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13 Hikers Rescued in Grand Canyon Within a Week, and Authorities Have Pinpointed a Reason
It's not out of the ordinary for there to be search and rescue missions at the Grand Canyon. But 13 in just seven days is pretty up there. And that being said, there's actually a perfectly good explanation for all those missions.
According to Outside magazine, the Grand Canyon's Search and Rescue team can average between one and two missions a day. Those missions include medical evacuations by helicopter, which are typical during the busy summer tourist season.
But one week in late May there were 13 helicopter rescue missions. According to the magazine, the rescue missions ranged from a hiker with a lower leg injury at mile 35 of the Colorado River, to a person suffering from a heat-related illness on one of the canyon's main corridor trails.
The weather elements and injuries is expected. But a construction site? Yes, construction on the famed canyon's Transcanyon water pipeline, which stretches 12.5 miles across the canyon. The pipeline delivers drinking water from a spring on the North Rim to local hotels and lodges on the South Rim. The pipeline was built in the 1960s and it has required a lot of repairs as of late. A four-year, $200 million project commenced in 2023, resulting in popular trail closures, thus leading to all those late May rescues, says Grand Canyon Park preventive search and rescue supervisor Meghan Smith.'Construction on our pipeline has closed key sections of main trails that people would otherwise use as routes in and out of the canyon,' Smith told Outside. 'And it's rerouting people into areas they don't normally go, which is causing problems for us.'
Some of those closures includes the River Trail on the canyon floor, which connects hikers to the Bright Angel Trail. The River Trail is expected to reopen in October.
But those caught off guard about the construction to replace the water pipeline face an expected daunting task.
'It adds another 4.5 miles of distance on a trail with no shade and no water, where temperatures regularly exceed 110 degrees Fahrenheit,' Smith says. 'Others are skipping the detour and simply sticking to the South Kaibab, which is extremely strenuous and also lacks shade and water.'
You've been warned.
13 Hikers Rescued in Grand Canyon Within a Week, and Authorities Have Pinpointed a Reason first appeared on Men's Journal on Jun 9, 2025
