Dave & Dru's Travels The Grand Canyon

The Grand Canyon is obviously always breathtaking. One walks to the edge and peers over, overwhelmed by its grandeur, amazed that such a thing could have happened. We were at the south rim, the more popular side. We were determined to do a lot of walking and that we did, hiking over eight miles of the twelve-mile rim trail. One thing is for sure: mid-May is an excellent time of year to visit. Once out of the village area, there were no crowds. As we walked the rim trail, there were times that we thought we had the whole park to ourselves. Also, the weather is good in May. The temperature was in the mid 80s even though the sun was bright. What is the most spectacular feature of the Grand Canyon you might ask? The startling answer: lack of cell phones. Not once will you have to endure some inconsiderate idiot walking around loudly blabbering into his or her phone as though he or she were the only one who exists. Not once as you sit and contemplate the magnificence of God's creation will you hear a cell phone's ringing intrusively interrupt your moment of peace. Cell phones don't work here. Alleluia! Definitely my kind of place.

The picture above left looks down into the canyon at the Bright Angel trail. If you look closely, you can spot the mules on the trail coming out of the canyon. This is the trail on which they take tourists down into the canyon. For a mere $150 you can trust your life to a mule and enjoy a picnic lunch at the bottom overlooking the Colorado River. Hopefully lunch includes generous portions of fortifying spirits!

Probably the most interesting thing we did was to hike a little way down into the canyon ourselves. None of that mule stuff for us. At the first switch back you can peer over and see the trail clinging to the cliff below, seen in the photo on the left. Naturally, they caution you to pace yourself, especially on the climb back out. There is good motivation to do so. If you become ill and can't make it, they send the mules down for you. Mega bucks. And now you are entrusting your life to an unhappy mule who thought it was through for the day. We chose the South Kaibab trail, which is about a mile east of the eastern end of the rim trail. Judge for yourself, but I suspect this trail is narrower than the Bright Angel trail. However, it seems to be the favorite of those who are hiking all the way down to camp for the night. Again, it is good to be there before the summer crowds so you aren't constantly meeting and sidestepping people as you hike along. We thought it would take 2-3 times as long to hike back up as it took to go down, but that proved not to be the case. One reason was there is gravel on the trail so there is a tendency to slide as you go down. This can be unsettling with the edge so near so one tends to cling a bit to the cliff.

We hiked down to what is called Ooh Aah Point, very appropriately named. It's 1.5 miles round trip with an elevation drop of over 700 feet. The photo above left was taken about half way down and looks back up at the trail winding back and forth across the face of the rock. Awesome. The photo above right looks back up at the rim towards the visitor's center. One of the tourist vistas is at the right edge of the picture and no doubt there were people there peering at us through their binoculars wondering if we were going to move. Here come the mules! Lower left shows the supply mules coming out of the canyon, returning from taking supplies down to Phantom Ranch down at the river. Fortunately, we were at a switchback and didn't have to get out of their way, but you can see there isn't much room. We understand that the mule master tells hikers to stand motionless on the outer edge of the trails, saying nothing so as not to spook the mules. Stay silent until they pass. Our assistant priest tells the tale that as he complied with those directions, one of the mules came along side, stopped, looked at him, and proceeded to urinate profusely, liberally splattering him. He gritted his teeth and endured it. After all, the edge was mere inches behind him. Back to the tour. On the lower right is Dru gazing out from Ooh Aah Point. I tried to get her to climb up onto the rocks for a better view, but she wouldn't have anything to do with that.

With great trepedation I did manage to perch myself on another nearby rock, clinging securely. However, I'm surprised that Dru didn't make me give her the car keys before I scrambled up there. (She did that when I insisted on taking the tram across the Royal Gorge in Colorado!) The right picture above shows one of the views I had of the South Kaibab trail as it continued to wind its way down to the bottom and on to the Colorado River. Below left looks back up the trail showing us standing at the fairly steep beginning of the way to the top. An hour and 0.75 miles later we emerged victoriously at the rim, truly awed by all that we had seen. We paused half way up to capture the scenic view lower right.

That's our sample of the Grand Canyon. Needless to say, we had a "grand" time. The next trip there we hope to visit the north rim instead. When you go, try to avoid the heavy tourist summer months. Think the month of May (or perhaps mid-September). The first part of our adventure in Arizona included a visit to Sedona and the Petrified Forest Back to our Home Page