Down The Trail

I had been told about the pictographs on the Bright Angel Trail before, but it wasn’t until I had been living at the Grand Canyon for three months until I finally saw them.

This panel of images is sometimes called Mallery’s Grotto. They are very easy to locate for the average tourist, just a few steps down the Bright Angel Trail. Only about a hundred yards down the trail there’s a popular tunnel, where thousands of people stop for photos every year. If you step through this tunnel and immediately look up and to the left (Toward the rim), you can’t miss these red markings.

They’re under a small overhang about 20-30 feet above the trail. It’s possible to climb up to them, as I have done on two occasions to get these photos, but it takes a bit of skill and audacity to do so, and I doubt that the park rangers would be very happy if they caught you up there.

Rather than going back down to the trail, I found it safer to continue climbing up to the rim, popping up near the Hermit’s Rest bus stop.

A ranger told me that these are ancient Anasazi markings, and that they’re 800 years old. I’ve also read that the Havasupai Indians who once farmed at Indian Gardens claim to take credit for this work(In more recent history). I’d like to think that the former is true.