Just In Time For Your Backpack Trip Into the Grand Canyon: Three New Trails Illustrated Maps!

Grand Canyon, Bright Angel Canyon North & South Rims, is one of three new Trails Illustrated maps for Grand Canyon National Park.

There's a brand new series of Trails Illustrated maps for Grand Canyon National Park, and this trio provides more detail to help you navigate the canyon.

In a case of "you asked for it," the folks at Trails Illustrated have released maps to Grand Canyon East, which covers Marble Canyon and Horseshoe Mesa, as well as the Kaibab Plateau and Vermillion Cliffs National Monument; a separate map to Bright Angel Canyon on the North and South rims, including Grand Canyon Village, and; Grand Canyon West, which covers the Grand Wash Cliffs and Thunder River, Toroweap Cliffs, and the Grand Canyon-Parashant National Monument.

These three maps (MSRP $11.95/each) succeed the one map that tried to do justice to all these areas.

"Several factors went into the decision to create these three new maps for the Grand Canyon, but first and foremost were requests from the park association and the general public. These parties were looking for detailed map coverage for the eastern and western portions of the park which were previously not covered on our Grand Canyon map, and were also seeking more detail (better scale) for the highly popular hiking trails around the Grand Canyon visitor center," the folks at Trails Illustrated tell us. "We evaluated a variety of ways to accomplish these goals and meet the mapping needs of a variety of park visitors and determined that a three map approach was the best option.

"With these three new maps, we now include coverage of two areas of the park that are growing in visitation due to their unique scenery, but are remote and generally require a more advanced hiker. The new titles divide the entire park in half into East and West maps (including the once previously uncovered areas) and a third map provides a more detailed 'blow-up' of the main visitation area around Grand Canyon Village and the Bright Angel."

The maps are printed on the usual heavy duty, water-proof paper that's also tear-resistant. The map for the popular Bright Angel corridor also offers greater details than the others with a scale of 1:35,000 versus 1:90,000 for the other two.