Grand Canyon!
It’s Grand Canyon Time! Actually, it just was Grand Canyon time. I just got back from an amazing trip out west, involving driving to Moline, flying to Atlanta and then Denver, and then driving to the canyon. It was worth it though, I got to see Utah on the way out and since Brian has a hybrid it wasn’t that expensive.
As usual, I took a ton of pictures… 3.5Gb to be exact. I’ve posted them all online here: Grand Canyon 2008
Day 1 (March 21, 2008): Drive from Denver CO to Grand Canyon Village, AZ. We passed through Grand Junction and then took a detour just past Cisco UT on the Dinosaur Diamond Prehistoric Highway (UT 128). I have no idea why it’s called that, but it’s on google maps. After that we went to Arches National Park, drove through Monument Valley, and then onto the Canyon. I got some great south rim photos in the middle of the night courtesy of the moon.
Day 2 (March 22, 2008): On Saturday we hiked from the South Rim to Phantom Ranch via the South Kaibab Trail. We camped that night at the Bright Angel Campground right near Phantom Ranch. All night we could hear the Bright Angel river which was just 10 meters from our campsite. It was amazing.
Day 3 (March 23, 2008): For Easter we got up and ate… camp food. After a great night’s rest and sleeping in, we packed up and headed up the Bright Angel Trail to Indian Gardens which is halfway to the South Rim (only in horizontal distance, it’s less than 1/3 of the vertical distance up!) . From there we set up camp and headed out Tonto Trail to Plateau Point.
Day 4 (March 24, 2008): Brian and I had a long drive ahead of us, so we woke up early and were on the trail by 6:50 am. We hiked up the rest of the Bright Angel trail and arrived at the Grand Canyon Village at the south rim at 8:57 (Brian was a few steps ahead of me due to my constant picture taking, some slow tourists on an icy spot, and because he’s in much better shape than I am). Overall we were happy with our 2h7m ascent. We bought maps, made it to the car and drove back to Denver stopping by Moe’s in Glenwood Springs for dinner.
On day 5 I went to REI for some equipment purchases and then Brian and I went to the DIA to catch flights out (he was heading to California for business). It was amazing trip and it really reminded me that I need to get that backpack out more often!