Winter Trail Update
View Near El Tovar along the South Rim (photo: Brian Lane)
The National Park Service at Grand Canyon is reporting quite a bit of snow still remaining on many Canyon trails, including ankle depth (and sometimes deeper) snow drifts on Tanner, New Hance, and Grandview Trails for the first mile descending into the Canyon. South Kaibab is relatively clean, with less snow and ice than those trails previously mentioned. Bright Angel is a mixture of ice, mud, frozen mud, and a dusting of snow dependent on the trails exposure to the sun. Past One-and-a-Half Mile Resthouse the ice and such is gone. Hermit Trail is probably in the best condition of all trails due to its southern exposure at the top, with little snow or ice left and only isolated patches of snow dust hither and there.
Temperatures on the South Rim are in the low 50's during the day, and low 20's at night.
Inner Canyon days will be in the low 60's with nighttime temps dipping into the freezing range.
Crampons and/or cleats are still necessary for anyone venturing into the Canyon.
With 5 others, I will be hiking down/up the Hermit Trail for 4 days in late May. Can you recommend any reading about the trail that would be helpful, interesting, and/or informative?
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Thanks for the question...The Nat'l Park Service should mail their one-page trail description with your permit (if you haven't already rec'd it). Otherwise, the Grand Canyon Association (GCA) publishes a 30-page, brouchure sized trail guide for Hermit Trail. You can find it at: http://www.grandcanyonassociation.org/page/GCA/PROD/TRIP/M10087.
There is also a new book by Wayne Tomasi titled Grand Canyon Hiking Adventures: South Rim Edition. It's probably too much information for you, as it just has loads of info on all the South Rim trails. You can find it on Amazon - where I just included my own review of the book this morning. The direct link is: http://www.amazon.com/Grand-Canyon-Hiking-Adventures-South/dp/0971088020/ref=pd_rhf_p_img_1
I think your best bet is the GCA's Hermit Trail Guide. Hope that helps!
All the Best,
Brian
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