Grand Canyon

Ever since Scottie and I starting talking about this trip, we had a couple of items on our bucket list, and the rest was just filler.  Today was about getting all up in our bucket as we dared to attempt to hike down and back up the Grand Canyon South Rim along the South Kaibab and Bright Angel Trails despite the well heeded warnings on the NPS website, shuttles, and the various guidebooks we read.

In my last post, I left off with our "spaghetti dinner" and trip to the "General Store".  From there, we returned to our lodge to pack our sacks for the day.  Here's the list of items we packed/wore (food/water are doubled  for both of us):

• 6 PB&J sandwiches (1 for breakfast, 1 for lunch, and 1 for mid-day snack)
• 2 bags of Trail Mix
• 2 bags of Turkey Jerky
• 4 Clif Bars, 2 Mojo Clif Bars
• 8 Clif Energy Gels
• 3 Liters Electrolyte Water / 3 Liters Water (in Camelbak)
• 2 Liters Gatorade
• Sunscreen / Chap-stick 
• Band-Aids / Neosporin / Soap Bar
• Wet Wipes / Hand Sanitizer (handy for the bathroom) 
• 2 Flashlights / Compass
• 2 Hiking books / Maps
• Bandanna / Hats / Sunglasses
• Pants / Shorts / Long Sleeve Shirts / Short Sleeve Shirt (all Under Armour-like dry-fit) 
• Non-chafing Underwear! 
• Keen Shoes / 2 pairs Hiking Socks 
• Fleece (for me!)
• SLR Camera / Point-and-Shoot Digital Camera / Telescopic Lens / Gorillapod Tripod
• 2 iPhones and wallets!
• A plastic trash bag

In the end, we pretty much justified all that we packed except the telescopic lens, which we really didn't use and weighed us both down (especially Scottie on the way up!).  I probably didn't need to bring my fleece, but we figured if something were to happen, it was nice to have the additional layer of clothing in the sack.  We also didn't end up using all the energy gels and trail mix, but again, always better to have extra food.

In lieu of the morning shower, we showered after packing and forced ourselves to sleep at 11:30 p.m. since we knew 4 a.m. would come very quickly.  When we checked in, the gal informed us that we could take the first Village Route (blue line) shuttle stop at 4:30 a.m. to the Bright Angel Lodge stop and transfer to the Hiker's Express shuttle (out to the South Kaibab Trailhead) at 5 a.m.  It was only later while on the Hiker's Express, did we figure out that we could have taken the Village Route in the opposite direction to the Grand Canyon Visitor's Center to transfer to the  Hiker's Express shuttle. Oh well. Here's a link to the full shuttle map routes.

Here's a map of the South Kaibab Trail, where as you can see they recommend only going to the Skeleton Point in one day.  But we kept going to the tip-off, crossing both suspension bridges (bypassing Phantom Ranch), and back up along the Bright Angel Trail to the Bright Angel Trailhead.  Our official start time was 5:32 a.m at 7,260 feet.  After the first mile down along the switchbacks (basically hiking in a zigzag pattern along a steep descent versus going directly down), the early morning hiking crew thinned out and Scottie and I were pretty much at our own pace along the 5 miles down.  Some photos below of the various lookouts/destinations:

Ooh Aah Point

Cedar Ridge

Skeleton Point

As you can see, if we only stopped at Skeleton Point, we would received only a glimpse at the Colorado River.  But we really enjoyed these next two viewpoints:

Tipoff

Panorama Point

Kaibab Suspension Bridge

At approximately 8:41 a.m., we arrived at the Colorado River, 5,200 feet from the  South Kaibab Trailhead.  

We spent a good hour taking in the scenery at the bottom of the Grand Canyon dipping our feet in the Colorado River and eating a very early "lunch".  Bypassing the Phantom Ranch, we headed towards the Silver Bridge to begin our ascent along the Bright Angel Trail.  While the South Kaibab was more scenic and steep, the Bright Angel is more populated, longer, less steep, and includes more water stations (and more importantly, bathrooms).  We found out though why the Bright Angel Trail is longer as we had to spend a good mile or so hiking up and down along the Colorado before we really headed inward toward the rim.

This trail had some devilish corkscrews as the switchbacks were named along this trail plus another set of switchbacks called Jacob's Ladder that somehow we survived.

The last 3 miles were probably the hardest, but we had this view above along the way!

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8 hours, 45 minutes later and approx 15.5 miles, we completed the trek down and up the canyon!  Safely back at our lodge, we cracked open our Grand Canyon Brewery beers that we picked up at the General Store!  And then we napped before having a classy dinner at the El Tovar Lodge Dining Room, which was by far, the nicest place to get a meal for miles. Unfortunately, after my beer here, I was wiped, and did my best Noah-like pose of eating while nodding off.  But from what I do remember, my Spinach and Endive Salad and Wild Alaskan Sustainable Salmon Tostada on Organic Greens were fantastic.  Well-earned!

The next morning, we headed out to the Hermit's Road 7-mile scenic route with 9 stops along a free park shuttle (Hermit's Rest Route).  While we had to wait about 15-20 minutes before getting on our first shuttle, once on the route, it was much easier to jump on and off shuttles or simply walk between some of the stops.  If our legs were not tight from our 15.5 mile hike, we probably would have rented bikes for the route.

Our favorite spot along this route was at Pima Point.where we had excellent views of the Colorado River.

Day 3 and Day 4 complete!  See more photos from our adventures in the Las Vegas and the Grand Canyon in my photo album.