Roaring Springs

Roaring Springs is the water source for the entire park — north and south rims alike — and you can see why the moment you reach it. The spring gushes straight out of the limestone cliffs partway down Bright Angel Canyon, spilling over moss and fern to form the headwaters of Bright Angel Creek. It's a startling patch of green and noise in an otherwise dry, rock-walled canyon, fed by rain and snowmelt that sinks thousands of feet through the rock layers before hitting an impermeable shale layer and breaking back out into daylight.

Getting there

Roaring Springs sits about 3,050 feet below the North Rim on the North Kaibab Trail, roughly 4.7 miles down from the trailhead — a 9.4-mile round trip that the park service rates extremely strenuous and recommends budgeting a full 7-8 hours for, starting before 7 a.m. This is a below-the-rim descent through open, shadeless switchbacks with real heat exposure; the park advises against continuing past Roaring Springs as a day hike. The North Kaibab Trail is only accessible when the North Rim is open for the season.