Overview

The Bright Angel Trail begins near the Bright Angel Lodge on the South Rim and descends some 3,000 feet over 4.6 miles to Indian Garden. 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 the upper Bright Angel Trail description.

From Indian Garden, the trail follows Garden Creek until it pours over a cliff, then 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 followed upstream to a bridge across the river to the mouth of Bright Angel Creek. Phantom Ranch and Bright Angel Campground are a short ways up the creek, about 9.5 miles below the rim.

Water and toilets are available at Indian Garden and Phantom Ranch. During the mule-riding season, when droppings on the trail can make for a dusty mess, pay attention to instructions from the cowboys; they probably will tell you to stand quietly on the uphill side of the trail while the mule train passes.

Link to map.

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 you 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 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.

Trail Guide
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 Bright Angel Lodge. For details of Getting to the Trailhead, see the Upper Bright Angel Trail.

The Hike

From the trailhead (Table 1, Wpt. 1), the trail immediately starts down into the canyon at a fairly easy grade and quickly passes the first and second tunnels, the 1.5-Mile Resthouse (Wpt. 2), the 2-Mile Switchback (Wpt. 3), and the 3-Mile Resthouse (Wpt. 4). The trail then drops steeply through the Red Wall, before leveling out somewhat and following along the east side of Garden Creek to Indian Garden (Wpt. 5), which is about 4.6 miles from the trailhead. For details of this part of the trail, the see the description of the Upper Bright Angel Trail.

From the entrance to the Indian Garden Campground (Wpt. 5), the trail continues downhill past the campground, picnic shelters, piped water, and composting toilets to the corrals, which also marks the trail junction (Wpt. 6) to Plateau Point. This is a good place to stop and rest in the shade of the tall Cottonwood Trees. Rodents (mostly Rock Squirrels) are a problem here, so be sure to guard your food.

From the corrals, the Bright Angel trail passes a stone building (pumphouse) and continues downhill along the east side of Garden Creek. After about 0.3 miles, the Tonto East Trail (Wpt. 7) forks off to the east and runs up 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 carved ledges above the creek bottom for awhile, then drops into the wash and skips back and forth across the creek.

About 0.9 miles beyond the junction with the Tonto East Trail, the canyon opens up onto a plateau at the top of the Vishnu Schist. Garden Creek pours off into a gorge and over the cliffs into Pipe Canyon, but not before providing potholes with drinking water. This is the top of the Devil's Corkscrew (Wpt. 8).

The Devil's Corkscrew is the 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, steep, and hot, but it is only 0.7 miles from the top of the cliffs to the wash in bottom of Pipe Canyon (Wpt. 9). The wash is normally dry at this point, but Garden Creek flows in a short ways down the canyon.

The trail generally runs down the bottom of Pipe Canyon or on ledges above the wash for about 1.0 miles to the Colorado River. The trail passes the River Resthouse (Wpt. 10) just before the river comes into view, and arrives at the Pipe Beach spur trail junction (Wpt. 11), which overlooks the beach and Granite Gorge. This point is about 3 miles below Indian Garden.

At this point, the Bright Angel Trail technically ends, and the River Trail runs along the south side of the river to the two bridges.

Following the River Trail east and upstream along the Colorado River, the trail climbs to run along the cliffs about 200 feet above the water. The trail here was blasted out of the cliff, so there are nice views of the river. After the first view (Wpt. 12) of the Silver Suspension Bridge, the cliffs give way to gentler slopes and sandy soils with bunchgrasses, various cactus, and soaptree yucca.

After following the River Trail for about 1.1 miles, the trail arrives at the south end of the Silver Suspension Bridge (Wpt. 13). The River Trail continues upstream along the south side of the river for about 0.5 miles to the Black Suspension Bridge, but the short way to Phantom Ranch runs north across the bridge.

Across the river (Wpt. 14), the trail runs northeast above the beach and through a housing and corral area to Bright Angel Creek. Several trails diverge in this area. One main trail turns upstream along the west side of the creek, runs through Bright Angel Campground (Wpt. 15), crosses the creek on another bridge, and continues on to Phantom Ranch (Wpt. 16). Another main trail crosses a bridge to the east side of the creek and runs up to Phantom Ranch without going through the campground.

In the Phantom Ranch area, Bright Angel Campground is located about 0.25 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 area, with campsites on both sides of the trail. Water and toilets are available in the campground.

Rodents (mostly Rock Squirrels) and Ring-tailed Cats are a problem here, so be sure to guard your food and store it properly.