Panorama of the Grand Canyon from Plateau Point
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Tom Grundy's Grand Canyon hike 2007 Page
Julie and I decided to do a Grand Canyon hike, and since the overnight permit process is a pain and expensive, we decided on the marathon day hike plan. The last time I hiked down to the Colorado River and back up in a day it really hurt my knee (it had been injured a week or so earlier, and this abuse along with more hiking really compounded the problem). Hopefully my knee would be fine for this, but I was still a little worried.
The weather forecast was calling for stormy weather for the afternoon of our planned hiking day, but we decided to go for it anyway. We drove out the night before. I was hoping to get there before sunset, to get some stunning sunset photos. We didn't make it, but the sunset wasn't much anyway, so that wasn't a great loss. We bivied in the back of the truck, and then got up at 5 am (ouch) to get an early start. We had a number of premade breakfast burritos and Julie had some cold coffee to help get us powered up. It was light enough to see by 5:30 when we started hiking, with a brief window of nice morning light as the sunlight came in under the clouds. Another nice thing about the early morning start was all of the birds singing and chirping for the first hour or so.
Julie's silhouette against the sunrise
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Nice pink morning light on the Coconino sandstone
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We made pretty good time down the Bright Angel trail, shedding layers as it warmed up and with a stop at Indian Gardens to take on more water. We got the river at 9 am some 8 miles and 4420 feet lower. The park service says not to hike to the river and back up in a day. This is typical of their overly cautious approach, and probably keeps a few people out of trouble and covers their butts, but especially during the cooler months many people can and do make this as a day hike with no problems. In fact we had a conversation about how park rangers have lost credibility by assuring people of things that just aren't so, and later that day a ranger guaranteed that we would get rained on before we hit the rim (we didn't).
Julie is overcome by exhaustion just like the warning
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Julie stretches by the Colorado River
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The Colorado River was really cold. I only got my feet into it before sitting in the sun seemed like a better idea. The river was a lot more clear and greenish than it was when I rafted it in October with visibility between 6 inches and a foot. A raft pulled in and tied up about the same time we got there. While the clients hiked up the trail, the boatman stretched out on the raft, pulled his had down, and went to sleep. He reminded me of Terry. After eating and a bit of stretching, we started back up at 9:45. Things were a lot warmer heading up, and we were in the sun much of the time too. There were a few cacti starting to bloom, and the cottonwood trees had fresh green leaves. We spent a bit of time trying to figure out what was making a noise like a person imitating a goat. Bighorn sheep? bird? we couldn't tell. Finally based on the fact that it was only where the water was, we decided on frog or toad. Back at Indian Gardens we watched a whiptail lizard that had some cool dance moves. It looked like it was doing the moon walk with its front feet, then it would start a shimmy in its body and work it down to its tail. We also got to watch some people decked out in city bling feed the squirrels (within sight of the "don't feed the animals" sign). Then someone else complained about a squirrel stealing her oreos from the box lunch. People don't seem to get the connection sometimes.
Early blooming cactus flower and bee
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Whiptail lizard with the cool moves
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Raft in the Grand Canyon
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There were a number of mules tied up at Indian Gardens waiting for their riders to finish their box lunches so they could get the business of hauling them out of the canyon over with. I am not overly fond of the mule trains, as they raise clouds of dust, and really stink up the trail with their leavings. I suppose it is better than having tons of helicopters ferrying the people in and out of the canyon though and they are only on a few of the trails. Luckily we only crossed paths with 2 trains while we were hiking, the others were tied up when we saw them.
We headed out the nearly level 1.5 mile trail to Plateau point for lunch (or to continue eating as the case may be). When we got there, another mule crew was all over the main overlook, so we scrambled up to a side point with a magnificent view of the river far below. There even were some rafts going down for our entertainment.
While eating we saw a California Condor soar past. It was incredibly large, and flew with its feet hanging down a bit. I still wasn't positive it was a condor until I looked at the photos on my computer where I could clearly see the light patches under the wings and the tags (# 80). The ravens flying around were a lot more common, and they were clearly used to either getting fed or snatching things from the people eating there.
A patient mule waits to carry someone
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Some idiot tries a handstand
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Julie scrambles at Plateau Point
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A raven waits for lunch
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California Condor #80 soars past
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Julie relaxes at plateau point
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Julie points out some of the switchbacks
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From plateau point, we returned to Indian Garden before heading up the final climb. This seemed to go fairly slowly, but we were moving steadily and passing many other hikers, some with monstrous packs and others with small packs but large sleeping bags or tents tied on or even held in their arms. Others had almost nothing - quite a range. We knew we were getting close when we started seeing (and smelling) people with coats draped over their arms and purses. We made it out of the canyon before 5 pm. The hike covered approximately 19 miles with some 4400 feet of elevation loss and gain. We weren't totally destroyed by it, but it wasn't completely casual either. For the next few days, every time I got up from sitting for a while, I was reminded that my legs had been used.
On the drive back, we saw a number of groups of elk and deer. Other creatures we saw during the day included more deer, lots of lizards, squirrels, and raven, vultures, and the condor. There was some fresh snow on the peaks, and some of the road was wet, but we managed to avoid precipitation despite the forecast and the ranger's dire warnings. All in all, a successful day in a spectacular place, and good training too.
Grand Canyon Scenery - it really is Grand
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Julie celebrates defying the warning and living
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We made it - Back on the South Rim
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In 2006 I did a rafting trip down the canyon: the link is Rafting through the Grand Canyon Link
Panorama of the "devils corkscrew" trail into the lower gorge
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