Backpacking Death Valley, or Grand Canyon rim to rim, use a guided tour?

IMO, navigation skill is the number one important thing for a backpacker. Instead of paying for a guided tour, you may want to learn how to use a map & compass by enrolling in a course or teaching yourself. The key will be practice, practice, practice.

Or… you could get paid to learn, which is what I did, by enlisting in the military.

Not really any navigational skills required to go Rim to Rim in the GCNP along the trail corridor.  There are very substantial trails that are well-signed the whole way.  The permits for those spots can be hard to get (or just do it as a day hike).

But I’m concerned that if you lack navigational /route-finding skills, you might not have the experience to gauge how ready you are for a 21-mile, 5,000-feet-down, 5,000-feet-up route with some potentially extreme temperatures to deal with.

I have been You Tubing and recently took a Maps and compass class at REI but I still dont have the compass part down (the REI teacher kind of sucked). I havent practiced enough which of course is in order.

Maps Im ok entry-intermediate level, I can read countour lines and most of the lines but….its another story to go in solo to a place like Death Valley.

Depending on what you mean by Death Valley (big place) but in the valley itself or really anywhere there, you can see pretty much see exactly where you want to go unless you are deep in one of the canyons then of course you will know exactly where you are.  As long as you can read a map and identify landmarks you can walk to them.

I took classes from my local Mountaineers Club a much better way to learn navigation skills than REI or Youtube. Try looking for local clubs and courses.

I agree with Nick

IMO, navigation skill is the number one important thing for a backpacker

You might enjoy BPL member Steven Evans recent trip report VIDEO and his gear list for the trip

http://www.suluk46.com/images/GrandCanyon2016/RimtoRimtoRimGearlist.pdf

I was thinking the same thing Alex was – in the main valley, you can see where you are relative to the mountains on each side.  And in a side canyon, for that matter, there’s uphill and downhill.  Go downhill to get back to the trail head.  Now, if you are trying to find a PARTICULAR side canyon or trying to follow a PARTICULAR drainage upstream, then recognizing the land forms represented on the topomap, gauging distances traveled, and discerning what compass direction a canyon takes could all be very helpful.

But I’ll note that with modern mapping apps (at least those with base art on them when you are out of cell-phone range) often have satellite imagery which makes recognizing a particular location or turn much easier.  Particular bushes, colors of rock, etc, can all be seen in the sat photo and make it easier to read.

When you’re NOT lost, when you’re actually in an area you know well, trying switching from sat photos, topo maps and looking around you.  Learn how those relate to each other.  Then move off your familiar routes, having guessed what the topo map is telling you and check if you got it right.  Take bearings off of two peaks and see how close you can come to locating your position.  Estimate your distance hiked and where you should be on the map through out a hike (pencil in time stamps on the map) and see how close you were when you get to the end/summit/trail junction.  It’s that sort of practice in advance that hones your skills.

I dont have navi skills.

It’s pleasing that Nick Gatel (see his avatar) was first to respond.

Death Valley National Park is huge, and  it’s quite easy to get lost.  Be careful out there.  If you start in the valley, hike up a canyon, and hike back down the same canyon, it’s pretty failsafe.  But once you get up and out of the first canyon, you can get into a world of hurt by heading down a different or wrong canyon,  Many of them have impassable falls on them, and at that point, you are not in a good place.

Outside the valley itself, climbing up into the mountains, you can easily make the same mistake if you don’t know how to navigate.  I’d suggest simply in and out trips–no loops for you!

If you are hiking trails it should not be an issue. Just know the basics of reading a map and the basics of getting direction on a compass. If you get seriously lost, knowing general direction can help you travel to a road or town. Hiring a guide is pretty silly. There are lots of meetup.com backpacker groups, why don’t you find a local one? They are generally very friendly to beginners and you will feel more comfortable with experienced people and a social setting.

thank you. Ill report back when I go!

I know you like to hike around the AT and have asked about hikes there,here is a good article for you to read Hiker who died on Appalachian Trail didn’t know how to use compass something to think about