Wild Friends

An 800-mile trek through the wild heart of the Grand Canyon.

INTERVIEWS BY ELLEN HEYN

In 2015, author Kevin Fedarko and photographer Pete McBride set out on assignment for National Geographic to hike the length of the Grand Canyon in sections. Now that they’ve finished their trek, they’re hitting the road on tour to talk about the threats to the canyon they discovered along the way. Here, we catch up with the duo about trail life, cactus encounters, and photography tips.

How did you find routes through the trail-less sections of the canyon?

Pete: A lot of the time we just used sheep poop. If you could find sheep poop, you knew there was a way to get through the cliff bands. We followed mountain lion tracks, and they would never get you pinned on a cliff or trapped. We also followed some wild burro trails. They have a tendency to live in the Redwall layer. And then there’s wild mustangs, and they live on the Esplanade. They seem to have an agreement—they don’t leave their layer. We learned to depend on our wild friends.

When you’re hiking all day, every day, what do you think about on the trail?

Pete: Staying alive. I can’t emphasize that enough. If you don’t find water, and it’s 95 degrees out, you’re not going to last very long. Other than that we thought a lot about what happens above the rim and the effects below. Indirectly you start thinking about the fragility of the place. 

Kevin: Dinner. I’m sure Pete was engaging in all sorts of highbrow thinking about conservation, and the aesthetic wonder of the canyon, and the navigational challenges of getting through whatever section we were on. I was mostly thinking about dinner. From breakfast, all the way up until dinner. 

Over the 800 miles you hiked, how did your impression of the Grand Canyon change?

Kevin: I sort of started the hike with the impression that the wildest piece of terrain inside the Grand Canyon was the Colorado River. And over the course of the hike, I came to appreciate the fact that the river, for all of its wildness, is basically plumbing. And it’s also a highway that is traveled by up to 26,000 people per year who run the river. So I came to appreciate, over the course of the walk, that the truest wilderness inside the Grand Canyon starts at the edges of the river and extends up to the rims on either side.

What did you see impacting the canyon that surprised you?

Pete: Balloons. Every balloon that anyone ever lets go of in Disneyland seems to end up in the canyon, and when you’re walking through the place, you see a lot of Mickey Mouse. You see a lot of graduation party balloons, a lot of Disney. I guess balloons all have to go somewhere to die, and it seems like a good portion die in Grand Canyon.

Any mishaps along the way?

Kevin: Our feet basically fell apart in the during the first leg. My feet looked like a continuous blister—it looked like someone had taken a belt sander to the bottoms. Pete developed hyponatremia and he really struggled with ankle problems and tendinitis throughout most of the winter. I fell inside of a slot canyon one night and broke a finger. A couple days later, I fell and basically plunged my forearm in the center of a barrel cactus. We both had infections develop as a result of cactus needles embedding themselves, usually in our feet. 

What’s your favorite place in the canyon? 

Pete: It’s a time, not a place. It’s a time when the light starts to drop, usually right after the sun goes down. People call it the magic hour, or the hour of the pearl, and it happens every day roughly. As you pay attention, it’s pretty magical in every spot in the canyon. It’s that time of day right after the first crack of light where the bats come out. You might hear an owl. The temperature is cool. And the stillness is profound. 

Most people only see a sliver of the Grand Canyon, and you’ve seen a whole lot more – what’s different about the canyon the more you see of it?

Kevin: I think the premise of that question cuts against the grain of what the walk taught me. I don’t think you need to do a 14-month, 800-mile transect of the Grand Canyon to touch or be touched by its marvels and its magic. The entire canyon offers tastes of the remoteness and beauty we experienced. And those attributes of the canyon are freely available to anyone who wants to take the trouble to walk 15 minutes down the Bright Angel Trail, or drive to Lees Ferry and stand at the edge of the Colorado River watching it flow past. It’s all there, it’s all open, it’s all available to anyone who wants to taste it. 

Any photography tips for capturing the perfect shot of the Grand Canyon?

Pete: Less is more. In the Grand Canyon, if you get too fancy with all your equipment or have too much equipment, it can be distracting. One system will be easier. And patience. Grand Canyon is a place of time and humility, and you have to respect that. 

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 Communications & Outreach Associate Ellen Heyn hikes and writes for the Colorado Plateau Explorer. 

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