Saturday, July 4, 2009

Grand Canyon - Bright Angel Campground

The campground at the bottom of the Grand Canyon is located alongside the Bright Angel Creek. It has 31 sites, all of which need to be reserved up to 4 months in advance through the Grand Canyon's Backcountry Permit Office. All sites are very pretty and for most of a day shaded, which is very important taking into account high temperatures that one can experience in the canyon.

If you do not feel like camping, you can also stay at the Phantom Ranch, which is located just few hundred meters away from the campground. But, honestly, why would you deprive yourself of the pleasure of caring 30+ lbs on your back up and down the canyon? ;)

Even if you are not staying at the Phantom Ranch you can still take advantage of the restaurant located there and reward yourself with a cold beer, lemonade or a glass of wine. Admittedly, it does feel awesome to drink wine at the bottom of the canyon...

In between the ranch and the campground, there is also a rangers' station, which is really cool as during afternoons and evenings rangers usually give talks on various interesting subjects like: canyon's geology, history of the trails leading to the canyon, or on California condors. We went for several of these talks and we always found them both entertaining and informative.

Bright Angel Creek as seen from our campsite: