A Grand Adventure - Day 3 (The Grand Canyon South Rim Hikes)

Today we would get our first look at the Grand Canyon.  The campground was a stop on a wonderful shuttle system provided by the national park that would take us to all the canyon viewpoints and trails.  All of the national parks in the area, in fact, have great shuttle services to lessen the burden of traffic and parking. 

We rode the shuttle with the intent of hiking the South Kaibab trail.  There are different shuttles that run back and forth along the extensive rim of the canyon and they pick up riders every 10 or 15 minutes - super convenient.

For those not into hiking, there are great scenic viewpoints all along the rim itself and many paved and walkable/bikable trails, too.  At our first stop, we got out and took in the amazing view.  I'll be honest, pictures just don't do justice to the enormity or the beauty.

A sign in the park read, "Numbers give grandeur to the canyon; your experience provides it meaning"

I'm into numbers, and there are some of the statistics about the canyon that are just mind blowing.  Here's a few:

• The bottom of the canyon is about a vertical mile from the rim.
• The canyon averages 10 miles across,
• The canyon is 277 miles long.
• The square miles of the canyon is slightly larger than the state of Delaware
• The Colorado River has been eroding the canyon for 10 million years
• The Colorado River, which you can sometimes see at the bottom, is 100 yards wide (a football field) - though it looks much smaller from the top
• The rocks exposed by the erosion at the bottom of the canyon were formed 2 billion years ago (the earth is 4.5 billion years old)

We took lots and lots of pictures, of course.

Rogan hates taking pictures.  He begrudgingly posed for this family picture

If you have a nice camera, be sure to bring it.  Rogan had fun using the "depth effect" on his iPhone 7+.

Depth effect adds blur to the background to make the subject "pop."

 

Something to know for those with fears of heights is that there are almost no fences or barriers along the rim.  I'm not generally afraid of falling, but when I would step close to the edge and look down at the sheer cliffs, something in my reptilian brain was screaming, "DANGER! DANGER!" 

Mikah enjoys taking a pensive shot looking at the scenery

Many people have either died or been badly injured trying to get that perfect picture.  And the drop-offs here are no joke.  Rogan wanted to take a picture that made it look like he was right on the edge (which he was), but it wasn't as dangerous as this shot made it look (and to be honest he wasn't as fearless as this made him look, either.)

His twitter post with this pic; "Getting edgy"

The other thing I'll admit is, I thought it was very possible, that I'd look out, see the canyon, and that would be it.  Yep, I've seen it now

I didn't think it would look that different from other perspectives on the rim, but it really does.

   

The light of different times of the day even make the rocks look different colors.

 

Really scenic spots sometimes have safety bars.  Look over them and you'll see lots of hats and water bottles that have been dropped, too.  Look closely at the picture below and you can make out the Colorado River on the left side.

Time to hike inside the canyon!

For those up for the real challenge, the South Kaibab trail will take you all the way down to the bottom of the canyon to a place known as Phantom Ranch.  There is a campground, cabins, and a simple restaurant there. 

From there, you have 3 choices: hike back up the south side again, hike up the north rim, or stay the night there at the ranch.  Reservations for Phantom Ranch and campground book up many, many months in advance.  Oh, right, you also have the option to ride mules down the canyon, too, but those book almost a year in advance.  The only sign of them we saw on the trail was their left behind road apples.

Day hikes into and back out of the canyon are highly discouraged by the park service because of the extreme temperatures in the valley (often in the 120's) and the sheer difficulty of the hike.  Many rescues missions are done by the park service to help hikers who bit off more than they could chew.  Even for short hike, start early in the day when its cool and bring plenty of water.

Hiking down into the canyon and back is really like climbing a mountain in reverse, you go down then up instead of the other way around.  The canyon is a vertical mile (5,000 feet) down to the Colorado River and then the same back up again.  They estimate hiking 4-6 hours down and 6-10 hours back up.

Here's some video to give you an idea of what the trail looks like:

As you can see, the trails are pretty nice and wide, though on the way back, you may find your self hiking along the edges more especially as you pass other hikers.

The switchbacks are pretty steep and your quads will get a workout.  Going back up these is considerably more challenging.  They tell you to estimate that it will take twice as long to get back up as it took to go down, so I'd recommend not over estimating what you can hike in one day.

We were amazed and a little disturbed by some of the choices made by hikers.  We saw people hiking with disobedient toddlers trying run away from a grandparent to look over the edges.  We also saw people hiking with babies in carriers.  I'm not trying to be all judge-y here, but I'll just say that wouldn't be my choice.

Dad; "Remember when we took you hiking in the Grand Canyon?" Kid: "No"

We decided to do a much less extreme hike than the down and back up.  Our goal was to hike to Ooh Aah Point.

Some encouragement on the way.

 

Lucas posing in the shade

 

Great views all around

  

And, we made it!

Now time to hike back up.  That's a little more challenging.

Getting ready to enter into the switchbacks

 

Kids, full of energy, hike ahead on the switchbacks while parents rest in the shade.

 

Reaching the top and enjoying the views again.

 

 

The hike to Ooh Aah Point was not too difficult for a moderately fit person to do.  I'd highly recommend it.

Next we hopped on the shuttle again to see some other scenic viewpoints.  We stopped at Abyss, Hermit's Rest, and Mojave.

Lots of pictures. 

Here are our amazing and photogenic travel companions, the Halls.  Beth liked this spot because of the safety rails.

I was nearly attacked by a hungry Kaibab Squirrel just before this picture was taken.

Again, lots of foreign travelers.  

I liked this guy's shirt. (I know, I'm a child)

 

Many very cool twisting, partly dead trees.

 

 

Beautiful nature overload!

 

We ate dinner at the Grand Canyon Village (Highly recommended, a great meal for about $40).  

That night, we drove to the nearby campstore, and then hiked a short trail to a get to a sunset view of the canyon.

I snapped a picture of Lucas by a cool tree that we found by a great secluded spot to watch the sun go down over the canyon.  Soon after this Luke had an intestinal emergency to address back at the camp store restroom.  His run set a new (but unfortunately, unofficial) world record for the mile.

Getting great sunset pictures is an art that I haven't yet mastered.  Still, among the group of us, we managed to capture a few good ones.

 

The sun seems even brighter out west. Bring your shades!

 

They say the sunsets bring out the many colors in the rock.  This picture seemed to capture that.

 

 

It was a great end to a great day.  Tomorrow we head out to the north rim of the canyon.  Question to answer: can it look that different from the other side?