Bright Angel Trail

Each year thousands of hikers enter Grand Canyon on the Bright Angel Trail, following a tradition and route established by prehistoric people. For centuries humans used this route for two key reasons: water and access. Water emerges from springs at Indian Garden, and erosion along the Bright Angel Fault creates a break in the cliffs that provides access to the springs. When prospectors arrived in the late 1800s, Havasupai Indians were using the route. Prospectors improved the Havasupai route, but soon realized that the canyon's wealth lay in tourism rather than ore. By 1903, one prospector, Ralph Cameron, had secured control of the trail by strategically locating mining claims, then charged a $1.00 toll per trail user. For years he battled to defend his precarious legal claim to the Bright Angel Trail while collecting tolls. In 1928 the National Park Service gained control of the trail, tolls ceased, and the Bright Angel has been Grand Canyon's most popular trail ever since.

Grand Canyon Village, Arizona · United States