Arizona tribal leaders told House lawmakers that moves to reopen national parks are being made without needed health safety measures to protect tribal members or park visitors during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The comments by Navajo Nation President Jonathan Nez and Havasupai Council Member Carletta Tilousi come as the Interior Department is moving to reopen parks. That includes Grand Canyon National Park, which began allowing visitors on a limited basis last month.

“We rely heavily on the tourism industry, but now is not the time to be on the Navajo Nation,” Nez said. The Navajo Nation, one of the hardest-hit areas in the country for COVID-19 infections, reported 5,661 cases with 259 deaths as of June 3, 2020, a day after Nez spoke at the hearing.

Utah Republican ranking member Rob Bishop said, “To argue that our national parks and trails opening up is a threat to American lives is tone deaf at best, and disingenuous fear-mongering at worst,” and added that families enjoying national parks are “not endangering public health.”

But Nez said that message does not appear to be getting to tourists, pointing to heavy traffic across the Navajo Nation over the past two weekends, despite strict curfews and travel restrictions because of the coronavirus.

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Because it’s one of the most famous national parks in the country, hiking to the bottom of the Grand Canyon is a prize on most outdoor lovers’ lists, and overnight permits must be secured well in advance. Getting to the bottom is like stepping back in time—two billion years back in time—to be precise.

To reach your destination, you have to descend nearly a vertical mile along precipitous switchbacks sliced into the very edge of the rust-colored canyon walls.

Most begin their trek on the South Kaibab Trail, a steep gash on the eastern edge of the gorge that plummets 4,860 feet to the Colorado River below. The sun played funny games with our eyes. Shadows move and fade.

Down through layers of bright-red dirt. Down through cracked blue rocks like broken robin’s eggs. Down past mule trains and men wearing unironic cowboy hats. It is like hopping into a time machine to the Wild West.

You camp at the famous Bright Angel Campground, a small cluster of 33 sites with surprising amenities for the backcountry. Flush toilets, sinks with running water, food-storage lockers, and picnic tables are all a stone’s throw the campsites.

One of the great wonders of the Grand Canyon is Phantom Ranch, situated at the intersection of the North and South Kaibab Trails. It’s near impossible to score one of its coveted cabins or dorm rooms via the lottery, but hungry campers can make a reservation there for breakfast or dinner.

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Hiking in Grand Canyon National Park isn’t for the faint of heart (or weak of quads). The canyon is a vast, desert landscape, full of cliffs, steep drops, and loose, rocky earth. Weather is a mixed bag that can range from intense heat to severe thunderstorms, depending on the season and which part of the canyon you choose to explore.

“There is no easy trail in the Grand Canyon,” says Andrea Ross, a former Grand Canyon park ranger and hiking guide. From the East Rim to the West Rim, the Grand Canyon reaches 277 miles long. It’s about 18 miles wide from the North Rim to the South Rim, and more than 6,000 feet deep from the top to the canyon floor.

But for those who are physically prepared for the steep descents and seemingly steeper ascents, hiking in this, the grandest of canyons, pays off with jaw-dropping views and epic wilderness experiences.

From day hikes to multi-night backcountry excursions that take you past slot canyons, waterfalls, and more, it’s no wonder the Grand Canyon is a top flight destination for any adventurous hiker.

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You’ve probably heard of Search and Rescue before, but some national park rangers are involved with Preventive Search and Rescue. Basically their job is to help visitors avoid needing to be rescued by providing education about the hazards of hiking in the parks, and the time and equipment necessary to complete a planned hike.

The PSAR program was started in 1997 at Grand Canyon National Park as an effort to reduce the hundreds of heat-related illnesses park visitors were experiencing every summer. It has since been adapted at other parks as well. Some of those illnesses resulted in deaths that could have been avoided with better preparation and planning. PSAR Rangers patrol the upper portions of the main corridor trails, such as the Bright Angel and South Kaibab Trails, and ask hikers questions about their hiking plans.

* Where are you hiking today?

* Do you know how far that is and how long it will take you to complete the hike?

* Do you have enough water and food with you?

* Are you drinking your water?

* Do you have a flashlight and a jacket?

* Do you know what temperatures to expect?

Although information about the trails is available at the Visitor Center and on signs posted at the trailheads, many hikers are still surprised when a PSAR Ranger talks to them about their planned hike. If you meet a PSAR Ranger on your hike remember the goal is not to discourage you but to help you have a safe and positive experience.

PSAR Rangers are also EMT’s and are often the first park personnel on scene with an ill or injured hiker. PSAR Rangers carry basic medical gear and can call for additional personnel if advanced medical or technical rescue skills are required.

