By Davy Crockett 

This is the third part of the rim-to-rim series. Read first Part 1 and Part 2

As the Grand Canyon entered the 1940s, the corridor trails were in place along with the Black Bridge across the Colorado River, making rim-to-rim travel on foot possible. By the early 1960s, a few daring athletes were hiking or running rim to rim in a day and even a few completing double crossings in a day. Credit goes to Pete Cowgill (1925-2019) and his Southern Arizona Hiking Club from Tucson, Arizona, who demonstrated to all that crossing the Canyon on foot in a day was not only possible but was an amazing adventure.

The Boy Scouts in Arizona started to offer rim-to-rim patches to those who completed the hike. A rim-to-rim-to-rim patch appeared in 1963. Publicity for the patches were being published in national scouting magazines. That year a fifty-mile hike craze was also burning throughout the country attracting more hikers to the Canyon. Arizona State College in Flagstaff started to organize large rim-to-river and back hikes.

Warnings were offered by the wise: "It is more rugged than anything you have every pictured. Despite its famed beauty, the canyon is a natural killer and hardly a year goes by that it doesn't claim at least one life in some way."

In 1963, visitors topped 1.5 million and serious growing pains were felt at Grand Canyon Village with traffic, crowded lodging, and strained Park services. More development was needed but the big limitation was water. The quest for water would result pausing in rim-to-rim travel for more than five years.

The Trans-Canyon Water Pipeline

As you hike or run rim to rim, you see can see at times pipes and other indications that there is a pipeline buried under the North Kaibab and other trails. This is the trans-canyon pipeline which is the lifeblood for the South Rim and other locations along the way that supplies the water for your adventure. There is significant history behind the creation of this pipeline and several people even lost their lives during construction. As you travel rim to rim you should observe and know what once took place on the trails you travel including a massive 1966 flood, the most destructive event to the corridor inner canyon in recorded history.

South Rim

Water tankers deliver to South Rim

Obtaining water for both Grand Canyon rims has always been a challenge. Since before 1900, on the South Rim, water was hauled in from 18 miles or more. By 1919, the Santa Fe railroad hauled up to 100,000 gallons per day to Grand Canyon Village. In 1926 a reclamation plant was built to reclaim water for non-drinking uses which helped some. Deep wells did not exist because of all the sedimentary rock layers. Rainwater would just run out of the rock and down into the Canyon.

Tram lowering trailer

In 1931 construction of a water system began at Indian Garden to pump water up to the South Rim. A cable tramway was constructed from the rim to about a mile above the Garden which was used to bring down a five-ton tractor to help with construction. The tram was removed in 1932 but signs of it still be seen 50 yards northeast of the 3-mile rest house. By 1934, the pump was in operation bringing about 150,000 gallons per day 3,200 feet up a six-inch pipe to the South Rim. The water was still supplemented during the summer with water tank train cars and million-gallon storage tanks. Portions of this pipeline are still visible.

North Rim

Over on the North Rim, there were a few springs a couple hundred feet below the rim. During the early 1920s. young Robert Wylie McGee would make daily trips to a spring to haul water by burro to Wiley Way Camp. He wrote, “The spring was about 5/8th of a mile, down in the mouth of a draw, west of the camp. The climb was probably a 200-foot change in elevation. Brighty (the burro) and I would make about four to seven trips daily. I filled the cans out of a wood barrel that the spring dribbled into using a b...