Grand Canyon - WOW

I think I´ve seen pictures of the Grand Canyon before, although I´m not really sure.  In any case, I certainly was not ready for my first glimpse.  We were just driving into the park when suddenly the trees parted (how rosemantic) and it´s like someone has excavated somthing the size of a city out of the ground.  It´s incredibly impressive.

By the time we parked up it was about 5pm, and we spent ages sorting out our bags and what we were bringing down with us.  We started our adventure in the visitor centre, where we decided to check if it was at all sensible to start hiking down to Bright Angel Campground at almost 6.  Imagine our joy when we got there and realised that we weren´t on Mountain time, and it was only 20 to five.  Hurray!  But sunset was at 6.45, so we didn´t have that many hours of daylight left.  We spoke to a highly knowledgeable and informative woman who told us that we would be doing some of the hike in the dark, and gave us loads of info on the trail, where to be really careful, and where to camp if we didn´t make it to Bright Angel (which, as it turns out, was 4.5 hrs away, not 2hrs like we had thought).  We thanked her, and headed off with her rather flippantly-made comment in our ears - "Be careful, I don´t want to be reading about you tomorrow!"  Yeah, thanks for that.

So off we headed, like proper hikers, with the ´sweat management´shirts and everything, and enough food for tea tonight, breakfast in the morning, and snacks along the way.  After about 10 mins, we had our first ´incident´.  The path started to get quite narrow, and then all but disappeared.  When we had to manoeuvre ourselves around a rather large boulder with a sheer drop beside it, Nikki put her foot down.  "Guys, this is too dangerous, I´m going back."  We tried to persuade her that it would be fine, and that lots of people do the trail every day, and to try it for another 20 mins and if she didn´t like it then we´d go back.  Rick wasn´t entirely convinced either.  I gave Nikki a hand around the boulder, but up ahead didn´t look much better.  We stopped, had a bit of a look around, and decided that where we were couldn´t possibly link up with the trail we could see.  We turned back, and sure enough we had missed a 180 degree turn.  So basically Mike had tried to kill us, and I had actively encouraged it.

Back on track, we trekked on, spotting some toads and squirrels along the way, which led to an interesting insight into how Rick´s mind works, in the form of another ´Rickism´- "If I was a squirrel I´d live here, it´s way better than my back yard!"

Sure enough, as predicted, the sun set at 6.45, and soon after it got dark.  So we took out our maglights and headtorches (see, I told you we were proper hikers - although I´d like to point out that I had a maglight - I´m a hiker, not a geek), and marched on.  Unfortunately, all the marching was beginning to take its toll on Nikki´s feet.  A blistered toe, 2hrs in daylight and 1 in darkness later, we arrived at Indian Gardens Campsite, and decided to call it a day.  We searched for a while before finding a free spec, although even after we did so Rick (the campsite perv) went for a snoop around some other tents, under the pretence that he "couldn´t find ours".  Sure Rick, tell that to the police.

We pitched our tent, had some tea (although I wasn´t very hungry and kept my food for later - I was glad of that the next day!) and headed to bed.  And pretty much lay awake for the night.  I think we got a combined total of 8 hours sleep that night, which wasn´t so bad.  I had set my alarm for 6, but since I was awake at 5 I figured we should all get up and be ready to go by the time it was bright.  The plan was to hike down as far as Phantom Ranch, get some food there, and head back up to the rim.  We had thought that we´d be hiking from Bright Angel Campground that morning, so had food for breakfast and some snacks.  Nikki´s feet were still giving her jip, so she decided it would be best to head back up.  Rick agreed to go with her, so after a spot of breakfast and dividing up the tent, we parted company for only the second time that month, Nikki and Rick up to the rim, Mike and I in the direction of Phantom Ranch.

At that stage, the plan was to hike down till about 7.30 or 8, allowing us the ´double time´required to hike back up to Indian Gardens.  You´re told not to hike between 10am and 4pm, so we´d take a break and some lunch (last night´s bagel would come in handy!), and then head up to the rim.  So off we set.

