South Kaibab Trail

Split twig figurines, small animal effigies woven from willow branches, tucked into caves deep within the canyon, have been found dating back roughly four thousand years, left by people whose purpose for them we can only partially reconstruct, likely ritual objects tied to hunting success.

Ancestral Puebloan peoples built structures throughout the canyon between roughly one thousand five hundred and eight hundred years ago, granaries, dwellings, and- And ceremonial spaces tucked into alcoves and perched on ledges, some of which are still visible today along popular trails, including a well-preserved granary visible from the South Kaibab Trail that thousands of hikers walk past every year.

The Hopi and other Pueblo peoples trace direct ancestry to these builders, and Hopi oral tradition includes detailed knowledge of specific migration routes and settlement sites throughout the canyon that predates and, in many cases, has since been confirmed by archaeological survey.

The relationship between oral tradition and the archaeological record here is one of the more interesting ongoing collaborations in American archaeology tribal knowledge, held for a thousand years, guiding where scientists look and how they interpret what they find.

Local authorities and search and rescue crews scoured the park and a week later, they had the task of giving John's family the devastating news.

According to reports, John's body and motorbike were found 465 feet below the canyon's rim at the South Kaibab Trailhead.

At the South Kaibab Trailhead.

In the days following his disappearance, authorities released to the public that John may have been traveling with a yellow 2005 Suzuki GSX-R600 motorbike, but no further information about this bike has ever been released.

After John's body was discovered, the Coconino County Medical Examiner's Office transported his body via helicopter to the Medical Examiner's Office for further testing and identification.

They read the interpretive signs that explain what they are looking at.

The Kaibab limestone at the top, the Vishnu Schist at the bottom.

Nearly two billion years of geological history stacked in horizontal layers like the pages of a book left open on a table.

They nod.

It is up to 29 kilometers wide.

It is over 1800 meters deep.

The maintained trails, Bright Angel, South Kaibab, North Kaibab, follow a tiny fraction of the terrain, switch backing down established corridors that have been engineered and maintained and reinforced for over a century.

These trails are where the people go.

And I have seen some photos of the area around the Delta.

Now, when we're talking about the Delta, for those of you who aren't familiar and those of you who are, the Delta is essentially, at least the Delta as it, as it pertains to, to us hikers, is where the North Kaibab Trail and the South Kaibab Trail come together, and you cross the bridge right there, or the bridge that was, to go over to the, uh, other side on the way to Silver Bridge, and the restrooms are over on the other side, and the, um, uh, where you can refill your water, and then you just continue on past the corral and down to, uh, down to Silver Bridge.

Um, so that bridge we know is gone.

I've seen the, I've seen the photos.

Local authorities and search and rescue crews scoured the park and a week later, they had the task of giving John's family the devastating news.

According to reports, John's body and motorbike were found 465 feet below the canyon's rim at the South Kaibab Trailhead.

At the South Kaibab Trailhead.

In the days following his disappearance, authorities released to the public that John may have been traveling with a yellow 2005 Suzuki GSX-R600 motorbike, but no further information about this bike has ever been released.

After John's body was discovered, the Coconino County Medical Examiner's Office transported his body via helicopter to the Medical Examiner's Office for further testing and identification.

[laughs] Oh, man.

Then he woke up early and hit the South Kaibab, uh, thinking he was ready.

Oh, James.

Then about a mile from the tip-off, he discovered what he described very clearly, "What goes in must come out," and hiking downhill [laughs] is like a blender for the food in your system.

And boy, am I gonna get back to you later in this hike.

Just wait.

And on South Kaibab, there is not exactly a long list of private, convenient places to deal with a digestive, uh, emergency.

So James found out the hard way, and, uh, we're appreciative of him being so, uh, candid in sharing.