Thanks for all the replies. What time of year would you suggest for Arches/Canyonland?

My wife and I are thinking of signing up for a 5-day float trip on the Green River near Maob, the first week of August. We'd like to tack on a week or so of hiking and/or backpacking. We've been salivating over the descriptions of Arches and Canyonlands in "Hiking the Southwest's Canyon Country...

Thanks all, that's a great help. Speaking of water, the conventional wisdom seems to be a gallon per person per day. That seems to be based on summer conditions, though. Since we will have reliable water at each of our campsites (which we'll confirm with the BCO before starting out), and it will be ...

We'll be backpacking the Grand Canyon in a couple of weeks; spending nights at Hermit Creek, Monument Creek, and Indian Garden. We spend a week or two in AZ every year and we dayhiked the Canyon a couple of years ago (and we'll be spending a few days dayhiking the Santa Ritas and Superstitions befor...

No, the Buckhorn. We stayed at the Casa Blanca B&B (great place if you're visiting Bosque) and that's where they recommended.

Wow, lots of responses! I guess one thing hikers have in common all across the country is, we love to eat. I should have been more specific, though: We like to have food we can't get at home; preferably local specialties. For example, the culinary high point of our last SW trip was the green chili c...

Hi, our AZ trip starts in a couple of weeks and we're down to the details... We'll be staying 3 days in Chandler and dayhiking the western Superstitions; need restaurant recommendations in that area. A few days later we're spending the night in Flagstaff and would appreciate dinner recommendations t...

Hopefully the everclear will be for DRINKING, o/w why not use alcohol or spirits($)? Well, I try to keep the toxins out of my pack as much as possible, and most denatured alcohol has some pretty scary stuff in it. Also, from my reading ethanol has a lot higher heat content than methanol, so the wat...

Thanks for the great suggestions. Sounds like we'd be better off hiking from Hermit to Monument early, and doing our dayhiking there.

Kurt, I live in Harrisburg.

Got my permit! :y: I got my first choice: A day down to Hermit Creek, a day to visit the river and then on to Monument Creek, a day across the Tonto to Indian Garden, and then a day climbing out. I figure I'll get an Ursack Minor (lined with Opsack) to keep the critters out of our food. I was consi...

Thanks, azbackpackr. I appreciate the perspective. On our previous trips we've spent a week with my parents at 4100' before trying anything ambitious but this time we're doing the hiking first and the visiting after.

We will still be looking for some awesome hikes, though.

My wife and I are planning our first Grand Canyon backpack for the end of November. We do a fair amount of hiking and backpacking and think we're in reasonably good condition for our ages (early-mid 50's), plus we'll be kicking up the training as November approaches, but we live at ~600' elevation s...

Thanks, all, for the advice. The Hermit Loop sounds great. We'll probably leave our car at the BC office and take the shuttle to the trailhead. I'll start a new thread in Looking for a Hike, but any suggested acclimation hikes? We'll be flying in to PHX 11/13 and if we're going to spend 3 nights in ...

My wife and I are planning our first backpack in the Grand Canyon. I know that the conventional wisdom is to do the Corridor first, but we dislike crowds and equines so we would rather avoid that. We dayhiked the canyon a couple of years ago; longest hike was Grandview out to the end of Horseshoe Me...