The Hike of Hikes - Epilogue

I wanted to add one final chapter to the saga of hiking the Grand Canyon. The above two pictures are sort of a summary of our battle wounds. Michelle had sores from her shoes, and we both had incredibly sore muscles. (Climbing over rocks like I am in the second picture was remarkably painful.) My calves were crying for at least three or four days. This was all despite stretching as much as I could.

As we were hiking out of the canyon, we talked about perhaps spending our last day doing one of the day hikes, hiking down to Plateau Point (which is 1.5 miles out from Indian Gardens) because we didn't get to during The Ascent when we went through Indian Gardens. Of course, that idea was quickly vetoed the next morning since walking around the "relatively" flat Rim Trail was hard (well, painful is a better description); we knew making the 12-mile round trip hike down and back up the Bright Angel Trail to Plateau Point would have been nigh unto impossible. (Maybe next time.) Our only real goal for the day was to make it to breakfast in the hotel before they cleaned it up.

We did make it to breakfast (though later than the day before), and upon returning to our room afterwards, we almost immediately crawled back in our respective beds and went back to sleep. We slept until we had to get up and pack up to be out by checkout time (i.e., 11:00). We then spent the rest of the day back in the park, checking out some of the observation points. This picture shows one of the rare places that you can actually see the river from the rim. (Look hard...it's there, I promise. Right in the middle.)


Before going to the Grand Canyon, several people told me that pictures cannot entirely capture the immensity of it; that it can't be fully appreciated until you see it in person. Even then, it's still hard to internalize. You stand on the rim and look out, and it's hard to comprehend it. You can't reach out and touch the other side. You can't really grasp what it means when they say such-and-such a rock formation formed over a billion years ago, or even a million years ago. The numbers, the years, the dimensions of the canyon are too overwhelming to fully and completely understand. But we're human and our minds are finite, so we'll just do our best.

They say that you cannot begin to appreciate the scale of the Grand Canyon until you attempt to hike it. I agree with that. The river in the above picture looks like it's tiny, and so far away. It was crazy to stand on the rim this time and think, "Wow, we were totally down there at this time yesterday. How is that possible?" (Then my muscles reminded me.)

There are lots of reasons why I thought hiking the canyon was so cool. Though they're largely personal, some are more personal than others. First and foremost, I'm proud of being in the physical shape to have done it. That might sound dumb, but five years ago, doing this would have been impossible. If anyone reads this and thinks, "Gosh, what a cool hike. I wish I could do something like that. Too bad I can't. I can't even do XYZ," I want you to correct your thinking. Being out of shape today is not a sentence for the future; our bodies are pretty forgiving, and have the ability to be changed. (Though obviously if your excuse is something unchangeable like bad knees or missing limbs, then that doesn't apply to you.)

Secondly, I was glad to go with my roommate, Michelle. Originally, I'd planned to go to the canyon after an observing run at Kitt Peak, and I'd planned to go alone. (Despite the fact that it would be about a seven hour drive to get there, in the west, that's considered being "in the neighborhood;" I jest, but only slightly.) I knew I wanted to do this hike, and I was considering doing it alone. Don't worry, I hadn't made serious plans at that, it was just another one of my crazy ideas. (If you know me, you know I have many.) I didn't even know what the rim-to-river-and-back hike entailed. But having Michelle there too made it even more possible so I didn't have to add "getting lost and not having anyone know" to the list of things to worry about. We had a really great time. Michelle is a great roommate and a great friend. Yay Michelle! :)



And thirdly, I was glad for the hike because it helped Michelle and I get to know the canyon in a way that most people don't get to. First of all, the views from the rim are just the beginning. I mentioned before that it seemed like a new hike every few miles. It's true! The rocks change, the views change, the vegetation changes. It's a geological wonder, and we got to experience it layer-by-layer, both down and back up. Second of all, the river. There's a river down there! And it's big, not small like it looks from the rim. And it's beautiful. And the rocks at the bottom are pink and black and shimmers in the sunlight. Who gets to see that? Such a small fraction of the visitors to the canyon. And now we are in the club.

When I was talking about having completed the hike, a friend asked me if she thought the park should lift the strong warning about doing the whole hike in one day. (That is, discourage rim-to-river-and-back less severely.) I thought about it for a minute and ultimately don't think they should. Mostly because I see it from the side of the National Park System; if hiking rim-to-river-and-back was on the list of day hikes, they'd have soooo many people attempting it. People who aren't prepared for what's in store. The canyon is big. The hike is hard. But the hike is awesome, and I wouldn't discourage anyone from doing it as long as they feel physically up to it and do it smart, like we did, and know full well what they're getting into. (That is, an entire day (quite literally) of hiking, and some pretty sore muscles.) Now if we were talking about doing the rim-to-river-and-back in one day from the north rim, I might have a different answer. (That hike is 28 miles round trip.) But I didn't do that one, so I have no opinion that counts for anything.

So yes, I conquered the Grand Canyon. How do I feel about it? Amazing. Proud. Accomplished. Excited. Strong. And lots of other positive adjectives. It was amazing. And that barely begins to describe it.

I hope to return to the Grand Canyon someday. My next goal? Rim-to-rim. In one day? That I don't know. I guess it depends on whether or not the campgrounds are already booked up and how spur of the moment my next trip there is. :)