Well, we schooled the Grand Canyon. On Monday, we picked up Meghan and Taylor in Farmington, New Mexico, stocked up on camping supplies, and drove to our Grand Canyon campsite on the South Rim. We had planned on seeing Four Corners, but when we got there it was closed for renovations! There was quite an unhappy crowd surrounding the fence. I was especially unhappy that I could not cross Utah off my list of states. Really? Construction on state boundary lines?? Anyway…
We stopped at Grand Canyon Village to look out over the Canyon, then we set up our campsite. Unfortunately, no one slept well the night before our hike down (we soon learned that this problem is easily remedied by strenuous hiking). So, at 3:45 in the morning (in order to beat the desert sun) we took the shuttle to the top of the South Kaibab trail and started on our journey. South Kaibab (7 miles) is a steeper, less traveled trail that offers vast, majestic views of the canyon and “the most striking sense of exposure” (according to the various guidebooks). It was beautiful, and definitely steep! With a few short stops along the way, we made it to the bottom in 3 hours and 45 minutes. The temperature down there is hotter than at the top- about 110 degrees- so we immediately waded into the freezing Colorado River. That was too cold for us, so we spent the entire day in the creek. After many hours of that, we made dinner and got ready for our sun-down bedtime. We slept under the stars, with hundreds of bats flying inches above our faces (we were comforted by telling ourselves that they were our friends for eating the bugs).
The next morning, we left camp at 5 a.m. and started up the Canyon on Bright Angel trail (a longer, more traveled trail – 9.5 miles). Note: the guidebooks do not mention that much of the hiking on Bright Angel is through sand. This does not make for pleasant hiking. Originally we had planned on hiking up half way in the morning and waiting out the hot part of the day, but when we reached that point we decided to keep going. We had the pleasant surprise of some cold rain for a few minutes, and for the last few miles we dragged ourselves along slow and steady, stopping at the top of every switchback we climbed. Finally we could see the top of the canyon (which is probably the most beautiful sight in the world for hikers) and we triumphantly climbed the rest of the way, bypassing the mules that we were dying to strap ourselves onto. We held hands and crossed the threshold to the top with much rejoicing. We had hiked the Grand Canyon and earned a self-given title of merit that cannot be discussed in this blog, but will forever define us in our own hearts. So, we plopped ourselves onto the shuttle bus, drove to our campsite, and dropped to the ground to sleep for 2 and a half hours. We even got to take showers. It was glorious. Pictures to come.
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