April 5 - Grand Canyon
Henry got up early this morning to hike down into the Canyon. Meanwhile, Lauren and I went
on a fossil walk with a ranger. We saw lots of fossils, but of course Daddy had the camera.
Here's Henry's hike in pictures. Just for BRAGGING Rights: The hike to Skeleton Point and back should have taken
6 hours - 2 hours down and 4 hours back up. I was down to Tip Off point in just about 2 hours (while taking pictures
and just taking it all in), and back up in ....... 2.5 hours!! Yep, I just got into a groove and powered back up the first
1.5 hours of the return trip. I lost my rhythm when I caught up with the mule tour that had left the bottom about
20 minutes before me. Take my advice, NEVER hike behind a line of mules without a gas mask and waterproof boots!!
The mule tour pulled over to rest at the 1 mile to go marker, and I got ahead of them finally. Unfortunately for me,
I had lost my pace and the last hour was HELL!! Ha,ha. I would do it all again with any of you - my good friends!!
- This is the start of my hike of the Kaibab Trail. About 7am. The view just brought a
continuous smile to my face.
- I am still near the top of the trail head, and a LONG way to go!!
- My first Brave look over the edge.
- Looking at the Vista, little did I know that the "cut backs" to the far right were part of my later trail.
- Is this picture better without me? Figuring out the self timer.
- Or do I obscure the view?
- My first view of the Mighty Colorado!! It was soooo great to see it!
- Do these look familar? This is about 10 minutes past Skeleton point.
Going down I knew they were going to HURT on the way back up.
Some other hikers (with much heavier packs) were not doing well when I reached them here on the return trip.
- Stopping to smell the roses.
- End of the trail for me. Tip Off point. I was supposed to stop at Skeleton point (the day hike limit), but missed it.
So much for reading a map. Here I said your name to the Canyon, Taumi.
- Just to the edge of the plateau at Tip Off. I spent 30 minutes here resting and listening to the sound of the river.
- Sitting on the plateau's edge. Photo compliments of the self timer again.
- Ok, now lets get started BACK UP!!! UGH!!!
- Looking just to the right of the last picture before the ASCENT.
- Just about 30 minutes from returning to the trail head. One last look back.
