Day 3 is the hike from the Phantom Ranch, across the Colorado river, and up to Havasupai Gardens. It’s all uphill so we tried to get an early start.

We hiked for 5.62 miles and it took us 3 hours and 34 minutes. We went from 2,453 feet up to 3,861 feet.

After leaving the camp, we soon got to the river. Here is a view of the bridge over the Colorado where the South Kaibab Trail comes down. We did not cross that bridge.

Here is a view of the river looking the other direction, from the main bridge.

Here you can see Devin on the bridge and of course, again a great view of those two billion year old rocks behind him.

We switched phones and you have shot of me. We were very careful so we didn’t drop the phones. They would have slipped right between the steel slots and down into the raging river with no chance of recovery.

The trail meanders along the river heading west for a while.

And then it finally turns south for the steep ascent.

Here I am turning around and looking back where Devin is coming up. In the left lower corner you can see parts of the trail from where we just came.

Watch out, there are rattlesnakes in the Grand Canyon. This one was a bit fat in the middle and slow. It must have just had a meal of a mouse.

There is a section of the trail they call “the devil’s corkscrew” which is a series of steep switchbacks. Here we are above those, looking back down on a section of the corkscrew.

Finally we arrived at Havasupai Gardens. These camps even had canopy covers.

We arrived shortly after noon, and we had plenty of time to relax and enjoy camp life, including a dip in the ice-cold creek to wash off.