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. :)

The Hike of Hikes: Part 3 - The Ascent

Technically, upon reaching the south side of the Bright Angel Bridge, we weren't at the Bright Angel Trail yet. Although following the signs would get us there.

For a mile or so we were following what was called the "River Trail;" that is, the trail that goes along the river for aways before heading up the canyon. We thought this part would be a nice and easy stretch, allowing us to see the river and take in the great views. That's what we thought until we got going and discovered that the trail was all SAND! If you've ever tried walking/hiking/running/moving forward in any way on dry sand, you know that it's a good way to make a nice, flat stretch hard. Seriously, there is no rest for the weary. I decided to adopt a motto for when things got harder later of, "Well, at least the trail isn't sand." (I hoped...)


(Of course, note that the trail did not in any way touch the river...that is, the sand is not a result of us walking along the shore of the water.)

But we were still able to take in the beautiful river views.





I took that last picture to get an idea of how far down the river at one point, but the effect is hard to capture on a 2D photo. Oh well.

Apparently the river was originally not so green and clear. I suppose you'd expect a river who makes it a point to erode away a big canyon to be full of dirt/sand/silt/mud/etc. Turns out the river DID used to be quite muddy. In fact, that's why it was named "Colorado," since that's Spanish for "colored." (Okay, I'm just quoting one of the guide books...another said it meant "red," though I thought the Spanish word for red was "rojo." Eh, my Spanish is bad. Google translator also said "Colorado" means "red.") Anyway, then they built the Glen Canyon dam (the one that created Lake Powell) and it drastically changed the amount of silt in the river, hence changing its color from being muddy to being more clear. It's also threatened some of the natural species in the river that aren't used to living in such clean water. Go figure.

The place where the Bright Angel Trail separates from the River Trail is called River Junction. We weren't really sure when we had reached this point. There was somewhat of a fork in the road, and to be honest, I wasn't even sure we were going the right direction for a little while. But we figured as long as we took the trail that went away from the river, we were okay. Although at some point we passed some other hikers going down and verified that we were, in fact, on the Bright Angel Trail. (Whew!)

There is a stream running along parts of the trail. Sometimes the trail crosses over the stream. I had on pretty worn out shoes, and didn't want to walk through water in them, if I could avoid it. (Mainly because they have holes in the sides and I didn't want to get my socks wet. Remember all that dirt on my legs? I would have mud in my shoes after not too long. That and I don't like walking in wet socks.) Upon coming to our first river, Michelle went first, making sure there was a safe path on the rocks. I have such a brave roommate!


That wasn't the only stream we had to cross. Another spot was a bit trickier, but some nice hikers taking a rest and going down lent us their hiking poles to get across. That was nice of them. In some my feet got a bit wet, but it wasn't bad. We also took advantage of the streams to wet our bandannas: mine around my head, Michelle's around her neck. Doing that helped keep us cool. That felt nice!

If there's one thing the trails in the Grand Canyon have a lot of, it's switchbacks. Of course this makes sense since they have to cover a huge elevation change in a small amount of horizontal change. There were a lot on the South Kaibab trail and there were a lot on the Bright Angel trail. A few on the Bright Angel trail had names. The first we encountered was called "Devil's Corkscrew." I took this picture of what I think this was it. After getting through them I just referred to them as the "Devilish Switchbacks." We figured they were named such because they make you feel like you're where the devil is. :)


But the views kept being beautiful, as we got higher with respect to the canyon walls. Although I would say the biggest difference between the two trails we took is that the views on the South Kaibab are much more wide open, while the Bright Angel takes you through more gorges and such.






Upon completing the hike, I noticed just how many "look at the trail we already hiked!" pictures I took, especially on the Bright Angel Trail. I'm pretty sure this was because the hike was feeling a lot harder at this point, and it was just so satisfying (not to mention inspiring!) to see how far we'd come rather than how far we still had to go. Here are pictures I took that include shots of the trail that we'd already covered at different points in the hike.





