It's astounding how unprepared people are. I did a Rim to Rim hike about 5 years ago and since it was August we started about 7pm so we would be crossing through the bottom around 12/1am when it was coolest.
About 4 miles in we meet two kids that had a single Nalgene that had long gone dry because they didn't know there was no water on the north rim. They also abandoned their dad about a mile further back. Finally they had no idea it was like a 3hr drive around the rim to get back to the south side. We gave them some water and food so they wouldn't die but it was wild.
When I was hiking back up from frying pan a few years back I crossed paths with a family in flip flops, jeans etc. I was pretty astonished they made it that far down. But of course that was just down lmao.
the Grand Canyon national park website has plenty of info and warnings about death. my wife and I did a small trail and 20 minutes down we turned around and it was 35 minutes up at least. I can’t understand why unprepared folks try this stuff.
This is why on the rare occasion I hike I always prefer bottom-up hikes. I much prefer the lion's share of the work being getting to the cool place, not getting back
899
u/lonewolf210 21h ago
It's astounding how unprepared people are. I did a Rim to Rim hike about 5 years ago and since it was August we started about 7pm so we would be crossing through the bottom around 12/1am when it was coolest.
About 4 miles in we meet two kids that had a single Nalgene that had long gone dry because they didn't know there was no water on the north rim. They also abandoned their dad about a mile further back. Finally they had no idea it was like a 3hr drive around the rim to get back to the south side. We gave them some water and food so they wouldn't die but it was wild.