Grand Canyon Excursion

Randy and Aaron went for an extreme vacation - hiking down the Grand Canyon, staying 4 nights, then hiking back up. The "hiking" part explains why I didn't go. 

Randy flew up to meet Aaron in Illinois, where they rented a car and drove cross-country. Since the goal was to get the Grand Canyon, they pushed through without making a lot of stops. One night, however, they stayed at the beautiful and historic La Posada in Winslow, Arizona. The hotel is great - it was designed by Mary Colter, who designed the Hopi House and Watchtower at the Grand Canyon. This started out as a Harvey House, one the famous Harvey restaurants that served railway customers. It still serves very good food; they had stuffed squash blossom appetizers, lamb and salmon entrees, and bread pudding for dessert. This historic hotel and a flat-bed truck parked at the corner of Winslow, Arizona were the only things interesting in town, but it was a great hotel. Randy kept a journal of the rest of the trip:

08/07/19 Left Winslow, Arizona and drove to the canyon. It took about 30 minutes to get into the park. We found a place to park and went to the El Tovar to see about our room. We were early - 1:30 - so we didn’t expect the room to be ready. They said it would be ready around 3 - 4. We went talking around to the Bright Angel trail, the art studio, and the museum. We got some ice cream, and then around 3pm we went to check into the room. I was told it was just waiting for a supervisor to check it, so we decided to go for a ride to the Watch Tower. When we returned, we got our keys and found that the room was filthy - towels on the floors, bed unmade - it was a mess.

They were shocked and apologized. They offered 50% off, free appetizers, and free desserts. I told them I though they owed us a completely free meal. They changed the offer to completely comp the room. We agreed and went to one of the other restaurants for dinner. After dinner we returned to the room and found the A/C was not working. I was livid. For this they got the engineer up there to repair it, a dirty filter, and agreed to move us to a suite overlooking the canyon when we returned from Phantom Ranch. They also told us they would move our luggage from our room, store it, and have it in our suite when we returned. Before  turning in, we sent the stuff we would need at the lodge down by mule.

08/08/19 At 3:45 we left our room. As we walked out the door of the hotel, we were greeted by a small head of deer feeding in one of the gardens. 

We headed off to the trail, then realized we had forgotten our extra water bottles. We went back to get them and were on the trail by 4:15. We were off to a good start and things were going well, but by the 3 mile mark my legs were hurting so bad I almost called the trip off. But with lots of patience from Aaron and lots of breaks, we made it to Indian Garden, where we sat for 1/2 hour relaxing, drinking, and eating. The break really helped.  We continued down the trail very slowly, taking lots of stops and rests. 

The trail isn't much - usually just a track worn down by footsteps. In some places there were a few pieces of wood across it to prevent erosion.

By the last 1.5 miles it was simply an endurance test. We made it to the Phantom Ranch at 1:15. A nine hour hike. Both of us were exhausted. 

Mules came and went from here, bringing passengers, supplies, and our pack.

Sometimes spotted fawns hung around outside the lodge, keeping in the shade. 

We choose our bunks, both of which were lower bunks. We showered and took a nap, and afterwards we went down to Bright Angel Creek and soaked in the water for about 20 minutes. 

Back at the ranch we changed clothes and went to dinner. We had preordered our meals a year ago when we made the reservations. No changes are allowed because everything has to be brought down on a mule. We decided to not order lunches, preferring to snack along the way instead of having to come back to the ranch in the middle of the day, so we brought a good supply of enery-rich snacks for that purpose. Tonight we had salad, New York Strip steak, baked potato, broccoli, corn bread, lemon cake, tea and water (lots of water). This was the basic menu each night, with dessert changing to lemon cake sometime. The meals were either really good or just OK, depending on which cook was in the kitchen that night.

After dinner we got 2 cubs of ice and went back to our bunks where we a drink of Weller’s 12 year old bourbon. Then we went to bed - about 6:30. My Fitbit showed 37,000 steps. They say it is 9.5 miles but we think it is longer - somewhere around 11 miles. 

08/09/19 We got up around 6:15. Great breakfast - eggs, pancakes, bacon, sausage, fruit, coffee, and orange juice.

We first went for a walk down to the river to work some of the pain out of our legs. I am sure we were walking like 2 old men.

