mistake, if you make it down to the river, your only options to get out are climbing back up the nearly 5,000 feet of elevation you climbed down, or being evacuated on a helicopter. If you have doubts about your ability to handle this hike, don't do it. There is a reason why the NPS recommends you stop at Skeleton Point if you are doing this as a day hike. And if you are in good enough shape to hike here, make sure you bring PLENTY of water, because you aren't going to find any on the trail. That said, if you are up for the challenge and are fit enough to handle it, this hike is incredible, with the Skeleton Point to Tipoff section my favorite part of the entire park. If you do decide to do the entire hike, I would HIGHLY recommend doing this hike as a semi-loop, climbing back up via the Bright Angel Trail. Doing it this way might add more than two miles to the hike, but the additional two miles are relatively flat, and the Bright Angel Trail hike has about 400 feet less elevation gain. I hiked all the way to the campground, and then back up the Bright Angel Trail, and completed the nearly 17 mile hike in 8 hours and 17 minutes. So doing it in a day is possible, but I would not recommend this unless you are a very experienced hiker in really good shape. If you want to do this section, seriously consider making it a two-day hike and camping in the Bright Angel Campground at the bottom of the Canyon. Regardless of how you try and tackle this hike, the views are absolutely worth it