Grand Canyon National Park

We arrived to Grand Canyon later in the afternoon, approaching from the East. After reading the park map we decided to stop at a few overlooks on the way to the campground, which was still 20 miles into the park... our first views of Grand Canyon! None of the literature refers to it as 'The Grand Canyon', only 'Grand Canyon'. Now I know!

Our first stop was Desert View, which had a beautiful stone Watchtower, designed by the (female!) Architect Mary Coulter. She designed quite a few buildings in the park, each looking like they had been there forever, each feeling so at one with its surroundings... without feeling forced or put on. The overlook was very busy but had a beautiful view both up and down the Colorado river. I have to comment on how good of a job the civil engineers and landscape architects did of providing parking and easy sidewalk navigation in a logical layout around overlooks, visitor centers, and attractions. Most of the time...

We got back on the scenic drive and continued west, stopping at Navajo, Lipan, Moran, and Grandview Points. Each was very beautiful in the late afternoon sun. There were finally some clouds in the sky too, which was a welcome change. Look at us, complaining about bluebird sky days! What didn’t change – the wind. It was extremely windy -- So windy I had to stop walking to resist the wind while on one of the overlooks!

We set up camp at Mather Campground and were once again delighted by our neighbors... the loudest old man this side of the Mississippi was a hootin' and a hollerin', all night long... until 3AM when he loudly pondered "why's it so fuckin' cold!'. Gathering firewood from the forest (no), going to sleep with the fire still going... our neighbors were very poor stewards... The next day we overhead more of them would be coming -- it sounded like there was some sort of reunion happening. We pieced together that they had booked literally every single site around us. We were surrounded. Vitali couldn't take any more at that point and politely asked them if they could keep it down tonight. The younger brother asked his loud brother -- well, maybe, we could be quiet after 10PM? They ended up being very friendly and agreed to take their party a campsite down to where another part of the family was staying. Maybe 20 people ended up showing up and we were overjoyed they weren't playing beer pong right next to our camp.

On hiking.

I can imagine being one of the more popular National Parks that a lot of people come here not understanding what to expect on a hike into the canyon -- so the NPS doesn't give out any information on hiking in unless you ask. The main park map merely says 'Seek Advice' at trailheads that enter the canyon. We got our hands on the Hiking Guide and made a game plan -- we decided to do the Rim Trail the next day to get acquainted with this grandest of canyons and the South Kaibab Trail the day after.

We started at the Visitor Center early the next morning, planning on walking from there to Hermit's Rest and then riding the shuttle back (about 12 miles). We started walking and almost immediately passed a sign saying certain bus routes were not operating, including the blue route. It took me a few minutes before I realized that the blue route was the route we'd need to get from the transfer back to the Visitor Center.... darn it. We had to go back to our car and drive over to the Village and hike the rim trail starting at the first stop of the red route. The red route featured 9 stops at each of the 9 overlooks along this portion of the rim, the last stop being Hermit's Rest, being so named after a man who lived alone nearby (but was not a hermit), who helped build the trail down into the canyon from that point.

The views from the edge were beautiful, and we passed only a handful of people between bus stops the entire time. It was half paved too! Both Vitali and I were expecting Grand Canyon to be deeper, but neither of us expected how long or wide it was. The breadth of the canyon was awesome. Catching glimpses of the Colorado River far below was always a surprise and delight.

We met a nice older gentleman who was riding an electric bike on the same route. He said he'd been coming there for fifty years! And how it had changed, when cars were still allowed along this route during the summer, etc. He said it had changed for the better with the introduction of the shuttle. I had to agree it was nice not being swarmed with people and vehicles.

As we approached Hermit’s Rest the sky started to darken (we knew there would be thunderstorms in the afternoon so we got an early start), and JUST as we got on to the bus, it started to sleet. It snowed/rained/sleeted hard for the entire bus ride back, and by the time we were back at the first stop, the temperature had dropped 20 degrees. Luckily, the precipitation paused briefly while we walked back to the car. It ended up raining off and on the rest of the afternoon, and this allowed us to discover we have a small hole in our tent floor!

The next day, we decided to hike into the canyon. We chose the South Kaibab route versus Bright Angel just due to the topography – Bright Angel is tucked inside of a draw (as far as we wanted to go, to 3-mile rest house), so the view would not really change as you descend. South Kaibab however, goes out on to a ridge, and the views are not obscured by the adjacent canyon walls. We would stop and turn around at Skeleton Point. I was also hoping it would be less busy than Bright Angel too.

It ended up being a great hike! About 2,400’ of elevation loss/gain over 3 miles each way. Our splits coming back up were actually about the same as the way down, which shows how far we've come conditioning wise since we started the trip. A lot of inexperienced hikers though, at least on the upper portion to Ooh Aah Point.

The view from Skeleton Point was excellent. The view of the 'basement' rocks was much better (the very hard dark colored granite that the Colorado River is currently cutting through). You could also see down where Phantom Ranch was, which was pretty cool. Apparently the canyon floor is usually 25 degrees warmer than the rim! We would like to come back and do the Rim-to-Rim at some point. The lottery for Phantom Ranch is something like 18 months though...

That evening we walked along the rim near the Visitor Center to catch the sunset, which was well worth the wait.