by Steve
The Bright Angel Trail in the Grand Canyon is quite possibly the most popular hiking trail in the world, based on the number of people that hike at least a portion of it. Millions of people visit the Grand Canyon each year. Bright Angel Trail is readily accessible from popular areas on the South rim, and fairly famous. So who wouldn't want to say that they hiked it, even if it is just a small bit near the top?
I've also heard that it is the most dangerous trail in the world. This claim is not made based on any inherent danger - it's really not that steep and doesn't have bad exposure - but simply on the number of people who hike down only to find themselves without sufficient water, or salty snacks, or energy to hike back out. The National Park Service at Grand Canyon does 200 to 300 rescues each year, many of them on this popular trail.
It's also been called the safest trail in the world, for a number of reasons, including the fact that because so many people hike it, there is always someone coming along who can help. And there is water available at four places along the trail. Plus the park service will station a ranger or volunteer along the trail to watch for people who might be likely to get in trouble. They want to be sure you know how far you plan to go, and that you have sufficient water and food along. They look out for anyone struggling on the way up.
But really the Bright Angel Trail is a time machine. As you hike from the rim to the Colorado River at the bottom, you pass through 1.8 billion years of geologic time, through layers of rock that were deposited long before dinosaurs roamed the earth. But it's not just old stuff; every time we hike the trail we discover something new that we hadn't seen before. This year's hike, our dinosaur hunt, was no different. For one thing, we encountered this woman on the trail.
She had brought her own horse to the canyon, and she's wearing what appear to be an Edwardian-era riding suit, and sitting side-saddle on her horse. I'm guessing there's an English side-saddle under that modesty blanket. She was happy to pose for a picture, with ours probably being just one of hundreds that were taken of her that day. (And yes, she gave us permission to use her photo in this blog.)
Going a little further back in time than the100 or so years ago that this riding outfit evokes, we find some pictographs that are missed by most hikers.
These are just below the rim. They were probably painted 800 to 1000 years ago by the people who lived here at the time. While the pictures are not very clear anymore, what is clear is that the south rim had lots of deer and elk back then, as it does now.
Our hike this year had a very specific mission. We wanted to find a rock that has clear dinosaur tracks on it, impressions that were made roughly 313 million years ago. In 2016, there was a rockfall along the trail. This happens fairly often in sections of the trail with vertical rock walls that are subject to freezing and thawing. The park service maintains the trail by moving the rocks that have fallen off to the side of the trail so that hikers can pass safely. In this case, one of the fallen rocks now exposed had dinosaur footprints on it.
Since the rock fall happened four years ago, hundreds of hikers have passed this rock every day, most without noticing what they are walking past. Jane and I have passed this spot at least five times since the rock fell and did not see the tracks. The story recently came to light when USA Today published an article about it. You can read it here. Here are the basics: In 2016, shortly after the rock fell, a geology professor from Norway was leading a group of students up the Bright Angel Trail when he spotted the rock with the dinosaur tracks. He alerted a paleontologist friend at the University of Nevada, who then brought a team to study the rock and analyze the tracks on it. Their research on it was published this summer, and that's when USA Today picked up the story. Read the research paper here.
This rock probably belongs in a museum, where it would be protected from damage. We did not touch the impressions, lest the oils from our hands damage the stone. But moving a rock of this size is no small challenge in a place where the standard mode of transport is by mule. And so the rock stays put for now. Needless to say, the park service does not advertise the exact location of the rock, and so it remains protected, largely by ignorance.
When we decided to locate this rock, all we knew was that it was along the Bright Angel Trail. Given that the Bright Angel Trail is 9.5 miles long from the rim to Phantom Ranch, there would be a lot of rocks to look at as we hiked along. Fortunately, there were just enough clues in the research paper and in a video that someone had posted for us to determine the exact spot on the trail. Combining those clues with Google street-view images of the trail (Google had people hike the trail with street-view camera back in 2012), we were able to confirm the exact location on the trail within a few feet. So we dropped a pin at the spot on our Google maps and simply hiked to the spot, which we won't disclose here.
If you are interested in hiking to see this rock, you can send us a message, and if you seem trustworthy, we'll send you the details of its location. As we sat nearby, we watched as numerous hikers passed unknowingly by it. We told a few of the hikers, those that seemed to be likely to respect the rock (generally those carrying camping gear, since we figure anyone willing to carry that much weight probably loves and respects the canyon). A couple who had read the article and knew about the tracks, but didn't know where they were, had stopped for a rest break just 20 feet from the rock, without even knowing it.
We've been up and down the Bright Angel Trail many times. And every time we see something new along the way. This time the new thing was something really, really old.
