Your adventure begins with an early morning pick-up at your Phoenix hotel. We then transport you to the North Rim via a five and a half hour drive to the North Kaibab trailhead, passing over the Marble Canyon Gorge and through the Arizona Strip below the Vermilion Cliffs and up through the Kaibab National Forest. We begin our descent starting at about 8000 feet elevation. The Phantom Ranch at the Colorado River is over a mile down in elevation and fourteen miles in distance. You will be carrying a backpack weighing approximately 35 to 37 pounds. It will contain your personal belongings along with the food and camping gear we provide. This is the only trail on the North Rim that has pack horses and mules allowed on it and it is considered the main route to the river below. On this first day, we hike down seven miles to our first campsite at Cottonwood Camp. At this point we have already left the dense forest of the North Rim far behind and descended into the semi-arid desert of the lower canyon environment.