In August of 2024 I stopped in my local book shop (shoutout to The Raven Bookstore) as I often do to browse the shelves and see if there was anything I couldn’t live without. A very colorful book jacket caught my eye. It was Kevin Fedarko’s A Walk in the Park: The True Story of a Spectacular Misadventure in the Grand Canyon.
Fedarko’s book tells the story of him and long time collaborator, friend, and National Geographic photographer Peter McBride hiking through the Grand Canyon. McBride approached Fedarko with the idea as a way of celebrating the 100th anniversary of Grand Canyon National Park.
But Fedarko and McBride don’t experience the Canyon the way most people do. According to the National Park Service, fewer than 1% of visitors to the Grand Canyon hike below the rim at all and the majority of those who do are day hikers, who may venture down one of the main trails from the South Rim, most commonly the Bright Angel Trail. They may walk down to one of the first few rest houses, or perhaps Havasupai Gardens, Plateau Point, or maybe as far as the Colorado River.
More ambitious hikers in the Grand Canyon will do a rim-to-rim hike, meaning they’ll start at the South Rim or North Rim and hike to the opposite rim. Many fit hikers will do this in one day and some crazy people will even do rim-to-rim-to-rim in one go.
Aside from looking for a challenge, many choose rim-to-rim because it doesn’t require a backcountry permit. If you’re not camping overnight in the Canyon, you don’t need a permit. Getting a permit isn’t easy. You have to enter the lottery four months in advance, if you
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