The New Hance Trail | Grand Canyon

This is the day I learned what hiking in the Grand Canyon is truly all about.

Moran Point

As of the time of this writing (March ’09), this was the most difficult single day of hiking that I’ve ever experienced. My Skytrails map had the New Hance Trail listed as less than six miles long, so one day in early August I set out to hike to the river and back in the same day. The map was wrong, the trail is easily eight miles.

I thought six quarts (A gallon and a half) of water would be adequate. It wasn’t. Furthermore, I didn’t carry any method of purifying additonal water from backcountry sources.

New Hance also happens to be the toughest, most rugged official trail from the south rim (My opinion, shared with quite a few others).

In August of 2008, the NPS extended its free shuttle bus service eastward to Desert View, primarily because the Hermit Road was closed for the season. This afforded me the opportunity to take a ride on the bus out to Moran Point, one mile east of the New Hance trailhead.

There was just the driver and one other passenger, a young man from France who spoke very little English. He was riding this bus out to Desert View, from where he planned to hitchhike to Cameron, AZ and on to Bryce Canyon, Utah. For his one-month vacation he booked a flight from France to New York City, and a returning flight back home exactly a month later, from Los Angeles. He was hitchhiking across the USA. He had been through my home state, Pennsylvania. “Very, uh, green,” he said – his single impression of my home.

I got off the bus at Moran Point, and walked cross-country along the rim to the New Hance trailhead.

This is Coronado Butte, a dominant feature in this area of the canyon. It is named in honor of Francisco Vasquez de Coronado, whose expedition of Spanish explorers were among the first white men to have viewed the Grand Canyon… the exact location is thought to be here along the east rim.

Rusted cans like this are relatively easy to find in the National Park, and all through the Southwest I believe. They are nothing more than old throwaways from prospectors and settlers circa 1900.

This is the official New Hance trailhead, as seen along Desert View Drive – approximately one mile west of Moran Point.

and here is where the trail dips below the rim.

I was immediately impressed with the rugged nature of the footpath, a vastly different experience than the corridor trails. “Now this is a REAL trail,” I satisfyingly told myself, descending quickly through tight, no-nonsense switchbacks and rockslides.