Hiking The Escalante Route - Grand Canyon National Park

The Escalante Route
Grand Canyon National Park

In my nearly 40 years of life, I had never visited the Grand Canyon, and when an invitation to backpack in the canyon was extended to me, I jumped on the opportunity. A friend suggested hiking the Escalante Route, which to be honest, I had zero knowledge of prior to doing any planning, and for a first time experience in the canyon, it was a doozy with some insane weather and tough hiking. 

THE ROUTE:

While there are a few ways to access the Escalante Route, most hikers connect to this section of trail in the canyon via the Tanner Trail at Lipan Point down to Tanner Beach, then follow the Escalante Route to Red Canyon/Hance Rapids, then pick up the East Tonto Trail and exit via the Grandview Trail. This makes for about a 31 mile point to point, 3-5 day backpacking trip. 

What I didn't fully comprehend going into the trip is just how aggressive and rugged the hiking really would be. The decent down the Tanner Trail is steep, loose, and long, with even a little bit of uphill gain in the middle. Getting to Tanner Beach is a welcome sight and a nice break for the legs with a heavy pack on your back. 

The Escalante Trail for the next 15 or so miles doesn't hold back either. You're ascending steep hills adjacent to deep canyons and walking the rim of these canyons to get around them and then dropping back down to the river, covering a lot of ground by foot, but not very far in terms of river miles. It's a bit odd to hike 8 miles in a day and look back and have maybe moved 2-3 miles down river. The hiking along the Escalante trail comes with a little bit of exposure, some boulder scrambling, narrow trail, and a lot of up and down. 

Then you come to the elusive Papago Wall and Papago Slide. Arguably the "crux" of the route for most hikers. The Papago Wall is about a 30 foot wall that is not terribly difficult to climb, but requires smart movement and awareness of your heavy pack when moving up the blocky steps. A few class 4 moves can make getting up the wall a challenge for hikers who are unfamiliar with scrambling with a pack on. But again, smart movement and even passing packs will make this a non issue. 
The Papago Slide in my opinion has higher consequence as you're descending a steep, loose slide of rock about 200' to the bottom of the canyon. The route down the slide is fairly straight forward, but can be confusing if you're not paying attention. You will move far left to start, then about 1/3 the way down, you'll move far right around an obvious point of rock and down a steeper section right of the point. Then follow the scree left to the wall and eventually down to the bottom. There are then rock cairns to follow once at the river that lead you to the bottom of Red Canyon, which is also the bottom of the New Hance Trail. 

At this point, you've finished the Escalante Trail and if exiting via Grandview, you'll continue on via the East Tonto Trail and work your way up to Horseshoe Mesa, connect with the Grandview Trail and exit to Grandview point. 

GEAR USED FOR THIS TRIP:

• Backcountry Exposure Aven Roll Top Food Bag
• Backcountry Exposure Mini Ditty
• Backcountry Exposure Bigger Ditty
• Backcountry Exposure Stake Sack
• Outdoor Vitals Carbon Evo Backpack
• Cumulus Panyam 450 Sleeping Bag
• Sea To Summit Ultralight XR Sleeping Pad
• Big Agnes PitchPine 1.5 Tent
• Danner Trail 2650 Shoes
• Outdoor Vitals Altitude Hoodie
• Outdoor Vitals Pursuit Hybrid Hoodie

PERMIT & IMPORTANT INFO:

Permits are required to hike this route and are obtained through the National Park Service via Recreation.gov. https://www.recreation.gov/permits/4675337

The Escalante Route would be considered a strenuous and difficult hike. Limited water availability and a lot of elevation gain/loss over the 31 miles of hiking. Would recommend for hikers who have more experience, and feel comfortable with exposed trails, scrambling up and down rocks, and confident in rugged terrain. As a seasoned hiker myself with 30 years of backpacking experience, this route was difficult and hard on my body. 

OUR EXPERIENCE HIKING THE ESCALANTE ROUTE
FEBRUARY 2026

As I mentioned, this would be my first time hiking in the Grand Canyon, and I didn't quite understand just how amazing the Grand Canyon actually is. It's difficult to comprehend what you're seeing when in the canyon, but this trip was simply incredible, despite some less than ideal weather conditions. 

Day 1: Tanner Trailhead to Tanner Beach

We got an early start, and a cold, snowy start given it was February and a cold front had moved in. With microspikes on and a few inches of fresh snow we started working our way down the steep, narrow switchbacks of the Tanner Trail. It's kind of amazing that a trail even exists and was built here, as it was just so so steep. But eventually you get several hundred feet down and the canyon starts to open up in front of you as you start moving toward the river, even though it's still 6+ miles away. 

