Day Two: Bright Angel Camp to Cottonwood
After a first, warm night at Bright Angel camp we got a breakfast at the ranch and then headed up towards the North Rim
Corral at Phantom Ranch
The route was a bit easier on this day. About the same distance and uphill but only about 1500 feet of climbing. We spent the morning shaded by the high walls of the box canyon cut out by Bright Angel Creek.
A consequence of this is that GPS signals are not very reliable. This is reflected in the elevation profile recorded by my watch
A lot more climbing there than we actually did
I recorded 7200ft of elevation gain and 5600ft of elevation loss. The difference works out to about the right amount. Here’s the track on the map
It was still a nice walk.
When we got beyond the high walls and out of the shade, it got pretty hot. There is a side trip along the way to Bright Ribbon Falls which is on the other side of the creek from the trail. The bridge across the creek got knocked off its mooring earlier this year.
You shall not pass!
You can still get across in another location but we decided to do that on the way back. Instead, we went up to Cottonwood Camp.
Cottonwood Camp
Our campsite didn’t have a lot of shade but we had easy access to a nice spot along the creek.
Plus, the Sun sets pretty early when the walls around you are high.
5:00 pm sunset
The skies were again clear and dark overnight. We had a brand new Moon which lined up nicely with Jupiter and Saturn. My place in the tent looked out to the North and I found that I could mark the progress of the night by noting the position of the various circumpolar constellations (Ursa Major, Cassiopeia) traveling around the North Star.
I was really looking forward to our next day’s trip to the North Rim.