Do you need waterproof hiking shoes hiking Grand Canyon? - Video

Waterproof shoes are kind of like AWD cars, most of the time, you don’t need them, but when the time comes that you do, your awfully glad you have them.

• This video asks the question, “do you need waterproof shoes hiking?” My answer is, it depends. For this video, I will use the example of the place I hike most often, Grand Canyon, but the same considerations apply in many hiking environments.

• First, let’s look at the waterproofing. In the old days, shoes were waterproofed with either an impermeable membrane, like rubber, or a permeable but sealed membrane, like leather with a leather treatment. Nowadays, most hiking shoes use either goretex or a goretex knock off like “e-vent.” In garage, show shoes.

• Goretex was invented in 1969, and was first used in clothing in 1976. It uses a stretched membrane with tiny holes that allows sweat to escape, but keeps larger water droplets from entering.

• Is it perfect? No, I find it hot in the summer, and I find that its effectiveness fails pretty quickly in a hiking shoe, although lately my shoes have maintained waterproofing longer than in the past.

• Anyway, the first consideration is, what’s the season? In Winter, if there is snow and ice at the trailhead, it is highly likely you will hike through a section of melting snow and mud as you descend into the Canyon. Waterproof shoes are useful in this environment. Plus, waterproof shoes tend to be warmer in Winter weather.

• And even in Summer, you can start a hike with clear blue skies and later experience violent thunderstorms with torrential rain and hail. Is this event, ventilated shoes will often fill with water like a little hot-tub. Waterproof shoes provide more protection. Example of water coming through top of shoe.

• But if the weather is great, it first depends on your route. Say, if you are hiking rim to river on South Kaibab Trail, there are no water crossings whatsoever. And even if you are hiking rim to rim on South and North Kaibab Trail, there is a single water crossing that is usually well equipped with stones or logs to get you across without getting your feet wet.

• However, if you take Bright Angel Trail, either rim to river or rim to rim, you will encounter multiple water crossings. A particularly agile person might be able to make it down the trail without getting wet, but I don’t have that degree of agility. I dunk a foot at least once on every hike.
• Then, the next question is how do you feel about having wet feet? Some ventilated shoes boast of their drain-ability, and hikers or trail runners accept immersion in water as part of the hike. For them, Bright Angel Trail provides no issue.
• Example of drain ability of Altra ventilated.
• However, weather and season plays into this as well. It may be no issue to have wet feet on a 100 degree day, but when the temperature dips to the single digits, you might risk frostbite.

• But if you do not like getting your feet wet, waterproof shoes, from my perspective, are desirable on Bright Angel Trail. Depending on the season, you encounter six water crossings where there is no bridge.

• The most annoying is about 3/4 mile North of Havasupai Garden, where the Park Service has allowed Garden Creek to flow down the trail for an extended distance. Trees and bushes on the side make it hard to avoid stepping in the stream. This has been repaired at least twice in the decade I have hiked this trail, but invariably, the stream diverts to the trail and the Park Service allows it to flow that way without correction.
• This is particularly difficult for hikers who hit this section at night and have never hiked BA before, for example R3 who went down South Kaibab Trail and are on BA trail for the first time. I have encountered multiple hikers who felt they were entirely lost and had ended up in a stream bed, when in fact they were hiking on the correct, but flooded, trail.

• So, a final answer to the question of do you need waterproof shoes to hike Grand Canyon? It depends on the season, it depends on the weather, it depends on the trial and it depends on you. As for me, I hike Bright Angel Trail any time it is open, and the compromise I make is that I wear goretex shoes on every hike, all year long. They are hotter than a ventilated shoe in the Summer, but they keep my feet dry, and that is a compromise I am willing to make.

• In summary, everyone is different, and some people have no issue with doing water crossings in ventilated shoes, but for me, waterproof shoes are kind of like AWD cars, most of the time, you don’t need them, but when the time comes that you do, your awfully glad you have them.