Grand Canyon - June 8-11 - Very Long Post!

We woke up, finished our last minute packing, ate breakfast, and grabbed a few last minute items from the grocery store for the trek (peanut butter, apples, Gatorade) before beginning the hour and a half drive to the Grand Canyon. In the beginning of our drive, we saw a deer close to the side of the road. While we were able to avoid the deer, the car behind us was not so lucky. While Ed was watching in his rearview mirror instead of paying attention to the windy road in front of us, he saw the car behind us hit the deer as it attempted to cross the road. The speed limit on the road was 55, and hitting the deer was unavoidable. The deer attempted jumping over a fence on the one side of the road, didn’t make it, freaked out, and darted across the road in front of the other car. The car hit the deer and it went tumbling three times, then got up, and ran straight into the woods…probably in rough shape.

From then on, the ride was less eventful. The car ride was beautiful. It very mountainous, with some of the mountain peaks still having snow on them. There were many evergreen trees as we drove through Kaibab National Forest. We could see the ski areas as we drove through. We arrived at the Grand Canyon around 10…a bit later than expected. Fortunately, the Grand Canyon wasn’t as crowded as we expected and we got a close spot to the visitor center. We spoke with a ranger there who gave us directions to the Backcountry Office to attempt obtaining overnight camping permits.

We drove to the Backcountry office with our fingers crossed. We spoke to the ranger who informed us that there was a last minute cancellation for that night and there was room for the following night to camp out at the Bright Angel campground. While we originally wanted to hike rim to rim, we were still happy to have received any campground at all, being that there are very few campsites available. There were 25 campsites at Bright Angel, 10 at Cottonwood (in the North Rim), and 15 at Indian Gardens. The ranger told us we should wait until about 3:30 to begin our hike down as the heat wouldn’t be as bad then. Therefore, we decided to walk around the top of the South Rim for a little while to kill time. We walked around, mesmerized by the ginormity of the canyon. We were surprised that there few guardrails preventing people from going over the side…especially at the top where all the tourists hang out. If you took one step too far, it was conceivable that you may fall over 1000 feet down. We walked two miles up to Yapi Point. We then walked back, getting some lunch at one of the restaurants. We were surprised that the food wasn’t incredibly overpriced…as there isn’t much else to eat in the area unless you bring your own lunch. Ed had beef stew in a bread bowl, while Jeanette opted for chicken fingers. We were sure to eat a hearty lunch as the Grand Canyon brochures warn you countless times that you need to be well hydrated and double your calories during hikes. Otherwise, you risk dehydration, heat stroke, and heat exhaustion. We probably took their advice too seriously, but hey, better safe than sorry. There was one story about a young woman who had completed the Boston Marathon and was in great shape who had died of heat exhaustion while hiking down the canyon with only one bottle of water. That scared us as neither of us has ever run a marathon. We then walked back to the car, made sure we had everything we needed, and began our journey to the start of the South Kaibab trail…that entailed taking two buses and picking up a hiking pole each at the camp rental sections.