Dave Uberuaga, superintendent of Grand Canyon National Park, called the proposal one of the greatest threats to Grand Canyon in the nearly 100-year history of the park. Such sentiment has been broadly echoed by American Indian tribes, local residents, city leaders, and local and national environmental organizations.

“This is a great day for Grand Canyon National Park, and those who love its stunning vistas, abundant wildlife, and rich cultural heritage. The Forest Service was right to say yes to the public interest by protecting one of the most awe-inspiring places on earth, and no to the bloated development plans that threatened the park.”

“Stilo’s proposal endangers water, wildlife, and wilderness that make the Grand Canyon a landscape revered in America and around the world.”

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Millions of people visit the Grand Canyon each year, taking in the sweeping views from developed areas where they can stroll along the rim, grab a bite to eat and hop on a shuttle bus to other outlooks. Far fewer people venture into the 1.1 million acres that make up the backcountry, including trails below the canyon rim.

Park officials are trying to get a better handle on how many people are walking down trails such as Bright Angel and South Kaibab from the South Rim, and North Kaibab from the North Rim.

Three options for revising a 1988 backcountry management plan include a day-use permit for hiking more than 5 miles below the rim and paying a minimum $5 fee.

Park superintendent Dave Uberuaga said the system would allow hikers to read up on the weather, physical demands of hiking and traffic on the trail to improve their experience. “Our intent is not to prevent them from doing it, and we’re not talking about limits,” he said. “We’re talking about educating them so they know what they’re getting into.”

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Stilo Development Group USA wants to build homes, retail shops, hotels, and cultural centers in the area. The easement would allow utilities to be installed and improved along roads managed by the Forest Service.

Kaibab spokeswoman Jackie Banks said the scope of a review of environmental impacts will be determined later this month, partially directed by the public comments.

Supporters of the project were in the minority. Long-time Tusayan resident John Dillon said in his letter to the forest service that the developer has reasonable access to its holdings, but that the environmental impacts study should be thorough.

“A full EIS will provide the greatest environmental protection to the Kaibab National Forest and Grand Canyon National Park,” he wrote. “It will also help to provide real and current answers to all the questions that have yet to be satisfactorily addressed by both the Town of Tusayan and the developer.”

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Why? The simple answer is: It’s hard.

The hike down to the banks of the chalky green Colorado River, and especially back up, is challenging, even grueling. Even if you’ve trained on stair climbers and hills with a 30-pound backpack, hiking the Grand Canyon will test your endurance and your ability to remain hydrated.

But the sweat and sore muscles are worth the experience as you gaze at the red-hued rock formations from the South Kaibab Trail, cross the steel bridge over the fast-moving river and dip your hat in the cool waters of Bright Angel Creek.

Here are some tips for making the most of your Grand Canyon hiking and camping experience.

The U.S. Forest Service began paving the way for a sprawling urban development near the southern edge of the Grand Canyon that would include more than 2,100 housing units and 3 million square feet of retail space along with hotels, a spa and conference center. The superintendent of Grand Canyon National Park has called the project one of the greatest threats to Grand Canyon in the 96-year-history of the park.

The proposal, by the Stilo Development Group, would transform the 580-resident community of Tusayan, Ariz.—which sits near the southern entrance to the national park—from a small, quiet tourist town into a sprawling complex of high-end homes, strip malls, and resorts only a mile from the Grand Canyon National Park boundary.

Stilo has partnered with the town of Tusayan in order to obtain the federal permit needed to expand road and utility access through public lands within the Kaibab National Forest so development can proceed. The agency began moving forward with the process to approve that special-use permit.

“The Forest Service is putting Grand Canyon National Park in the crosshairs by considering Tusayan’s dangerous, damaging plan for a mega-resort,” said Kevin Dahl of the National Parks Conservation Association. “This proposal is not in the public interest and is one of the greatest threats Grand Canyon National Park has seen in its history. The Forest Service can and should have rejected it out of hand.”

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Located on the very southern tip of the Kaibab Plateau, and the prime vista location for the North Rim of Grand Canyon, Bright Angel Point offers a bird’s-eye view of the meeting of Roaring Springs Canyon and Transept Canyon at the Bright Angel Fault. It is 4/10 mile from Grand Canyon Lodge to the point on a paved trail that offers several overlooks along the way. High altitude (8,148′) and an elevation change of 200 feet warrant extra caution for those with heart or respiratory conditions, so take your time. The trail is high above the canyons, and very narrow at points, so if you have extreme acrophobia, you may want to be wary on this one. Watch too for lightning storms, as this area is very exposed. We hiked to Bright Angel Point on Wednesday, October 15, 2014 beginning at 5:30PM and ending about 6:30PM after finishing our hike on the North Kaibab Trail. Our plan was to catch the sunset.

