On Wednesday morning, Kelly and I made the four-hour drive from Phoenix north to the Grand Canyon for, what I figured would be, the extreme highlight of my trip of adventures. The approach to the Canyon is so unique. While I’m used to driving up toward mountains and seeing the peaks rise up above me, creating a mouthwatering sensation, the drive to the lip of one of America’s national treasures was, as you can imagine, a little bit different.
Just miles outside of the park, we were driving through a flat land that resembled Kansas — although I’ve never been — more than anything else. There were no houses, hardly any signs of life, and grass and plants that didn’t have much life themselves.
Where were we?
Even as we entered the park and drove through Grand Canyon Village, there was no tangible evidence that we were so close to one of America’s most majestic and incredible wonders.
Where was this canyon you speak of??
Finally, we found a parking spot and jumped out of the car. We walked at a brisk pace toward, what we assumed, the south rim.
And then, just like that, there it was. I leaned on a railing and tried to take it all in. It was so surreal, so like nothing we had ever seen. Kelly said it looked fake. I couldn’t disagree.
Before us lay the Grand Canyon — a mammoth hole in the ground stretching dozens of miles to the north and, as I knew from reading but couldn’t see, 277 miles river long. We couldn’t see the Colorado River from our perch at 6,850 feet, but we could see the multicolored rock formations that help make the park one-of-a-kind. We could see the path of the Bright Angel Trail, one of a handful that lead all the way from the South Rim down to the river some 8 miles and 4,000-plus feet below us.
It was intimidating. So much to look at. Where to start?
It was just before noon and we couldn’t check into our lodge for the night yet, so we decided to get hiking, because that’s what you do at the Grand Canyon, right??
The Bright Angel Trail is the most popular hike into the Canyon and with the trailhead located about a hundred feet from our lodge, it made for an easy choice of our first hike. The trail begins at 6,850 feet and switchbacks its way down to the river. Everything I read about the Canyon explicitly warned hikers NOT TO ATTEMPT TO HIKE TO THE RIVER AND BACK IN ONE DAY. I had no thoughts of attempting such a feat … at least on this trip.
With all that in mind, we planned to hiked at least down to the 1.5-mile point, designated by bathrooms and, during the popular months — read: not late March — drinking water and then reassess if we wanted to continue to the 3-mile spot.
As soon as we took to the trail, we were in awe. Similar to many of my hikes in Colorado, the biggest challenge was reminding myself that if I stopped to take pictures every 30 seconds, no progress would be made! Within the first quarter mile, we had to step to the side of the trail to let a procession of mules ride by — mule rides in the canyon for visitors are booked 13 months in advance. I had read about the mule riders in the Canyon, but it was still an awesome sight to behold.
We quickly found ourselves hundreds of feet below the rim, staring at towering walls of multicolored rock all around us. Yep, we were in a canyon. For one small section of the trail, we had to proceed slowly over icy, snowy terrain leftover from the 6 to 8 inches that had been dumped on the Canyon just 10 days earlier. The timing of our trip was ideal. A week prior, and we would have needed snowshoes. The rest of the trail was a combination of packed down dirt, red mud, packed down red mud, and rocks, but not ones difficult to navigate.
Pretty easy hiking overall.
We gained the 1.5-mile stop in great time, feeling good, and didn’t think twice about continuing down the winding trail for another mile and a half. That section passed even quicker, but we didn’t consider going farther. We were well aware of the uphill challenge that lay ahead. We enjoyed some cheese and crackers, a staple trail meal, on a rock overlooking Plateau Point, the end of the visible trail below us amidst a flat, verdant, green area that peers over the Colorado River. We didn’t have a view of the river, but could see just about everything else. Especially beautiful to me was the rock wall across the zigzagging trail from us that at its base was green, then a clay red, and finally, at its apex, a granite color. So cool.
Amazingly, we made the trip back up the trail in a shorter time than the descent. It’s probably because the picture-taking had lessened drastically and we didn’t take protracted stops, but we still felt damn accomplished upon gaining the rim in less than an hour and a half.
Wednesday evening, after resting up and checking into our lodge just a hundred feet or so from the rim — no joke — we took a walk along the rim to enjoy the sunset. We didn’t have a clear view of the sun setting, blocked by the rim to the west, but the reflections on the gigantic pointy rock structures rising up in the Canyon made it a spectacle, even so (side note: On the second day, when we took the shuttle bus along the rim to the west, we passed a few stopping points that offered an incredible view to the west; those are definitely the spots to be for future Grand Canyon sunsets).
Later, we were sitting outside, waiting for our name to be called to eat at the Bright Angel Restaurant (side note: The only negative of the trip was waiting 40 minutes to eat after a day of hiking!! Yosemite has a MUCH BETTER system with its buffet option; of course, if everyone ate like me at that buffet, the park would probably be shut down! Still, there should be a buffet at every national park village. Waiting 40 minutes to be seated and then another half an hour for food was brutal!!). We were the only ones outside, as the temperature had dipped down to around 40 degrees, and so we were the lone folks to see a neon green “thing” flash across the dark Canyon sky.
An asteroid entering the atmosphere!!
We couldn’t believe our eyes for several minutes. Had it been a large shooting star?? No way — this thing was huge! If I had had my camera out, I could have taken a picture of its flight, it stayed in the sky so long. It was incredible. Mystical. Magical.
And no one else had seen it.
What a first day at the Canyon it had been.
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