Erica hurt her knee 2 days before but decided to hike this (our honeymoon trip!) even though we've never hiked 10 miles, let alone up and down. They say it is 7 hours. Took us 3 hours up (a little less than 2 hours to the south rim split), half an hour at the top, 2.5 hours down, mainly since she had trouble with her knee going down. We didn't see one person the entire 6 hours on this path. Partway up a bluejay visited us and then 6 of his friends showed up (saw just one of them in that area on the way down) and saw one deer near the bottom. Stairs throughout the whole hike but it's fairly level at first. Lots of stairs before the split. After the split, plenty of smooth switchbacks but the last part is very rocky. When you get to the last big rocks at the top you have to head to the RIGHT and climb. Very dangerous. I chickened out but Erica went all the way up. About a 3 foot climb up a shaky rock. Saw lots of tarantulas. Hike is well worth it.