My brother and I still had some energy left after hiking down into the canyon on the North Kaibab Trail, and no visit to the North Rim of Grand Canyon is complete without seeing Bright Angel Point, so off we went. It’s about a mile and a half from the North Kaibab Trailhead to Grand Canyon Lodge at the terminus of the North Rim.

This is touristy Grand Canyon. There is a parking lot large enough to accommodate at least a hundred cars. The Grand Canyon Lodge is one of those quaint, environmentally sensitive structures on the North Rim that complement rather than conflict with their setting. Consisting of a main lodge and a dozen cabins, lodging here is reasonably priced, as long as you don’t come during peak season. You can experience fine dining, mule rides into the canyon, hiking, and of course, the allure of Bright Angel Point.

That allure is what brought us on this beautiful October evening. As we hit the trail toward the point, we noticed immediately the difference in plants out here. Whereas we walked among fir and aspen and scrub oak on North Kaibab, here on the point trail the ravages of time limit the vegetation to gnarly juniper and pinyon pine. But the ones that are here have been here… for a long time. There is one particularly hearty juniper that is 600 years old.

Down in the canyon, multicolored rock layers record the rise and fall of oceans and continents. That’s the fascinating thing about the walls of Grand Canyon. The layers of red and white and orange tell tales of the formation of this grand hole in the ground, written over two billion years. The North Rim is a good thousand feet higher than the South Rim, a result of the tremendous geologic uplift that has occurred.

Though invisible at Bright Angel Point, the Colorado River is the erosive force responsible for the depth of Grand Canyon. Over the past 5 million years or so, it has carved a canyon a mile deep. The canyon overlook at Bright Angel Point is above Bright Angel Creek, one of the major tributaries of the river. The name Bright Angel originated on John Wesley Powell’s pioneering exploration of the Colorado River in 1869. Powell regretted having named a muddy creek upstream the “Dirty Devil.” Later, when he found a creek with sparkling clear water, he gave it the more reverent name, “Bright Angel,” after a character in Milton’s Paradise Lost.

The large tributary canyon to the east (on your left as you walk out to the point) is Roaring Springs Canyon, a major source for Bright Angel Creek. That’s the canyon you are hiking in on the North Kaibab Trail. The main origin of water for both of these drainages is Roaring Springs. Water from Roaring Springs is pumped to the North Rim for use at the lodge and campground, as well as to watering holes for hikers and mule trains along the canyon trails. During snow melt season, Roaring Springs is flowing so strong that it can be heard from Bright Angel Point, 4,000 feet above on the canyon rim.

Farther out toward the point, plants give way to bare rock. The rocks appear worn and in some places precarious. Chances of the rocks giving way beneath you on any particular day are exceedingly small, yet you can feel and see signs of erosion. One particular spot very near the point is especially dicey. They had to construct a narrow foot bridge to reach the point. The drop on each side is precipitous. Fortunately, for those like me who aren’t fond of heights and edges, there are handrails.

An example of Grand Canyon’s dynamic forces occurred on January 3, 1991, in The Transept, the large tributary canyon to your right as you walk out to the point. A massive section of Coconino Sandstone (the light-colored layer of rock near the top) succumbed to gravity and erosion, cascading into the canyon and trailing debris along thousands of feet of canyon wall. In 1992 similar landslides closed several major trails. So, y’know, erosion does happen. Watch your step. I’m just sayin’.

Bright Angel Point is large enough for about a dozen people. While we were on the point, there were no more than four at any one time. The overlook is surrounded by a waist-high chain link fence that will help you feel secure. Roaring Springs Canyon and Transept Canyon meet directly below the point within what is called the Bright Angel Fault. The fault is still active, occasionally startling visitors when it slips. If you look closely you may see Bright Angel Trail coming down from the South Rim.

On the way back, there are a couple more caged-in observation points with excellent views of the depth of Transept Canyon and of the stunning architecture of Grand Canyon Lodge. The present-day lodge is the second incarnation, as an unfortunate 1932 fire destroyed the original building only a few years after its completion. Architect Gilbert Stanley Underwood designed a rustic lodge and cabins rather than a single hotel unit that seem natural among the surroundings. When you get back to the lodge, you can continue on the Transept Trail for more canyon views and a pathway to the North Rim campground.

To summarize, whether you came to North Rim of Grand Canyon to hobnob, or to get out on the trails, you owe it to yourself to at least check out Bright Angel Point. You may not even have to break a sweat. While not as popular (or crowded) as the South Rim, the North is forested, not barren, so it makes for an extremely pleasant experience.

This post was created by Jeff Clark. Please feel free to use the sharing icons below, or add your thoughts to the comments. Pack it in, pack it out. Preserve the past. Respect other hikers. Let nature prevail. Leave no trace.