While we rode the last bus to the start of the trail, Jeanette became nervous. But, once we got there, there were other people starting day hikes down. We started the trail down around 3:45 and took lots of pictures around every corner. It was amazing to see how much you are unable to see from the top of the canyon. After a few miles, there was another whole layer canyon we saw with different rock formations and colors, vegetation, etc. At the beginning of the hike, we took our time, talking to different people along the trails for ten minutes at a time, took pictures, etc, but towards the end, there were no people. We hiked the last two hours or so completely by ourselves. Jeanette got worried because we were still hiking and the sun was going down. She was scared of hiking in the dark. We found out later that many people hike in the dark and that the moon is extremely bright down there…many people don’t even hike with flashlights in the dark…they only use the moonlight. We finally saw the Colorado River and the bridge we had to cross in order to arrive at our campsite. Before crossing the bridge, there was a short, dark tunnel that we had to go through. We went over the Colorado River, then over a creek, and arrived at our campground after 6.9 miles around 7:30. The campsite was between a huge rock wall and a creek, so it was quite picturesque. There were approximately 25 (maybe 30) campsites. We started to set up our tent, which was on loan from Sarah and Jason. This was our first time setting up a tent by ourselves, and we encountered a couple problems. We were having a hard time getting the poles to hook into the spots that they were supposed to. We asked a guy to help us. We had everything set up pretty much correctly. The guy forced the pole into the hole too forcefully, and the pole wound up splitting a little bit. He realized that the pole was simply caught in the material at the top. Once we rearranged the fabric, the pole slid in easily. The ground was really hard, so we couldn’t get the stakes into the ground. We threw some clothes into the tent to get it to flat. We clipped the tent to the attached clips, but it was a little too tight and caused a little tear in the tent. Besides that, no problems at all. Since we had already hiked 11 miles that day, we went to bed after eating around 9:30. When we were getting ready for bed, we heard four hikers come in. They had come down the South Kaibab trail. Two hikers decided to camp out for the night, and two decided to continue along the trail. They were all wearing head lamps that had soft colored lights. We felt dumb for having a regular flashlight as everyone else had head lamps or soft colored lights. Our food for the entire hike consisted of: beef jerky, dried fruit, cheetos, nuts, pretzels, twizzlers, granola bars, and chocolate pudding. We forgot to make our sandwiches before we left, so we didn’t have any substantial food.

We had a tough time sleeping because it was warm out, the ground was extremely hard and rocky, and there were animals rustling around. We heard a story about a rattlesnake being killed by a couple because it was right outside there tent the night before. We’re not sure why they killed it instead of scaring it away, but they killed it with a rock. The guy’s wife yelled at him because you are technically not allowed to kill rattlesnakes. It seemed like most campers woke up around 5 and went to bed around 9. We woke up around 5 with many other people. We decided that our legs felt good enough to carry us to Ribbon Falls, which was allegedly 6 miles away. Since we didn’t carry around our 30-40 pound packs all day, we decided to pack our little backpack with water and food. We headed out early, which was good, because we had to walk through “the box”, which is a desert area with very little shade. We walked through Phantom Ranch, which is a lodge with air conditioning and a little restaurant down there. We saw where they kept the mules at the bottom of the Grand Canyon. After walking about half a mile, the trail to Ribbon Falls began (therefore .5 miles was added to the initial 6 mile hike each way). We followed a tributary (a creek that feeds into the larger river) towards the North Rim. It was a smaller canyon with walls several hundred feet tall. Most views were blocked by the canyon we were in. We didn’t see anyone for the first two hours as we went down the creek and crossed several bridges. We walked out of the canyon into “the box”, where it was definitely warmer, probably in the mid 90s. We later found out from a park ranger that the temperature in the shade was 107 degrees. We brought eight bottles of water with us and had finished more water than expected before midday. Therefore, when we got close to Ribbon Falls, which was an extra mile than expected as we didn’t take the unmarked short cut, we decided to continue hiking to Cottonwood campground (which is ¾ of the way to the North Rim and has nice views of the North Rim), an extra 1.4 miles each direction, to fill up our water. A passing hiker told us that the campground was only 25 minutes away, so we went. It took us longer to get there as the hike was vertical for part of it. After 45 minutes, we didn’t know how much further away it was, so we stopped, had a snack, and Jeanette put band aids on the blisters on her feet as they were hurting. We then kept walking until we arrived at the campground. We filled our water, ate a little more, and wound up speaking to a couple from Sacramento…the guy was the person who helped set up the tent. They told us that this was their 5th or 6th time hiking the entire canyon and that they’ve done many different trails/routes. We also met some people who had started hiking at 3:20 am to hike rim to rim in one day.

