Overview

The Bright Angel (BA) Trail begins near the Bright Angel Lodge on the South Rim and descends some 3,000 feet over 4.6 miles to Havasupai Garden (IG). The trail is open and airy, with many grand views over the cliffs and out into the Grand Canyon. For details of the upper section of the trail, see Upper Bright Angel Trail.

From IG, the BA Trail follows Garden Creek until the creek pours over a cliff, then the trail turns and winds down the Devil's Corkscrew through the Vishnu Schist to the bottom of Pipe Canyon. Pipe Creek is followed to the Colorado River, which is then followed upstream to a bridge across the river and to the mouth of Bright Angel Creek. Phantom Ranch and BA Campground are a short way up the creek, about 9.6 miles below the rim via this route.

Link to map.

Toilets are available at IG, River Resthouse, and BA Campground, and potable water is available at IG and BA Campground. During the mule-riding season, when droppings on the trail can make for a dusty mess, pay attention to instructions from the wranglers; they probably will tell you to stand quietly on the uphill side of the trail while the mule train passes. Mules have the right-of-way.

Watch Out

Other than the standard warnings about hiking in the desert, ...this is a wide and pretty safe trail if you stay on it, but there are many places where hikers could stumble off the trail into the abyss. The elevation at the South Rim is surprisingly high, about 7,000 feet, so take it easy if you aren't used to the elevation. Don't be fooled by the cool summer temperatures on the rim; these temperatures quickly give way to scorching summer heat lower in the canyon. Trails here are made by putting down wooden cross-timbers, filling between the cross-timbers with rock rubble, and covering it all with dirt. The trail is easy to walk on when dry; but when wet, each crossbar makes a dam that holds a puddle of mud.

While hiking, please respect the land and the other people out there, and try to Leave No Trace of your passage. This is a fairly long hike, so be sure to bring the 10 Essentials. Be sure that you are physically fit and that you choose routes of the appropriate difficulty for your skills and endurance.

Getting to the Trailhead

This hike is located on the South Rim of the Grand Canyon, about 5 hours southeast of Las Vegas, and starts near the BA Lodge. For details of getting to the trailhead, see Upper Bright Angel Trail.

The Hike

From the trailhead (Table 1, Wpt. 01), the trail immediately starts down into the canyon at a fair grade and quickly passes the first and second tunnels, 1.5-Mile Resthouse (Wpt. 05), 2-Mile Switchback, and 3-Mile Resthouse (Wpt. 07). The trail then drops over the Redwall, before leveling out somewhat and following Garden Creek to IG Campground (Wpt. 09), which is about 4.6 miles below the rim. For details of this section of the BA Trail, see Upper Bright Angel Trail.

From the entrance to IG Campground (Wpt. 09), the trail continues downhill past the campground, picnic shelters, piped water, and composting toilets to the corrals, which also marks the trail junction (Wpt. 10) to Plateau Point. This is a good place to stop and rest in the shade of the tall Cottonwood Trees. Common Ravens and rodents (mostly Rock Squirrels) are a problem here, so be sure to guard your food.

From the Plateau Point Trail junction (Wpt. 10), the BA Trail stays right and passes a stone building (pumphouse for the trans-canyon pipeline) and continues downhill at a moderate grade along the east side of Garden Creek. After about 0.3 miles, the Tonto East Trail (Wpt. 11) forks to the right and runs east out across the hillside.

Below the Tonto East Trail junction, the canyon narrows as Garden Creek cuts down into the Tapeats Sandstone. The trail runs on rock ledges above the creek for a while, then drops into the wash and skips back and forth across the creek several times.

In this cottonwood-shaded canyon, the trail eventually passes below the Tapeats Sandstone and enters the Vishnu Schist layer (the bottom layer in the Grand Canyon). Where the two meet, at the Great Unconformity, some 1 billion-years-worth of rock are missing from the great book of history. Here, a mountain range formed and eroded away, then the sea came in and laid down beach sand on the billion years schist, and the rest is history.

The narrow canyon eventually opens onto the shoulder of a ridge at the top of the Devil's Corkscrew (Wpt. 12). Garden Creek pours off left into a narrow gorge and over cliffs into Pipe Canyon, but not before providing potholes with drinking water.

Devil's Corkscrew is a part of the trail that winds around and switchbacks down through the Vishnu Schist to the bottom of Pipe Canyon. The trail here is open, airy, fairly steep, and hot, but it is only 0.7 miles from the top of the cliffs to the wash in the bottom of Pipe Canyon (Wpt. 13). The wash is normally dry at this point, but Garden Creek feeds into Pipe Creek a short way down the canyon.

Looking back on the left, there is a mine opening and horizontal tunnel (an adit) that runs back into the mountain. This worthless mine, and a couple of others like it, almost prevented the Grand Canyon from being protected as a National Monument in 1908, and then upgraded to a national park in 1919. This little mine is a reminder of why people like Teddy Roosevelt, with longer and broader visions, must work to protect lands like this while we can.

The trail generally runs down the winding bottom of Pipe Canyon or on ledges above the wash, but it also crosses the creek a couple of times. After winding around a couple of tight corners, the trail passes a short spur trail (Wpt. 14) to the River Resthouse on the left across the creek. This is a picnic shelter, and composting toilets are just a bit farther down around the next corner.

Just as the Colorado River comes into view, the trail forks (Wpt. 15). The BA Trail continues straight (left) while the River Trail (and composting toilets) goes right to head east.

Continuing straight, the BA Trail runs another 100 yards to end at Pipe Beach (Wpt. 16) on the edge of the Colorado River. This point is about 3 miles below Havasupai Garden.

Back at the trail junction (Wpt. 15), the River Trail turns right, passes the composting toilets, and continues east following along the south side of the river.

The River Trail climbs somewhat steeply to run along cliffs about 200 feet above the river. The trail here was blasted out of the cliff, so there are many nice, unobstructed views of the river.

After the first view (Wpt. 17) of the Silver Suspension Bridge in the distance, the cliffs give way to gentler slopes and sandy soils with bunchgrasses, various cactus, and soaptree yucca, and eventually the south end of the Silver Suspension Bridge (Wpt. 18).

The River Trail continues upstream along the south side of the river for about 0.5 miles to end at the South Kaibab Trail above the Black Suspension Bridge, but hikers heading for the Phantom Ranch area need to cross the bridge to the north side of the river.

Across the river (Wpt. 19), the North Kaibab Tail runs northeast above the beach. The trail quickly passes the stone NPS Mule Barn and Corrals, and then runs through a NPS housing area (note emergency phone outside a house) to a trail junction (Wpt. 20) just before a bridge over Bright Angel Creek (not to be confused with Bright Angel Trail).

The North Kaibab Trail turns left at the junction (Wpt. 20) and runs up the west side of Bright Angel Creek through Bright Angel Campground (Wpt. 21) and on past the Phantom Ranch Lodge and Cantina (Wpt. 23) to the North Rim.

In the Phantom Ranch area, Bright Angel Campground is located about 0.4 miles above the river and is tucked between Bright Angel Creek and the cliffs on the west side of Bright Angel Canyon. The trail runs up the center of this campground, with campsites on both sides of the trail. Water, flush toilets, and electricity are available in the restrooms.

Common Ravens, Mule Deer, rodents (mostly Rock Squirrels) and Ring-tailed Cats can a problem here, so be sure to guard your food and store it properly. Store plastic bags properly too because the mule deer eat the bags, develop blockages in their digestive system, and have to be put down.

Return to the South Rim by retracing your steps back up the BA Trail, or consider hiking out the steeper, but shorter, South Kaibab Trail.