This summer, we took a trip to the grand canyon. Our friend Jim set up all of the backcountry permits that allowed us to take a three day backpacking trip into the canyon. It was one of our most amazing and memorable trips ever!!
After a two-day, 18 hour drive, we arrived at the Grand Canyon in the late afternoon on Monday.
After checking into our lodge, we headed to the rim for the first time. We planned to take a quick peek before joining our friends for dinner.
However, our quick peek turned into almost an hour.
The beauty is unbelievable.
Looking down into the canyon from the rim, it is almost impossible to get a sense of scale. Dave pointed out Indian Gardens, the campground for our third night, and told me that Phantom Ranch was "down in the crack". I wasn't even sure what that meant, but over the next couple of days, I found out!
On Tuesday, we spent some time putting our packs together. I weighed my pack pre-food and water, and it weighed around 22 pounds. Not so bad. However, after adding seven pounds of water, two pounds of tortillas, a pound of beans, a pound of peanut butter, a half pound of nutella and other miscellaneous food items, I'd guess that I added at least an additional 12 pounds. In future trips, we will look at trying to limit our food weight.
We arrived at the South Kaibab trailhead bus stop around 5am on Wednesday morning. After a short drive, we started down the trailhead around 5:30am.
As we started out, the morning was bright and cool. The sun had risen, and was bathing the canyon in a reddish light! It was amazingly beautiful!
Of the entire three days, I would have to say that the first day was the hardest.
We were unused to the heavy weight of our packs, and were adjusting to the constant downhill.
The first day, we hiked 7 miles - but it was a mile down! That is equivalent to climbing (or descending) three World Trade Centers!
After a lot of reading on the web, I had decided that the boys and I would go with lightweight shoes, rather than heavy boots. We purchased trail runners for them, and I chose to wear my running shoes. The trailrunners worked great... my shoes, not so much.
I had run a marathon in them, so I was pretty sure I wouldn't get blisters. Blisters were not a problem for any of us, but unfortunately, there was another issue I had not considered: I had run a marathon in them... their tread was pretty warn. I spent the entire first day trying to not slide my way down the canyon.
Kyle probably had the toughest time of all.
Although his pack was the lightest, he was also, by far, the youngest and smallest on the trip. The first mile was touch and go.
And there was even a moment, when I thought we'd have to turn back.
But after that first mile, something turned in him.
He went from telling us "I can't do this" and "My pack is too heavy" to skipping down the path well ahead of us.
Probably one of the most awesome things on this amazing journey was seeing the transformation in all of us as we realized that we could do way more than we thought we could!!
Along the way, we'd take rest stops.
Some times we'd all take off our packs, and sometimes we find a convenient rock to sit on, and just take the weight off for a few minutes.
The whole trip is a balance between taking it slow so you don't tire out, and trying to go fast enough to beat the heat at the bottom.
The canyon is interesting. At the top, temperatures hover in the 80s during the day and can drop down into the 40s (or lower) in the evenings.
However, down at the bottom of the canyon, the
temperatures spike. The day we arrived the high was 107 degrees, and it rose to over 120 degrees in the sun! Evenings might get down to 70 degrees before starting to heat up again!
And also all of the photo stops :o)
The canyon, in my mind, breaks down into two vertical parts.
About half way down, you reach the plateau, which can be seen from the rim.
About half way down, you reach the plateau, which can be seen from the rim.
But then there is a another deeper canyon below that, that leads down into the river.
The first view of the river is absolutely breathtaking. Not just from the beauty of it all, but because you know that your destination is finally in sight!
There are only two bridges to cross the Colorado river, and they are both foot bridges near Phantom Ranch.