We headed to Ribbon Falls, which people had said were beautiful and a great place to swim for an afternoon. As we got close, there wasn’t a clear path to the falls, so we hiked through the water and brush. When we got to the falls, we though they were nice, but were expecting something much bigger. Ed went right up to the waterfall and found out that the water was cold. The water maybe came up to his knee, definitely not deep enough to go swimming. Ed went behind the falls and looked around. We then found a shady spot to hang out, eat, and relax. It was nice and cool in the shade, and sometimes even chilly when the mist from the waterfalls sprayed us. It was quite windy and the waterfall blew in many different directions. It also changed its’ pattern down the rocks several times. While we were there, a youth group from Mississippi came by. There were nine boys aged 10-13 who had hiked with the one youth group leader from the North Rim down. The other youth group leader and two other boys showed up about an hour later. The group was on vacation for a week and half visiting different national parks. They stayed for a little bit and then hiked back out the North Rim…definitely a long hike for one day, especially when leaving in the middle of the day when the heat was the worse. We walked up the side of the waterfall, took pictures mid way up behind the waterfall, and as we were hiking out, we wound up meeting a family that was camping right beside us at Bright Angel. All the campers were super friendly and very willing to share their hiking adventure stories/advice.

We headed back across the shortcut, which was walking through lots of water and rough, unmarked desert paths. As we headed back through the box, we dipped our hats in the water several times to keep us cool. After about 10-15 minutes, our completely soaked hats were dry. Fortunately for us, there was a breeze while we were hiking, which helped offset some of the heat. Because the breeze was very strong, we started to get worried that our tent had blown away as the ground was too hard to stake it down. We didn’t see anyone during the whole trip back. When we exited the desert section and entered the cavern section, Jeanette saw one deer up the canyon above the path. Ed saw several deer below the path. As we were walking, a buck started running towards us. Ed realized we were blocking their escape route, so we slowly backed up and let the deer pass before continuing on. It was a little scary since the path is very narrow and there were approximately 5 bucks with antlers, 2 babies, and a doe that appeared to be charging us. Luckily, they just wanted to get to the other side of the canyon to climb up with their friend. We arrived back at the campsite around 6:30 to finish our 17 mile hike on our “rest” day. Fortunately, our tent was still there.

We then ate dinner and cooled off in the creek, since our campsite seemed was one of the hottest places in the whole canyon. We headed over to the Phantom Ranch amphitheater to see the ranger show at 7:30, but no one showed up, including the ranger. We heard the canteen at Phantom Ranch had snacks, so we sat on benches outside there until it opened. It was nice and air conditioned inside. We shared a bagel and a snickers. We wound up speaking to two people from Fort Worth, Texas. The one guy had hiked the Grand Canyon many times. He had gone with 72 people on 30-40 trips. People asked him to go there and hike with him. While speaking with them, we found out that they were employees of Lockheed Martin. The experienced hiker told us about his uphill hiking technique, which is similar to the “Indian runs” we ran while playing soccer in high school. Essentially, one person would always be resting, while the others hiked. The lead hiker would rest while the others passed him, then he would start hiking when he got to the end of the line. He said that it worked and that if we saw him while we were hiking, we could definitely join him as the technique works better the more people you have. Around 9:00, we headed back to the campsite to go to bed. While getting ready for bed, Ed saw a rabbit and what he thought was a snake. He later realized it was the tail of a ring tailed fox. We tried to go to sleep, but it was incredibly hot, probably in the 90s, and even the occasional breeze had hot wind. We woke up at 4:00, after a restless night of very little sleep, started packing our things, ate breakfast, and headed out by 5:00. We were quite intimidated by the hike ahead of us as it was a 9.5 vertical hike. Jeanette’s foot was hurting quite badly as she had a blister that became infected on her heel right where it rubs against the shoe every time you take a step. Ed started the hike wearing his sandals to avoid hurting his blisters the entire hike.

