The Grandest Canyon - Part II

Brian was awakened in the middle of the night by footsteps 10 feet from our tent. Then a loud knocking sound commenced and he opened the screened "window" of our tent to reveal the giant elk banging its antlers against a nearby tree. According to him, it was snacking on pine cones as they fell.  He stayed awake for an hour watching the creature (and making sure we were not trampled in our tent) until the elk moved on...

He relayed this story to me when I woke him at 4:30 AM to get to the canyon in time to watch the sunrise. Included in the $25 per vehicle park entrance fee is transportation via a network of shuttle buses powered by natural gas that make it very easy to get around.  We drove to the bus terminal in the dark and hopped on the Orange Line to get to Yaki Point.  

From Yaki Point, we watched in awe as the sun crested over the East Rim of the canyon. It was truly breathtaking to see the orange glow gradually stream its light into the depths of the canyon below. Granted, most of the sunrises I've seen lately were not for pure pleasure, (on the way to the airport to catch an early flight, or competing in a triathlon) but this one was like nothing I've ever witnessed. I am still learning to use my Canon EOS Rebel T3 in unfamiliar lighting/circumstances, and I don't think it is possible to capture the true beauty, but I had fun trying.

We returned to camp to cook some protein for breakfast and prepare for a morning hike.  We took the shuttle west and made our way to the Bright Angel Trailhead to begin our decent.  We had decided to do the 3-mile round trip, a decent of 1,140 feet.  The switch-back trail was gentle for the first 1/2 mile, then became moderately steep.  It was a pleasant journey on the way down, and we stopped to admire the scenery and take pictures along the way.

Being inside the canyon felt like a different world, more up close and personal, even though we could still barely make out the trees at the bottom.

The trail cutting down the right wall of the canyon

Just before we reached our turnaround

We reached the mile-and-a-half rest house, our turnaround point, in about 40 minutes and stopped to eat a protein bar and refill our water bottles.  It was 8:00 AM and only 70 degrees, but the elevation change had us short of breath so we rested a few minutes before beginning our ascent back up to the rim.  We were mentally prepared for a challenge, but in a matter of feet we were breathing hard and sweating profusely.  So we took it slow and rested when we needed to, hydrating along the way.  Step by step, we climbed back out of the canyon.  When we reached the top around 9:40, we were both exhausted and exhilarated!!!

Thanks to my sister Jenna for letting me borrow her boots!

The next question was... now what?  We had a reservation to stay at our campsite another night, but the canyon had beat us into submission, so more hiking (or physical activity of any sort) was pretty much out of the question, and it was only 10:00 AM.  We decided it was probably time for us to move on, so we broke camp and much to our surprise, when we checked out they refunded our money for that night!

Now the question was, where do we go now?  The next stop on our itinerary was supposed to be Moab, Utah, but I had not showered in three days and the thought of driving five and half hours and camping again made me want to cry a little.

The Grandest Canyon - Part I

Yesterday we said farewell to Sedona and made our way two hours north to the South Rim of the Grand Canyon. We are definitely getting the hang of this camping stuff. When we arrived at the park, we made straight for our site to set up camp. Good thing too, because it was raining when returned for the evening.  It seems the rain has been following us since Santa Fe, and so have the cooler temps, which we are grateful for. The week before we started our journey the Weather Channel was predicting possible record highs in this part of the country so we were preparing ourselves to be sweating in our tents!  Instead, the lows at night have been in the 60's, and with the ground temps even cooler, we've had to bundle up.  Luckily we packed more clothes than we thought we would ever wear... just in case!

After staking our claim, we headed to the Grand Canyon Village and rented bicycles from the Bright Angels Bicycles.  I had read that this was a good way to avoid the crowds in the summer as well as get a variety of vantage points from the canyon's rim. We road the shuttle to Hopi Point and continued west 5.5 miles to Hermit's Rest. The view from our handlebars was truly incredible!  With the wind in our hair, we felt the kind of thrill you'd get as a kid going top speed down hill!  We pulled over at different spots to admire the canyon's magnificent beauty. There was very little traffic and at times we felt like we had the place to ourselves.

At the end of our trek we handed over our bikes and made our way to Mather Point to take pictures as the rain was rolling in over the canyon.

Next, we stopped at the General Store to buy some groceries and postcards.  We returned to our campsite and hid out in the tent waiting for the rain to stop so Brian could grill our burgers.  In the meantime, we noticed two people about 50 yards away hiding behind some trees.  As we tried to figure out who they were playing hide-and-seek with, one of them took several stealthy steps forward and I noticed he was holding a camera.  As we followed his gaze through the woods, we saw an animal the size of a compact car... an elk with gigantic antlers was roaming our campground!

It turns out there we three of them, and they were far less surprised to see us than we were to see them!  I grabbed my zoom lens and played photographer from a safe distance...  So cool!

Check back soon for Part II of The Grandest Canyon adventure...