The stretch between the River Junction and Indian Gardens (which was our first major checkpoint on the way up, where we planned a rest) was about 3 miles. There wasn't much in there to gauge ourselves on, though the map had a couple points of interest marked (including the Devilish Switchbacks and some rock formations). Though we were never 100% sure of those points on the map. So all the factors of distance, heat, having been out for several hours, and uphill-ness made those 3 miles seem long. We did stop a few times to drink water and rest. And I usually studied the map. We were so glad we had these maps, not because we were worried about getting lost, but because it was really nice to know where we were, what was coming up on the trail (i.e., major switchback warnings), and estimating distances. I'd usually study the maps during our breaks.



Not too far of a drop off here, comparatively speaking. But still really steep!


A pretty waterfall.


The landscape started changing again as we approached Indian Gardens. There were suddenly a lot more trees. (They provided some very welcomed shade at that point!)



Indian Gardens is the halfway point of the Bright Angel Trail. It's also the absolute farthest they recommend you go on a day hike. Therefore, just below it, as the guide book promised, was another "Do not attempt to hike to the river and back in one day" warning sign. Since we were hiking it up, seeing that sign was an indication that we had nearly arrived at Indian Gardens. This is me with the sign saying, "Well, what are you going to do?"


Arriving at Indian Gardens was such a welcomed sight!


We'd planned to make the stop at Indian Gardens an extensive one. We really hydrated and refilled water bottles, and ate again. ("Double the calories, double the fun!" That's what the park Hiking Guide said anyway. :) ) We also took the opportunity to take off our shoes (wow, our legs were getting even dirtier!), and relax. Oh, and after we'd been sitting there for awhile we saw Our Friends again! That was the last time we saw them.


Another hiker was really happy to take a picture of us relaxing and getting ready for the next stretch of our hike. I think this picture is great.


One of our Austin friends, Mike, was really thoughtful and put together a hiking care package for Michelle and me. It included several things, many of which we enjoyed on our trip/hike, including these sweet and salty peanut granola bars. (Even if they were a tad bit melted once we finally ate them.) They tasted good and provided us with lots of good energy to keep going! We took these pictures for Mike to know that we thoroughly enjoyed his package.



We saw the Indian Gardens sign on the way out. It points one way, but we're heading the other way!


This thermometer was on the way out of Indian Gardens. Don't worry, it was not that hot. I think it's broken. It was more like 80 degrees. The high at the river that day was 89. (High on the rim was 70, so Indian Gardens had to have been somewhere in between. It at least wasn't 110.)


Once we were rested, rejuvinated, and convinced our feet it was okay to go back in our shoes, we were on our way back up the trail again!



Okay. So we had 4.5 miles of uphill hiking left to get to the trailhead. There were resthouse every 1.5 miles. Views continued to be beautiful...



...the trail continued to curve around (in that second one, I wondered if it was going to run into that mountain, as I couldn't see where it curved!)...



...the rim continued to get lower (i.e., closer)...


...and the switchbacks continued to loom...


But we conquered them!


Parts of the trail were steep....



...and sometimes seemed never ending....


...but the views were totally worth it!!



(Not to mention that we were really thankful that by this point it was much cooler and we were hiking in the shade the rest of the way. I essentially took my sunglasses off at this point.)

We managed to make it to the 3 Mile Resthouse! (Just 3 miles from the trailhead.)



After taking the above picture, we realized that we were at Mile 13 of our hike, so we decided to call this the "13 Mile Resthouse." Michelle made the modification.


Me and the canyon as we continued up.


I thought this was a neat rock formation.


The canyon continues to be beautiful. (And does it so well.)


Continuing along. Do I look tired in this picture? I was getting there...


This was the 1 1/2 Mile Resthouse. Michelle was slightly annoyed that reaching the restrooms required walking up stairs. I agree...who thought that was a good idea?


Since it's a resthouse, we also rested for a few minutes. Sometime around this point, Michelle realized she got cell phone reception. Which is really funny, since she didn't get it at the hotel! Go figure. She had a voicemail message from her mom, whom she tried to call back, but didn't answer. So she called her dad and chatted for a minute or two. How funny!

