Grand Canyon Boundary Road Trail in mid-March?

[Tallgrass]

Last year, my son and I did about a 60 miles backpacking trip in the Grand Canyon over his college spring break, hiking from Lipan point TH down to Tanner Beach and then hiking the Escalante Route/Tonto Trail back to the the South Kaibab trail and back to the village.  That worked well, and we got a park taxi at the beginning of the trip to take us from the Backcountry office to the Lipan point to start our trip.

This year, we are looking to do a similar length section of the Tonto trail, but West of Grand Canyon village, hiking from South Bass Trailhead back to the village.  This is more problematic because of the difficulty of getting to South Bass TH.  After talking with the backcountry office, I’ve now got the idea of us hiking the Boundary Road Trail (that separates the park from the Kaibab National Forest all the way to the South Bass TH).  Looking at Caltopo, if seems that if we take the red bus to Hermit TH and then hike from there to on the Boundary road trail,  this should be about 16 or 17 miles of relatively flat hiking on a road that is slowly turning into a trail over time. We should be able to knock that initial section out on day 1 as long as there isn’t a lot of snow.

The backcountry office thought this was doable.  Anybody have experience with walking the boundary road trail?

Thanks,

Bryan

[Author]

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