Grand Canyon, it's a biggun

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Driving to the Canyon from Zion we ran into a bit of a car problem. When I'm driving at home, I don't generally start worrying about petrol until the last quarter of a tank or so, in fact usually it's not until the red light comes on. Driving cross country in the US requires somewhat different a strategy. As we left Zion we had well over half a tank so we didn't bother refilling before we left. We'd been driving maybe and hour and a half and the tank was down to about a quarter and we hadn't passed a single gas station since we left. As the petrol dipped further we started to get a bit concerned! Finally we saw a small gas stop ahead and pulled in, only to find it closed up with a sign simply saying "Sorry, out of gas". Oh dear. With little choice but to carry on we headed off. We turned off the AC and set the speed at 55 to conserve was little petrol we had left! After driving for about 20 minutes with the petrol warning on with thankfully and with great relief arrived at a small town called Cameron. Phew!

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After a food stop, we headed on the Canyon. Our plan was to hike down on arrival, camp at the bottom at Phantom Ranch and then hike up the next day. About 20 minutes later we had arrived. The first glimpses of the canyon are truly breath taking. There is no sign of it as you approach, then suddenly, through a break in the foliage lining the road you see it. It looks like someone has scooped out a mass of earth the size of a city. The scale and vastness are something that you can't adequately put into words. This was all much to Nikki's annoyance, as she was driving at the time after having switched over from me just before arriving. Everyone in the car was gasping while she got more and more frustrated before moodily lamenting that she always ends up driving for the cool scenery parts.

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When we arrived, we were already a little concerned we hadn't left nearly enough time to do the hike that day. There were maybe 2 hours of light left and the hike down would take 4 to 5 hours. We spoke with one of the rangers at the info centre who said it was still doable if we had torches and didn't mind some night hiking, we'd be fine. She warned of some fairly treacherous drops near the end of the route that didn't sound too conducive to hiking in the dark. She waved us off with a "I don't want to be reading about you in the morning".

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We did have a backup plan if things got tricky, there is another camp ground half way down that we stay at if we got into trouble. We'd applied for a backcountry permit but that wouldn't allow us to stay at this 2nd campground but the ranger told us she'd rather we stayed somewhere safe without a permit than to risk pushing on and getting into danger.

With plenty of food and water we headed off on the hike. After about 10 minutes, we were already going the wrong way and this was still in the light! The first part of the trail involves a tight traverse of winding 180 turns and we missed one of the turns only to hike off into the wilderness. We noticed the path getting narrower and rougher and after some fairly warranted panic from Nikki on the dangers of our current route we stopped to verify our route. We couldn't see any way of our path linking back up with the path we could see below us, also I knew mules walked the route and we'd stopped seeing any mule prints for the last few hundred yards. Hmmm. We headed back and quickly got back on track. Oops. We were slightly less confident at our night hiking abilities after this!

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We arrived at the Indian Gardens campground after about about 3 hours, the last hour of which was in pitch darkness. We decided it would be better to stay here instead of continue on so we found ourselves at camping spot and setup the tent.

The next day we woke around 5am to get an early start the Hike. We split into two groups, Patrice and I decided to keep going and hike down to the bottom, while Rick agreed to escort Nikki back to the rim as she was suffering from blisters and fatigue due to a fitful night's sleep in a tent with a resident spider and an acute case of arachnopia.

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The rest of the hike was really hard work but very rewarding. My step brother James and his wife Shari had completed the hike to the base and back in a single day and compared it running a marathon in terms of how exhausting and demanding it was. There are numerous warnings at the info center as well as along the route that attempting to hike into and out of the canyon in a single day is not recommended and I can understand why. Although we had completed a few hours of the hike the previous evening we would be doing the majority including all the ascent in a single day. Patrice has written an almost step by step account of our hike so if your interested, feel free to check out her blog. I'll just summarise by saying: It was awesome and the views are amazing!

When we reached the rim we headed straight to our apartment to meet up with Nikki and Rick only to discover that check in was 4pm and they had been forced to shower at a public showers and sleep in the car as they had arrived back about 11am. Oh dear! That evening we gorged on a fantastic steak dinner and red wine. Backpacking is all about the sacrifices.

The next morning, Patrice and I decided we would get up early to see the sunset. We set the alarm for quarter to 6 and went to bed. Bleary eyed we awoke and trundled off to the rim to watch the sun come up. Anyone who knows me, knows I'm not much of a people person before 10am, I certainly didn't feel any better when I realised the clock in our room is running an hour fast, something to do with mountain time which is a stupid concept I don't understand and haven't forgiven the the state of Arizona for). Arg! We headed back off to bed for a precious 15 minutes kip before heading out again. The one benefit of our premature rise was we managed to scope out a bus that would take us to the idea spot to see the sunrise. It was certainly worth the hassle. The sunlight gradually filling the canyon and the cloud formations were a beautiful sight.

More pictures (which don' at all do it justice) can be found here:

Grand Canyon Pics