We are back from our little Spring break fun time adventures. I think we all had an awesome trip. Even Rex enjoyed his stay at a kennel in Flagstaff, where he took over the job of exercising the other dogs until they cried “NO MAS”. Well I arrived at the Grand Canyon on Tuesday afternoon driving in from the east side of the park was very cool. It was my first time coming this way and I think it’s a much more scenic a quicker way to go. The route follows the Little Colorado River from Cameron on the Navajo Res. A beautiful view of the little canyon can be seen for most of the way. Once at the park I took my time getting to my campsite I stopped a pretty much all of the scenic pullouts and viewpoints. I was amazed at the amount of people at the park especially Texans it seemed like every plate was from Texas. I got to my campsite to find a giant pile of snow and mud right in the middle of it, good thing I brought my hammock to sleep in. With camp set up in less than 5 min.. I went to the market to buy some food, snacks and a trail guide book; I also checked out some trekking poles but talked myself out of them. I took everything back to camp and made the mistake of leaving my bananas on the picnic table. I was then off to explore the park. One cool feature the park has is a shuttle service to take you to all of the high light spots and it’s free. I hopped a bus and went for a cruise to the Grand View look out. From there I hiked the paved trail to the El Tovar lodge to make dinner reservations; it was my Birthday and all. Then I hopped the bus to take me back to my camp. Once there I saw the Giant ravens had pretty much devoured my bananas dirty bastards! I had a ton of time to kill so I made a campfire and read my guide book until it was getting close to sunset. At about 6pm I walked back to the canyon rim to find a suitable spot to watch the setting sun vanish over the horizon. It was amazing! It was also getting cold out. So I hiked back to the El Tovar and read in the lobby until dinner time. Dinner was good but it was late, I wanted to wake up at 4:45 in the morning to start my hike. I got back to camp at around 10:00 but I seemed to be the only one in the camp ground ready for bed. People talked and laughed for hours by 1:00am things quieted down. Then my alarm went off ,I crawled my sleepy self out of my bag, ate my last banana stretched a bit, packed my bag and set off to catch my ride to the trail head. I was at the South Kaibab trail parking lot at 5:50 shivering in the cold and supper windy conditions. The bus driver warned of an icy trail and he wasn’t kidding. The first 100 yards or so were pretty bad but then it dried out to a very silty dusty trail. I ran the first 2.5 miles in the dark using my head lamp. My eyes were burning! I got to Skeleton point just as the horizon was starting to brighten I stopped took some pictures and enjoyed the sunrise. I don’t know how to describe it in words, it was one of the most beautiful jaw dropping sights I have ever seen. In amazement I returned to the trail that was rapidly falling down the canyon. The last few miles of the trail are steep and winding. The beauty of the canyon in the changing light is an amazing spectacle the steep cliffs seem to transform right before my eyes, dark shadows turn into bright green patches of grasses. The next thing I know I’m standing in front of the Kaibab tunnel leading to the Black Bridge that crosses the Colorado River. Wow the scenery helped make the run feel nonexistent. It took me 1 hour 10 min to make it from the trail head to the river.