I remembered that Caroline, the nice ranger lady in the info office who had suggested the previous evening that we don´t die, had mentioned something about a suspension bridge.  We´d already crossed the world´s longest one of those remember, but to me, the thought of traversing the Colorado River at the bottom of the Grand Canyon on a suspension bridge was a very exciting one.  So that was our target for the morning.

The first part was easy enough, it was a very gentle downhill slope, and to start with you don´t really feel the weight of the 10kg on your back, honest.  It was a good chance to take in some of the views, since on the way down we had concentrated more on where we placed our feet with each step rather than the scenery.  And it was spectacular.  We spotted some more deer, and the odd toad.  And LOTS of hikers.  All going up.  I know how the fella on his way to St. Ives felt - like he was going the wrong way, I expect.  As I was going down the Grand Canyon, I met every other hiker down there.  No one else seemed to be going further into the canyon.  Oh well, that was to be expected.  Anyone down this far had camped the previous night, and was now up early to hike back out of there.  I wonder, though, if the St Ives-bound dude met so many friendly people.  90% of people, many of whom were struggling, said hello on their way past.  And it was totally infectious.  20 minutes into the hike, I was Â´hello´-ing, ´good morning´-ing and Â´hi there´-ing with the rest of them.  Some stopped for a small chat, mainly to enquire where we had come from, and how long it had taken us to get from there.  First-time hikers seemed quite encouraged - a quick mental calculation to double the time informed them that they would be back up at Indian Gardens for a well deserved rest in an hour, give or take.  Experienced hikers had a different reaction:  "You´re going up and down in a day?  You guys are crazy!", or "Do you know the Canyon?  You want to be finished the corkscrew by 10."

For those of you who don´t know (I hear there are some people out there who haven´t hiked the Canyon - hard to believe, isn´t it?!), the ´corkscrew´is a part of the Bright Angel trail where the path winds back and forth across the same rock face.  It takes about 10 minutes to descend, and about 25 - 30 minutes on the way back up, unless you´re a soon-to-be-professional hiker like us.  Well not quite.  But people were sounding impressed with the speed with which we were making our way along the trail, and this really spurred us on (not that we turned it into a competition or anything).  While a quick calculation told us that we had to turn round before we´d reach the bridge, since ascending the corkscrew in the absence of any shady resting spot would be tough, I was still secretly hoping to make it.  As the descent became more steep, the views were as stunning as they had been further up the canyon.  Indian Gardens had been on the end of a plateau, and this part of the trail was taking us below that, towards the river.

At about 8am, the route started to go uphill again, and we met a large group on their way up to the rim.  The now ususal pleasantries ensued, and they stopped for a chat.  They told us that the bridge was about 30 minutes away, and that we'd get a view of it just around the next corner.  As if we could turn back then!  Granted, their 30 minutes had been mainly downhill, so should be converted to at least 45, and that was allowing for our speedy gonzales hiking rate.  But we had passed the point of no return, so to speak.  Maybe that's why they call it Phantom Ranch (one for the ALW fans in the audience).  Onwards and upwards.

We got our first glimpse of the Colorado river at that stage.  Super-muddy brown, and flowing really fast, it was hard to imagine that it once filled the canyon, and had indeed formed it, giving us a glimpse of the earth's oldest exposed rock formations.  And some people think the world is only 600 years old.  Seriously.

The bridge turned out not to be around the next corner, but several corners of increasingly sandy pathway.  But it looked good.  There were two of them, spanning a gap of approx 50m at the base of the canyon.  We walked across, stopping to speak to a man who was wearing his t-shirt and what appeared to be his boxers, admiring the vista.  On the other side of the bridge we found toilets, a cold drinking water tap, and even a phone box!  It was collect-call only, so count yourselves lucky that I didn´t phone you to tell you where I was!  We stopped there for a while, filled our water bottles and had a snack.  After about 20 mins, we set off again.

