South Kaibab Trail to Ooh Aah Point

By Jacob

During our visit to Grand Canyon National Park in June of 2021 we wanted to hike down into the canyon. We considered the Bright Angel Trail that starts at the Grand Canyon Village and gets pretty busy going down to the 1.5 mile turn around. We chose to hike the South Kaibab Trail as it is less popular and has a well on the east side protecting us from the Arizona summer heat. We would hike down to Ooh Aah Point, one of the best name vistas in the national parks.

The South Kaibab Trail starts south of Yaki Point and is 7.1 miles long descending 7,200 feet down into the canyon. We would be hiking to Ooh Aah Point 600 feet into the canyon and .9 miles (one-way). You may only access the trailhead by shuttle bus from the Grand Canyon Visitor Center Orange Line. No private vehicles are allowed at the trailhead. We stayed at the Yavapai Lodge close to the visitor center so we could get up early and be at the trailhead shortly afterwards on the shuttle bus.

When we arrived the trailhead was not very busy to our relief. We took some pictures at the top of the trail and started to make our way down. The first section of trail was a small alcove in the side of the canyon winding down switch back after switchback, similar to the Navajo Loop Trail in Bryce Canyon National Park. Since we went in the morning, this section was mostly in the shade, which made it a lot easier to negotiate. After this section the trail gets easier as the grade lessens and moves out along the wall for a better, more spectacular view of the Grand Canyon. It can be hard to concentrate on the trail because the sheer beauty of the canyon is so spectacular. Further down the trail is a sign warning of the dangers of going rim to rim in a single day because of the massive elevation changes. The rock layers change and we enter a mini forest growing on the side of the cliffs in this strangely lush section of the canyon.

Suddenly, we turned a corner and all these people were just sitting there in a long row. We asked why everybody was just sitting around and someone told us that a helicopter would be dropping boulders off at Ooh Aah Point and that everybody would have to wait until it was clear. They were doing this every 15 minutes so we had to get down to the point just 100 yards down the trail and either go on to the next person in the yellow jacket to wait to come back up. A few minutes later a National Parks Service helicopter came overhead with a boulder. This was unexpected and quite cool to watch. The helicopter cleared and we made our way down to Ooh Aah Point. Unfortunately, this bottleneck of people meant we could not stay very long before we were inundated with people. We decided to keep on going to the next ranger. We thought they would be around just around the corner, but they were another 200 feet elevation down the trail so we had to hike for more than we bargained for. The view from our stop at the ranger was equally spectacular. We could see a small part of the Colorado River as well as a good chunk of the rest of the trail. Once the next helicopter passed we headed back up to Ooh Aah Point for a couple of minutes before moving back up so the helicopter could get another load.

The hike up was a different challenge straining the back of our legs instead of our knees. More and more people were coming down the trail as the people who did not get up early started to come down, not following the rules that uphill has the right of way. The trail was spectacular and gave us a different perspective on the way down then back up. When we made it back to the top there was a real sense of accomplishment even though we did not do the whole thing we felt good. According to my Garmin watch we had hiked down 800 feet and walked 2.18 miles down. We walked more of the rim trail and later explored the Grand Canyon Village and Desert View Area with our sense of accomplishment. I can not wait to one day walk to the bottom.