Days 2-4 Grand Canyon, Arizona

[Kalon] It's only fitting that our adventurous road trip would start with a real adventure.  On my "life list" for a long time has been hiking from one rim of the Grand Canyon to the other, and this was to be the trip.  On our 2nd day we drove from Henderson, NV to the North Rim of Grand Canyon National Park.  We stayed in a cabin just outside the Park boundary and then drove  to the lodge on the rim where we enjoyed the wonderful views and dinner.  Then back to the cabin for packing for tomorrow.

 

I woke early and faithful Karen got up to drive me the 20 miles to the trailhead.  By 5:30 am I was hiking down the canyon.  As the picture below shows, the trail descends a long way (and the canyon itself is off the picture to the right another 7 or 8 miles.

From the North Rim - trail descending on the right

 After about 6 hours of hiking I neared the bottom of the canyon having descended almost 6000'.  There is a little cabin resort there that caters to hikers (early advance registrations required).  I ventured inside to buy a lemonade and an apple and then sat outside eating lunch.


Phantom Ranch - at the bottom of the canyon (good icey lemonade for a tired hiker)

A short distance beyond and the Colorado river was reached and crossed on a suspension bridge.
 

Suspension bridge crossing the Colorado River (only 5000' of climb to get to the South Rim!)

The next hours went slowly, climbing up good trails with little shade (it was 100+ degrees at the river crossing), and I drank lots of electrolytes along with gels.  Lots of company on this climb from strong climbers who would surge past me to others dying on the trail (there was a ranger that transited the trail with encouragement and options if needed).  Finally, just at near dark (8:30 pm) I finished the climb and the adventure was over.  Or nearly over, it took me over an hour to catch appropriate park buses to our hotel outside the park in  Tusuyan where we were staying.  Unfortunately there was no cell service here so I couldn't tell Karen I had completed the traverse until at 9:35 we were back together.  Very grateful for an opportunity to complete this long desired adventure!  

[Karen] Prior day on the way we saw lots of sage,  Joshua trees but no beast of Barstow. I'm afraid he is buried somewhere in the rubble of I-17. From Henderson, NV we traveled thru Zion where the beautiful Virgin River was dried to this.

 

 

 

 

 

             From the Lodge Terrace at the North Rim of the Grand Canyon

                          the night before the great rim to rim hike.

 

We stayed the night in a funky old cabin at Kaibab about 27 miles north of the trail Kalon was to take down into the canyon to Phantom Ranch. We had a great dinner at the North Rim Lodge and returned back to the cabin at Kaibab.

 

 I didn't want to fool around with the old wall heater not noticing that there was a simple thermostat at the top which needed to be set so we froze to death all night. Got down to 36 degrees. At 5 am Kalon started his preparations - two PB&J sandwiches, and a couple of candy bars, plus gels and whatever else for energy he was going to take. A little later he forced me to get up and drive him to the trailhead. I just threw jackets, warm hat, etc over my PJ's and we drove the 25 miles to the trailhead.

 

(Kalon at North Rim Trailhead the night before  -)

 

I kissed him goodbye and he headed off down the trail. I went back to bed and slept for an hour and then repacked stuff into the car and headed off for the 300 some mile trek along 89A, 89 and then 64 to Tusayan where we had a reservation. Tusayan is 2 miles south of the entry point for the south rim which is about 27 miles from the rim itself. Having read the books I did not intend to drive to the mess which is the village at the south rim during the summer. They run a free bus to the village but I have an aversion to crowds of tourists all seeking food and tshotskes to buy. I arrived at the motel late enough as it was after a lonely drive imagining every truck car I passed to have blood thirsty robber hijackers in them. There were quite a few trucks to pass also and too few passing sections for my happiness. As you know summer is the time for highway repairing so there was also that to contend with. Finally reached Tusayan about 5 pm, got into the motel and began my favorite occupation of worrying about Kalon and whether or not he was OK. Was it too hot? Did he have enough water? (Actually he filled his camel back three times at least.) At 9 pm I had reached a fever pitch of worry and started calling friends and family to make sure I had company in terms of worrying. After getting family and friends involved with my anxiety attack, Kalon finally put an end to my hysteria by knocking on the room door. He had actually reached the top at 8:20 but lack of cell phone coverage and the long, slow bus ride from rim to information center and then to motel took until 9:40 PM.

 

The next day was a lovely drive past Mt Humphreys ski area

Mt Humphreys

 and then down Oak Creek Canyon to Sedona, where we stayed to celebrate our 53rd anniversary in a lovely resort hotel.

Door to pool of our private patio in Sedona

The mesa high above Oak Creek Canyon

 

After our respite in Sedona (which had increased greatly in size over the past 50 years) we returned thru Oak Creek Canyon to I-17 which should be named Truckers Running Amok Highway and turned our sights to Albuquerqe.