We decided we had not suffered enough so we went for a hike to Phantom Creek, which is about 1.5 miles away, but we missed it and went too far. We ran into a Ranger leading a group to the Phantom Creek and he told us it was behind us, just around the bend. He let us join his group and we went back about 1.5 miles, where he pointed to the canyon and creek. We then split off, crossed the creek, and hiked back about 1/4 mile to this beautiful waterfall. It was absolutely beautiful.

We took some pictures, then set our gear on the bank and got in a deeper part of the water and just soaked for about an hour. 

After that we hiked back to the ranch. On the way we talked to 2 guys and asked them about hiking on the North Rim trail. They told us it was nice until you hit Cottonwood campground, then it got steep and rugged. Then to get back to the rim we would have to take a shuttle that was a 4 hour ride, costing $90 each. And the last shuttle left at 1 pm. Well, we decided that when we were ready to hike out, we would keep our original idea of Bright Angel trail. We made it back to the ranch, had a beer, and took a nap.

Guys were showing up about 3 pm and weren’t real happy about having only upper bunks available. I didn’t blame them, I was really happy we got lower bunks.

08/10/19  Poor legs were hurting so we thought it might be a good idea to take it easy. We needed to be ready to hike up in 2 days. I was struggling with blisters on my feet: on the left foot there is a blister on the big toe, one on the third toe, and one behind the big toe. No fun. Glad I brought some moleskin. 

We went to the Bright Angel Creek and found a pool area, and sat in it for about 40 minutes. Wanted to be careful to not get sunburned. Then we went to the Bright Angel bridge, and then over to the South Kaibab bridge. We saw some mule deer on this 4 mile hike. 

Hard to describe the engineering that was done around here. The cables for the suspension bridge - how did they anchor them? They were brought down by a group of men carrying them, and they are 8 cables per bridge. 

At one time there was a cable car down to Indian Gardens. It is depicted in a book about Mary Colter, who designed and decorated a lot of buildings for the Santa Fe railroad and Fred Harvey. She designed the La Posada Hotel, the Hopi House, and many more. 

Afterwards we went to the canteen to have a beer. 

God, help us to get out of the canyon on Monday safely and without incidence. 

08/11/19 Packing and getting ready to leave the Canyon. Took a hike from Phantom Ranch to Silver Bridge, 

then on to Black Bridge, and back to Phantom Creek. The views were fantastic. 

Walked on the South Kaibab Trail. Walked down to the Colorado River and waded in it; the water was very cold but very refreshing. 

People have built small cairns and inukshuks in various places. In one spot there was a large rock memorial to Rees Grifffiths, a trail foreman who died in an excavation blast in 1922. This isn't his grave, it's a memorial near where he died. Nice that he's still remembered.

Sometimes a trail had to go through the mountain instead of around it. 

In other places a path wandered up the mountain side. 

And some paths ran along nearly vertical cliff sides.

It is 20 degrees hotter at the bottom of the canyon than at the top so it was nice to cool off in the larger creeks. But most of the day was spent walked up, down, and through the pathways, admiring this amazing work of God.

Got our mule pack ready. It weighed 26 pounds. Had a beer but they foamed over when we opened them. The guy working, Chris, gave us a free one.  It has been a great vacation. I pray to God that we will get out of here safely tomorrow.

08/12/19 Left Phantom Ranch at 3:15 am. Made it to Indian Garden at 6:00 am. Aaron got cell service there and sent a text at 6:25. We stayed there for 1/2 hour. Saw deer there, desert mice, and a black and white King snake. 

Made it to 3 mile by 7:30 and stayed there about 1/2 hour. 

Saw a rattlesnake between the 3 miles and 1 1/2 mile marker. And lots of squirrels and lizards along the way

And made it to the top at 11:5. 8 hour trip. The total trip was 11.2 miles from the water spigot to the Kolb studio. The views are beautiful. I think this may be the last time I will hike the Grand Canyon.

Randy's journal ended there. When they got to the top they checked into their suite at El Tovar. Suites are $538 a night (although they only paid the room rate, not the suite rate) because they have an outside patio that overlooks the canyon. So after dinner the guys sat out on the balcony, watching the sunset over the canyon one last time. 

Randy ended up with blisters and black toenails on both feet, so he threw away his boots when he got to the top - they hadn't performed as well as he had hoped. 

On they way home they stopped by Meteor Crater; not in the same class as the Grand Canyon, but certainly worth checking out. The meteor was pretty much vaporized so there isn't much of it left. But it left a really big hole.