Day Nine: The Grandest of Canyons

The four amigos decided that after a long day of traveling and setting up camp, they deserved a break and should just sleep in for a while… oh wait, that was what I dreamt.  The morning actually began at 3:30am when LT2’s headlamp shined brightly on our faces to wake us all up.  We were on the free shuttle by 4:15 and perched at Yaki Point promptly 15 minutes later waiting with baited breath.  Expectations were high after the sunset from the previous night, but sunrise did not disappoint.  The first rays shot over the North rim of the canyon, draping the land below in an array of stunning colors which left each of us speechless. 

After spending time to thoroughly digest what we had just experienced, we headed over to the South Kaibab Trailhead.  We skimmed over the multiple warnings about how dangerous hiking could be, many of which contained pictures of college age kids with messages such as “people who die in the canyon look just like this.”  One of them looked unsettlingly similar to the Captain.  Confident in our physical fitness after spending most of the past week sitting in a car, we began the trek.

The views from the path were stunning, as well as the view of the trail ahead itself.  The general consensus was that we were shocked how few other people were on the path.  Rather than having to shoulder our way past hordes of tourists, we often found ourselves alone for long stretches of the trail, occasionally passing a solitary hiker.  We eventually reached our end, Skeleton Point, 3 miles from where we started and 2,000 feet below the canyon rim.  As we sat on a cliff edge looking over a wide expanse of the canyon and began enjoying our lunch, we realized that it was only 7:50am and we should probably refer to it as breakfast.  We took our time to refuel, rehydrate, and take in the views.  About an hour after arriving we decided to begin the more arduous task of hiking out of the canyon.  Many a sign had warned that this could take two to three times as long as the hike down.

The hike up featured several more water breaks than the hike down, as well as many more tourist groups as we neared the top.  We were all very thankful for our early start to avoid such congestion.  We finally crested the canyon rim at 9:50am.  In total we traveled 6 miles, down and then back up 2,000 feet of elevation, and stopped for 50 minutes to eat breakfast in a little under 4 hours.  We also perfectly avoided the dangerous hiking hours of 10am to 4pm.  From the trailhead we walked the few miles along the canyon rim to the Visitors Center where the Ocho picked up four junior park ranger booklets.  Although we fell in the “11 and up” category, she was told that we might want to do a few more activities than required of that age group.

We were soon back at our established camp and taking afternoon naps to recharge.  Shortly before beginning an afternoon hike, we had to take in a “Critter Chat” park ranger program in order to fulfill to requirements for becoming a junior park ranger.  Ranger Laura was captivating and after waiting for a few of the more junior of the junior park rangers to go before us, we became official Grand Canyon Junior Park Rangers, having completed the entire booklet.  Badges in hand, we headed for the Bright Angel Trailhead.

Having already put in 6 miles on the day, we decided to do the 3 mile roundtrip hike with an elevation change of 1,000 feet for the afternoon.  The more crowded trail left us once again feeling glad that we had awoken so early for our first hike.  The masses did continue to thin as we progressed down the trail, and we were soon on our own again.  At our turn around spot 1.5 miles down, we were greeted by a wild ram on the path ahead.  We spent several minutes gazing upon him before a group coming up the path from below startled him off the path and into the cliffs above.  Several of us noted that the second hike out of the canyon on the day felt much tougher than the first, but we persevered and were soon once again on the canyon rim and happy with our hiking decision.

After a stop at the General Store, we took in our a second sunset, this time at Mojave Point in the company of several fine, local, Grand Canyon beers.  Once again, truly awestruck by nature, we headed back to camp, cracked open our Louisiana Purchase of Fireball Whisky, watched a quick episode of Mad Men to try and keep up with the real world, took in the night sky full of stars, and headed for bed, exhausted from a very long, very full, very awesome day.