When a friend first mentioned the Grand Canyon Phantom RanchI couldn’t believe my ears. She said it was the most elusive hotel reservation in the United States and the only accommodation in the canyon itself, all 277 miles away. A collection of 100-year-old stone huts pushed along the river, reachable only by riding a mule or stepping into the Earth’s crust for nearly a mile.
The words “simple, wonderful and gorgeous” were part of her words. However, you need to plan well in advance. “They make lottery reservations all year round,” she warned.
I hurried home and jumped online.
Fortunately, 13 months later, when I was able to secure a cabin for my family, in November 2019 I felt like I was throwing pebbles into an unknown future. I was dodging a cancer attack with a live scan to scan. My doctor smiled sympathetically as I ran through another barrage of radiation and chemotherapy and continued to say that I needed enough strength to get to Phantom Ranch.
My family of four arrived on the designated day immediately after sunrise. South Kaibab TrailLaughing at the idea that Phantom Ranch is really the ultimate destination hotel. The overall point of the place is the experience of getting there.
“The lowest ranch in the world” was written in the Coconino San newspaper when the accommodation opened in 1922. Mary Jane Colter, a pioneering architect of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroads, has become the rustic outpost where The Teddy Roosevelt once camp. An oasis of smart sets. Her cabin and dining hall (a few seconds as a general store and post office) are all made of indigenous stone. All egg and beer cans to the ranch come down from the South Rim by mule train.
Currently owned by the National Park Service and run by a private contractor, Phantom Ranch typically sleeps about 90 people in 11 private cabins and 4 dormitories, separated by gender. But since our two-night stay, the pandemic has changed much of the experience my family experienced just weeks before the coronavirus first broke out in China. Under current rules, the dormitory is closed, some of the cabins are used by staff, and the number of guests at night has been reduced to 52. Instead of traditional family-style meals in the dining room, campers have windows for breakfast and dinner outside or in the cabin.
Much greater interruptions have been set next year when Park Services embarks on a long-term upgrade of its ranch wastewater treatment plant. Beginning next May, the legendary lodge will be closed for months, and in some cases even a year, as workers shuttle new pipes and pump down by helicopter. Therefore, the lottery is not accepting any further reservations at this time, but if you cancel, you may be able to use the cabin.The new opening will be posted to Phantom Ranch website..
On the day of our descent, we sent our single shared duffle on a mule train and departed in a daypack packed with water and lunch only. You can see a hike across the canyon with bands of white, yellow, red and gray stones, each representing billions of days of formation.
Most of the morning, we walked alone, and four of us were hundreds of yards apart, while other hikers came and went. I had a lot to see and didn’t have to talk much. Each of us kept our own pace, led by our 22-year-old daughter Francis, and her wife Shiira lifted the back. We came to the view and stopped to be amazed at how far we were and to shake our heads at the vast stone temples around us.
Before the first complete glimpse of the Colorado River, the creator of all of these, it covered at least four miles of ground, perhaps one-third of an altitude. We were thrilled not only by the sight, but also by the sound of the water in the silent land. Down the last cork bottle opener road, we entered a tunnel dug in the rock and crossed an elegant suspension bridge 94 years ago across Colorado.
Francis and her sister Lily were already on the other side of the boat beach, Lily was 24 at the time and was delighted to the ankles of the river. I came down, took off my shoes, socks and shirt, and jumped into the river. The coldness of the river and the strong westward pull provided the moment of arrival like some others. I came up to meet my family there, soaked in the sun, and surrounded by unimaginable splendor. A rumbling and laughter emerged in me, which made me sob, but completely joyful and uplifting.
Along Bright Angel Creek, we set foot on Phantom Ranch under Cottonwood, Alder and Acacia. Our next two nights, Cabin 7, was a small stone building with an elegant green and brown roofline, bunk beds, a sink and a small bathroom. There is no mint on the TV or pillow. I heard a stream passing by in a hurry, and I saw cottonwood outside the window.
The resident ranger advised not to miss the early morning when the Milky Way had a moonless sky. That night, I secretly absorbed the sight around 4 am and saw the sun come. Sitting on the riverbank, I was dazzled until a bluish glow slowly creeped along the eastern edge, extinguishing the bubbles of the farthest stars and leaving only the brightest constellations. I went back to breakfast and wondered how I could spend more of the day starting that way.
Packing pancakes and coffee, we had to do it all day before us as we like. That meant heading for a painful foot towards the winding No Sky Bab Trail, which runs along Bright Angel Creek to No Slim. I sneaked through a narrow but wonderful canyon carved by Phantom Creek, one of the thousands of crevasses that make up the entire Grand Canyon. Water is the rarest item here, but it’s also the artist of all you see. I ate a bento box sitting on a rock along a stream.
On the final day, well before sunrise, I went on a return hike on the Bright Angel Trail at a distance of nearly 10 miles and an altitude of nearly 1 mile. Our sore feet quickly loosened and for the next five hours we went through a layer of stone. When I looked up many times, I laughed at the switchback by the switchback, the surface of the cliff that I had to climb to reach the edge of the canyon.
This stone crevice has served for thousands of years as the main way to and from the canyon. The whole thing tells the continuation. The 100-year-old Phantom Ranch offers a restorative pause and door reopening for the next century. From the edge of the canyon, we roared, gasped and looked back. It was hard to believe that there was even a fascinating oasis there.