We started the first 4.5 miles towards Indian Gardens campground. We had heard that this was the easiest part of the hike, except for Devil’s Corkscrew, which was very steep and windy. We started the hike along the Colorado River, going slightly up at an easy pace. After about a mile, we were very disappointed to find that we had to go down the same amount we had just gone up. As we started ascending again, we followed a creek, which was a different tributary to the Colorado River. We had to cross the creek several times during the trek. The first two and a half miles were fairly easy. Then we hiked Devil’s Corkscrew, which was as hard as the last 4.5 miles. We spoke with many people from Bright Angel campgrounds who were camping at Indian Gardens to break up the hike. Surprisingly, we finished the first half of the hike in 2 hours and fifteen minutes. We refilled our waters, ate some more breakfast, and rested for 45 minutes before heading out again. Although the rest of the hike was steep, there were rest houses every 1.5 miles. We made it to the next rest stop pretty quickly, in 50 minutes. We weren’t messing around with taking too many pictures. Instead, we hiked as fast as we could to avoid hiking the hardest part of the trail in the hottest part of the day. It seemed like this part of the trail was the easiest of the last 4.5 miles, but that may have been because we had the most energy. We refilled our water again and rested 10 minutes or so. We then proceeded to the next rest house. This part of the hike was much harder and we had to move over several times for mules to pass. The path smelled horrendous. It smelled like manure and the worst smell of urine ever! Maybe this is why people like to hike out the north rim…no mule smells!!! We spoke with a crazy, philosophical guy that we didn’t really understand everything he was saying. Pretty much the gist of his talk was to tell us that we would be profoundly changed by our hike in the Grand Canyon and that we should avoid gossip in real life. When Jeanette asked him how much longer to the next rest house, he did not give a straight answer. He just blabbered on about staying in the present moment and not worrying when the arrival would happen. Finally, he said we would be pleasantly surprised soon. We were…the rest house was only two more hills and curves up. We arrived at the next rest house in an hour. We stopped, ate, and drank water. We also spoke with a couple from Chicago who had attended the University of Wisconsin-Madison (they asked us about it as Ed was wearing a Wisconsin Hockey shirt). They had rafted in to Phantom Ranch and were walking the 9.5 miles out. After resting for a little bit, we continued on our journey up.

The last mile and a half was really hard for us. Our feet were aching, the backpacks seemed quite heavy, the trail was quite steep and windy, and it was getting warmer. A few other couples and we took turns passing each other as we took many rests along this part of the trip. Some of the couples were just day hikers while others were making the long hike up. We met two other families that were from Madison, WI along the way. At the campsite, we had met other people from Madison too. So, there were lots of Madison-ites present. We had to move over one more time for the mule pack to pass by. Finally, we saw the end. Once we got up there, we walked another .5 miles back to the car. So, despite a few pesky blisters, we made it out rather unscathed. It was a great feeling to finally take the backpacks off and change our shoes. We unloaded some stuff, got in the car, drove to Market Plaza to return our hiking poles, and headed back towards Flagstaff in search of food. We were starving and Pizza Hut lunch buffet sounded delicious. We looked for nearby restaurants in our handy Tom-Tom (affectionately called Ed-Ed, our GPS system – thank you Ed’s work friends) and found one halfway between the Grand Canyon and Flagstaff. The food tasted delicious! We had breadsticks and half pepperoni-half cheese stuffed crust pizza. After eating, we headed to a different Quality Inn in Flagstaff.

After checking in, we immediately took showers and took an hour long nap. We didn’t want to sleep too long because neither of us are nappers and we didn’t want to throw off our sleep schedule. After waking up, we decided to head to the movies. We went to see Sex and the City (lucky Ed). Although the movies were only .2 miles away, we got lost and it took us about fifteen minutes to find. We got there a little late, but it was okay because we missed most of the previews before the movie started. The movie was okay. Jeanette thought the show was better, but it was definitely watchable…probably better to rent. After the movies, we went to Target to find cleaning supplies for the camera and video camera, which had become quite dusty after the Grand Canyon excursion. We picked up the supplies, got a bite to eat at Wendy’s (yes, we are very healthy eaters), and headed back to the hotel. We watched TV for a little bit (Mets v. Arizona baseball game) and went to sleep.

We woke up the next morning at 6:00. We ate breakfast and headed towards Los Angeles. For the first little bit of the drive between Arizona and California, it was the most desolate strip we’ve been on since western Texas. The drive wasn’t super scenic either as it was all desert and a few mountains, although they looked like big dirt piles…just our opinion of course. We stopped for lunch and ate at a place called Firehouse Italian because it looked better than fast food. After eating a chicken parmesan sub and mozzarella sticks (way healthier than fast food by the way), we filled up with gas that cost $4.99 a gallon, and drove to Los Angeles. We lucked out with the traffic, hitting very little. There was a lot going in the other direction and it was just starting to pile up in our direction…yet we made it to our hotel rather quick.