GRAND CANYON NATIONAL PARK ― The Grand Canyon’s beauty beckons like gravity, pulling even the timid to the chasm’s edge.

But for those committing to the challenge of a cross-canyon hike, there awaits below the rim a reward beyond the spectacular scenery: time travel.

Those horizontal stripes on the postcard panoramas trace a billion years of geological history. They are the sediment and fossils of ancient oceans. According to author Scott Thybony, who literally wrote the books on canyon trails, to hike the canyon is to go back an average of 100,000 years with each downward step. As the trail winds and sometimes plummets through layers of hermit shale, redwall limestone and Tapeats sandstone, the canyon deepens and the climate warms. The hiker sheds his outer layers, and even some layers within, when the cell signal is gone, the world is quiet and the mind centers on the simple: food, water and the next footstep.

“There’s something special about being in the canyon,” said Mark Wunner, supervisor at the park’s Backcountry Information Center. “I get excited just thinking about it.”

Our party of four wanted just that kind primal peace, and we were willing to burn a lot of cash and fossil fuel in the pursuit. We planned our trip for early October of last year on the historic North and South Bass Trails, which start at the north and south rims and meet at the Colorado River. But we wanted to cross the 18-mile-wide canyon without having to backtrack to a car. “The point,” explained fellow hiker Byron Moffett, of Langley, Wash., “is to see all the trails without having to repeat them.”

The solution was to break into pairs in different vehicles, each driving an SUV to a trail head. The North Bass party (Kevin Horan, of Langley, and me, from Evanston, Illinois.) and the South Bass party (Moffett and Scott Mcneil, also of Langley) would hike down, meet at the river, exchange car keys and hike up the other side to the vehicle left by the other party. Simple.

Except for one thing. How does one cross a fast-moving, cold river?

By Chris Walker

(Chicago Tribune)

(MCT Information Services)