We continue on...here's a picture of me turning another switchback. Rather than smiling, I conserved the energy. I wanted to make it the rest of the way!

Sunset begins at the canyon. Last night we enjoyed sunset from on the rim at a few of the lookout points. Tonight we were enjoying it from below the rim, trying to race the sun to the trailhead.



These steep cliffs are so amazing!


There was a set of switchbacks called "Jacob's Ladder." I can't remember if it was these or the ones earlier. At any rate, did I mention there were a lot of switchbacks? And this hiker guy caught up to us and offered us some free hiking advice as he passed: "Shorten your stride." I don't think President Kimball would agree. :)


Me and "Tunnel #2." What's so special about this tunnel? I don't know. To me, it was special because it meant we were getting really, really close to the trailhead!


I mentioned that we chose to take the Bright Angel Trail up because it was not as steep as the South Kaibab Trail. I also clarified that such a statement was relative, not absolute. That is to say, I wasn't saying the Bright Angel was not steep. I was just saying the Kaibab was steeper. I say this, and I believed it, but I'm not sure I had internalized it. The park guide clearly said, "Remember, there are no easy trails into or out of the Grand Canyon." So yes, Kaibab was steeper, but Bright Angel was still steep. Especially as we began to tire. We turned the corner of a switchback only to be greeted by this:

I called it the "You've got to be kidding" stretch.

But look how close we're getting to the top!


As the sun continues to set and darkness thickens (but we're not in complete darkness yet!!), we saw this sign just a few trail twists and turns away. I thought for sure it was the trailhead sign and I took a picture to celebrate "the best thing I've seen all day."


So, what was it? This sign:


Gah! Foiled again!

However, do you recognize that sign from two other places in the hike? (At the beginning of South Kaibab and just below Indian Gardens.) We took pictures at all 3, and this time rejoiced in having conquered the canyon (despite the sign).

We continue to race the sun out of the canyon.


If there's a Tunnel #2, there's a Tunnel #1. It's getting so dark you can barely see me and it!


Okay, so now I thought for sure this sign in the distance was the trailhead sign. What was it?

This sign. Foiled again!


Okay, but this time for sure! This really was the last leg of the trail. We could see the railing. We made it!


And we celebrated at the trailhead sign! (Though I was confused as to why there wasn't a sign that specifically read "Trailhead." Oh well!)


We exited the trailhead a few minutes after 8:00pm, almost exactly 12 hours after we started.

We took the free shuttle back to our car. We could barely wait to sit down at the shuttle bus stop, and were glad there were other people there talking loudly about "why isn't the shuttle here yet?" so we knew just when it got there without having to look around and move.

The shuttle was a bit crowded and we didn't get a seat for a stop or two. Here we are once we did. I should have smiled in this picture. I don't know why I didn't. (I could have easily. I think I was just trying to be dramatic. I also should have taken it again.)

Near where the shuttle dropped us off, we had to stop and get pictures by all the discouraging signs. Just to prove that we defied them. (Though later I forgot to take a picture by the vomiting sign. I should have!)



We were so happy to have made it! We did have to use the flashlight to find out way from the shuttle stop to the car, it was really dark by that point. On our way back to the hotel, we attempted to find dinner. We agreed to eat anything that wasn't fast food. It was after 9:00 and almost everywhere that fit that criteria was closed. We saw that the buffet at the Best Western was still open, so we searched for a parking space (and upon not finding one, parked illegally in a bus parking space), hobbled in (did I mention we were starting to feel sore?), and found out it was about $20 each. That's when we decided we weren't that hungry and went back to our hotel. (We had a bit of food there anyway.)

Here are our dirty legs once the hike was over. Wow! (No, you can't claim any of this color is sun. If it is, it's maybe a 99/1 ratio, dirt to sun.) It took some scrubbing in the shower! (Oh the shower...it never felt so good!)



But how did we feel?!

Fantastic!!

Best hike ever.