This was a very good hike.  For the last year, I've been trying to pick up the two sections of trail near Horseshoe Mesa that I lacked to complete all the trails on the south side from the rim to the River, from South Bass to the Little Colorado, but something always came up preventing that.  Since I've now accomplished that, I can direct my future efforts a little more to the north side.

     If you are doing this hike in the same direction I did it, I have the following recommendations:

• The Grandview Trail is very straight forward and many sections of it still have the stone "paving" installed by Pete Berry and Ralph Cameron over a century ago.  It is approximately three miles from the rim to Horseshoe Mesa.  There is no water on the mesa.  Cottonwood Creek, below the west side of the mesa, generally has water until late spring.  Page Springs, half-way down on the east side, is considered perennial.

• Horseshoe Mesa is home to many historical mining artifacts.  These are for your viewing pleasure, so please do not disturb them.

• There are three ways to descend from the mesa.  The east side is the steepest and considered the hardest.  The west side is steep and medium in difficulty.  The north approach is the least steep and easiest of the three, but it does seem longer, though. 

• Numerous critters such as mice, ravens, squirrels, and ringtails are a threat to attack your food in the inner Canyon.  For many years, there were two widely used defenses against critter attack: the Ratsack Cache bag, a mesh, stainless steel bag, which came in three sizes and the Ursack, a bag made with a Spectra material.  I bought both, but preferred the Ratsack because it was larger, cheaper, and had a superior Velcro closure system.  Even though the Ratsack company website is still active and will accept your money, most people indicate they never received their order, their money was never returned, and they could not get the company to return a phone call.  Due to the widely reported difficulties and lack of response from the Ratsack company, that product is no longer carried by the General Store in Grand Canyon Village.  Two new products have recently come forward to fill the void:  the Outsak and the Foodsack.  Both are similar in design to the Ratsack and utilize a mesh stainless steel bag in different sizes with a Velcro closure system.  The Outsak is a lighter duty version and some people report that animals were able to penetrate it.  The Foodsack is the heavy duty version and appears to be bullet-proof, so it is the product that I recommend.  I have and use the Foodsack.

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