I was in awe of how many layers of rock you can see and the colors. The skies were moody across the canyon with rain falling and fast moving clouds. But we kept working our way down the trail with endless views in front of us. After a few miles we were greeted with a stunning, open view of the canyon up river. I think we sat here for 20 minutes just to enjoy what was in front of us. 

From here you descend another steep section of switchbacks before the trail essentially takes a straight shot toward the river. This section felt long and tiring, after all, it was 6 miles of steep downhill to this point and the knees were definitely feeling it. But not much longer and we were crossing the wash of Tanner Canyon and about to find camp at Tanner Beach, which was a very welcomed sight. 

Day 2: Tanner Beach to Escalante Creek

This is the day we were kind of dreading... Only for the reason that we knew we'd be dealing with some weather over a big day. With just over 8 miles of hiking to do to get to Escalante Creek, we started the morning with gusting winds and a little bit of rain. The first mile was fairly flat and easy walking, but then it just got worse from there. The rain moved in and the wind got incredibly intense. In some cases it felt like 50 mph gusts were hitting us and a decent amount of rain coming down. It was also cold and made for some slow movement along the trail. 

This section of the Escalante Trail has you climb up some steep sections and traverse along narrow, loose trail that felt dangerous in the conditions. I recall going up the bench then going back down toward the river and observing a rafting group still hunkered down at camp. I thought to myself, they are the smart ones here. Then we made another steep climb up the bench and was greeted by an ancient dwelling atop the ridge overlooking the river below. I enjoyed observing the dwelling for a few minutes before pushing on as a gnarly system of clouds were moving in on us and we were quite exposed on the ridge. We were also trying to find a spot to get out of the wind for a few minutes just to get some food in us as we knew there was a significant climb to do before dropping into Escalante Creek. This is where things got intense. The rain increased, winds picked up in intensity and it honestly just kind of sucked. But we kept pushing on, climbing up higher and higher to the point that it was now snowing instead of raining. What a way to experience the Grand Canyon. 

But after some time we got around the ridge above Escalante Creek and started making our way down into the creek bottom to get back to the river and get camp set up at the bottom of Escalante Creek. 

Day 3: Escalante Creek to Hance Creek

After what seemed to be absolute worse case scenario with the weather the day before, we woke up to clear skies and sun, which was a welcome sight for sure!

The main obstacle for today would be the Papago Wall and Papago Slide. From reading online, this seemed to be a tough section for many people and the slide being the primary concern. With decades of climbing experience I wasn't too concerned about it, but getting the whole group up and down the Papago Wall and Slide was important to be smart with. We made our way from camp to the Papago area and scouted what climbing the wall would look like. Once at the wall, it's really just a couple of class 4 moves on some blocky steps to get up the wall. Still being smart about how you move with a pack on, but easier than I anticipated it to be. Then once at the slide, you're looking down what feels like 200 feet of loose rock and scree. Working our way down the slide was far more technical and difficult than the wall was. One by one, with a good amount of space between each other, we got down the slide back to the river. This whole section from the wall to the slide took about an hour of time to complete. Once we got to Red Canyon, the bottom of New Hance Trail where the Hance Rapids start we celebrated having completed the proper Escalante Route.

With more weather anticipated to be moving in late in the afternoon, we got our butts in high gear to get through the next 5 or so miles by getting onto the East Tonto Trail and leaving the Colorado River for the last time. We'd begin our ascent "out of the canyon" and make our way to Hance Creek where we knew there'd be running reliable water. And sure enough, just as we were getting around another canyon, the rain and wind moved in again and got our tents pitched just in time for the rain to set in for the evening. 

Day 4: Hance Creek to Grandview

Sleep overnight was minimal with gusting winds that shook our tents like crazy! But it was time to get out of the canyon and be done with this trip. The weather forecast for the night before showed rain and snow up high, but said no accumulation. Well that was wrong...

The ascent from Hance Creek up to Horseshoe Mesa was kind of grueling and a nice warmup for the exit via the Grandview trail. Once on the Grandview trail the snow really started to pile up and it made for very slow hiking. With about 1800 feet of elevation still to gain we were breaking trail through 6-12 inches of snow on some of the steepest swithbacks I had ever been on. Not only steep, but also very narrow. This made for a dicey and sketchy exit that was incredibly slow going. But we eventually made it to the top with no incidents and celebrated having "survived" a wild few days of weather and time spent under the rim on one of the most amazing trails i've ever hiked.