Taking a breather from Las Vegas to visit Grand Canyon National Park’s South Rim in late January. The drive took us around 4.5 hours.

The usual route takes you right by Hoover Dam, but we decided not to stop for the sake of time. There was very important partying to do that night, and responsibility is our middle name.

The Grand Canyon National Park Visitor Center is about 270 miles from Las Vegas. We grabbed a rental car around 8:30am and were back in Sin City by 10:30pm. As East Coasters, we found the drive through the desert to be pretty fun and interesting, so it was worth the long day of driving.

Due to our time constraints, we weren’t able to get to in depth with our trail choices, so we stuck to the Rim Trail, which follows along the South Rim of the Grand Canyon, rather than descending into the depths of the canyon. It was also quite stormy and icy that day, which made for great rainbows, but slippery conditions. It also made for A LOT of wind noise, which unfortunately made cleaning up the audio on this video a bit of a challenge. Luckily, there were some very unique views to make up for it!

The large guard railed area with the abundance of rainbows was at lookout called Mather Point, a short walk from the Visitor Center – hence the higher concentration of tourists. Once we walked a bit further, it cleared out pretty quickly. I imagine the colder January weather had a bit to do with that too. The long winding trail seen at the end of the trail is the Bright Angel Trail.

Tired of waiting for warmer weather, I decided to revisit Vermont’s Green Mountain National Forest for some winter backpacking and a dose of snow camping.

The specific location I chose was the Big Branch Wilderness area. This is very close (just a bit further North) to the Lye Brook Wilderness, where I filmed my solo hike to the Stratton Pond area. This helped me to be familiar with the general area in terms of driving, but it would be my first visit to the Big Branch Wilderness, in hopes of doing some snowshoeing and getting a different Winter perspective on Vermont’s Green Mountains.

My general direction taken was the along the Lake Trail towards Baker Peak and Griffith Lake, following and crossing McGinn Brook and eventually connecting to the Appalachian Trail / Vermont Long Trail. At least that was the plan… I also also try my hand at setting up a tent in the snow, which by the way, will be my 3-season tent, so we’ll see how that goes too. Oh and speaking of that, here’s my backpacking gear for the trip.

For Full Gear List: See my previous post “Winter Backpacking Gear List for 15 Degrees – Snow Camping and Clothing Options“

A look at the resources, strategies & map options that I utilize for trip planning my backpacking and hiking adventures.

Items seen on the table:

DeLorme PN-60 GPS unit
AMC Maps: Waterproof & Tear-Proff / Regular Paper (Appalachian Mountain Club)
AMC Guidebook: Maine Mountain Guide
GMC Long Trail Map (Green Mountain Club)
National Geographic Trail Maps for Various Regions
Backpacker Magazine
DeLorme Topo 9.0 Software
‘The A.T Guide’ A Handbook for Hiking the Appalachian Trail by David “AWOL” Miller
Various Topographical Software Map Print-Outs
Salter Kitchen Scale
Websites Visited:

http://www.newenglandtrailconditions.com
http://www.hike-nh.com
http://www.backpackinglight.com
http://www.backpacker.com