The way back up was definitely tougher, but not undoable (that word might not be in the Scrabble dictionary).  The sun certainly made it more difficult, and I was really beginning to feel the weight of the bag on my back, but the views during frequent, short breaks made it all worthwhile.  Soaking my hat in the streams as we passed helped too.  We made it back to Indian Gardens by 10.45, and the bags, boots and socks came straight off and we drowned our feet with a bottle of cold water - nice!  We had some lunch, and decided not to wait till 4 to head back.  We figured that it wasn´t mad hot (although the large thermometer at the campsite read 98 degrees!), so if we took enough breaks and drand lots of water, we´d be fine.  So at 12.30, fed and watered, we set off from Indian Gardens.  We had 3 targets: 2 water stops and the rim, each of which was a mile and a half apart.  We reasoned that, based on the ground we had covered so far that morning, we could do each stage in about an hour.  But it definitely wasn´t a competition.

A group of trekkers on mules passed us, and would stop in front of us every so often, forcing us to do so as well.  To be honest I was glad of the breaks, and the free history lessons that could be overheard.  Apparently years ago, some fella went down the canyon and found gold (maybe), but it was too costly to cart up to the rim, so he used to charge people to go down to it.  Anyways, that might not be the exact story, but in any case he was making money out of the canyon, and the government got wind of it, and decided to take over.  Bloody typical.

We managed to make our targets, and were well on our way, and feeling very pleased with ourselves.  Towards the top, we met an Italian couple, and chatted them for a bit.  The four of us kept overtaking eachother, then taking a break, then being overtaken.  At one stage, I moved aside to let them pass me, and he said to me "Thanks, we don´t have the heavy bags to carry like you do.  I´m sorry but I´m not a gentleman right now!"  Ha ha, as if I would have expected him to carry my bag!  We did see one poor fella though who was there with a bit of a princess, she was storming up the hill in her skimpy top and hotpants, while her unfortunate bloke was left carting all her stuff, and his, he was really struggling.

Anyways, but 3.45, we had made it to the top.  It was possible the greatest feeling of achievement I´ve ever felt, I´m not sure, but I certainly felt good about myself!  Bring on the Inca Trail!

We headed over to our lodging, asuming that Nicky and Rick would be lying sleeping.  The whole way up the canyon I had been looking forward to a cold shower, then a hot bath.  When we got to check in, we discovered that the other two hadn´t been in the room yet, because check-in wasn´t till 4.  They had had to go to some public showers in park, and had slept in the car!  We got into the room and took a long shower.  Nikki and Mike went for a lie down, but Rick and I went for a celebratory drink, well deserved I think!  We all went for food, and had the most unbelievable rare steak ever - you wouldn´t think we were poor travellers, would you?! If only I hadn´t been so tired, I might have been able to appreciate it a bit more!  We headed to bed, exhausted, and had a great night´s sleep.

The next morning, Mike and I decided to get up early to watch sunrise over the canyon.  Well, we decided it the night before, the next morning we actually got up early, at 5.45.  We headed out to the rim, and sat there in the cold and dark, waiting for 6.07. I checked my watch, but couldn´t see it very well.  It was ten to.  I checked it again, and it was a couple of minutes past.  FIVE.   Nice one Mike, who let you set the alarm??!!  On the way back to the lodge I asked a bus driver, who was able to tell me the best place to see the sunrise (you would think we would have checked this out the day before).  So we headed back for a quick 10 min kip, then took the car out, drove around the park for a bit, realised that we couldn´t get to where we wanted to go in the car, parked up and got the bus.

We got off the bus at Hopi Point, and there were already some people up there waiting with their cameras.  There was a cool thunder and lightening storm going on, so that kept us entertained in the cold and drizzle until the sun rose (although Mike just hid under an info sign for shelter for the most of it).  When the sun did appear, it was really pretty, and we got lots of photos.  I´m sure you´ll want to spend your day looking at them.

About five minutes later, the bus back down to the village showed up.  We hopped on, and with that the heavens opened.  Nice timing.  Mike was knackered, so we sacked off our plan to leave by 7, and went back for another kip.  A few hours later we got up, packed up, went for breakfast, and left Grand Canyon at about 11.30.  Pretty good trip though.