- Location
- West Bountiful, UT
Have been wanting to hike the Grand Canyon for quite awhile. Finally did it on Saturday.
The statistics of a rim to rim day hike are a little bit daunting for a whiskey soaked, tobacco stained, soft and weak guy like me. It's 24 miles, from the North Rim, down to the Colorado river then back up to the South Rim. With about 5600 feet of elevation loss going down the first 14 miles and 4400 feet of elevation gain going up the last 10 miles.
Five of us made the trek. Two of our group run marathons. One has done the hike before just last year. One is a 17 year old athlete. Then me. With me being the oldest by anywhere from 35 to 10 years. I was just hoping not to slow the group down. Told them repeatedly not to wait up for me if I fell behind. But, they insisted that we would start together and finish together.
As it turned out, I didn't really hold us up, or if I did, not by much.
The logistics of a rim to rim hike are a little bit of a pain. From our starting point at the North Kaibab trail near the North Rim visitors center, to our ending point at the Bright Angel trail head at the South Rim visitors center, is only a 24 mile hike. But to drive between them, is about 210 miles, about a four hour drive.
So, I headed down Thur. night. Pulled over around midnight near House Rock valley road and caught a few zzz's in the back of my truck. Fri. morning I got up and continued on to the South Rim. Where I got on a shuttle van for an almost five hour ride back to the North Rim, where my hiking companions awaited.
By the time we met and drove back to our campsite outside the park, it was full dark. After I setup my tent, we grilled steaks and potatoes and sat around a nice campfire sipping whiskey and such. By the time we all went to bed at around 10pm, it was already below freezing.
After not getting much sleep the night before, when my alarm went off inside my tent at 3am it seemed like my head had just barely hit the pillow! But, I was up, dressed, had my camp gear all stowed, had got a fire going, had already eaten breakfast and was smoking a cigar and sipping my second cup of coffee before any of the others started to surface. Clearly, we weren't going to make our intended start time of 4am, young folks haven't learned how to handle their whiskey yet
.
But, better late than never! At about 5:20am, we finally started down the trail.
My companions at the start.
A few miles in as it started to get light. The lights below are other hikers ahead of us on the trail in the dark.
We couldn't have asked for better weather. It was fairly cool, mostly overcast and for a bonus it started to rain on the last part.
Just a bunch of pics from along the trail.
In this one, our starting point is that furthest visible rim. The end is still quite a ways to go! It had warmed up quite a bit but not yet started to rain at this point. When the rain did come about two hours later, it was most welcome.
One of the signs warning you not to do what we were doing. Actually, what were doing was a bit more than the sign was talking about...
Starting to drizzle... It would eventually turn into a decent downpour before reaching the top.
Made it!
We all had rooms in Tusayan for the night. Got showered, ate much Mexican food and drank many beers and margaritas. Next morning, we all piled in my truck for the four hour drive back to our starting point to pick up the other vehicles. From there just the long drive home.
Total of almost 1,200 miles driven and counting the walk to where my truck was parked about 25 miles hiked. Too much fun! Looking forward to doing it again.
- DAA
The statistics of a rim to rim day hike are a little bit daunting for a whiskey soaked, tobacco stained, soft and weak guy like me. It's 24 miles, from the North Rim, down to the Colorado river then back up to the South Rim. With about 5600 feet of elevation loss going down the first 14 miles and 4400 feet of elevation gain going up the last 10 miles.
Five of us made the trek. Two of our group run marathons. One has done the hike before just last year. One is a 17 year old athlete. Then me. With me being the oldest by anywhere from 35 to 10 years. I was just hoping not to slow the group down. Told them repeatedly not to wait up for me if I fell behind. But, they insisted that we would start together and finish together.
As it turned out, I didn't really hold us up, or if I did, not by much.
The logistics of a rim to rim hike are a little bit of a pain. From our starting point at the North Kaibab trail near the North Rim visitors center, to our ending point at the Bright Angel trail head at the South Rim visitors center, is only a 24 mile hike. But to drive between them, is about 210 miles, about a four hour drive.
So, I headed down Thur. night. Pulled over around midnight near House Rock valley road and caught a few zzz's in the back of my truck. Fri. morning I got up and continued on to the South Rim. Where I got on a shuttle van for an almost five hour ride back to the North Rim, where my hiking companions awaited.
By the time we met and drove back to our campsite outside the park, it was full dark. After I setup my tent, we grilled steaks and potatoes and sat around a nice campfire sipping whiskey and such. By the time we all went to bed at around 10pm, it was already below freezing.
After not getting much sleep the night before, when my alarm went off inside my tent at 3am it seemed like my head had just barely hit the pillow! But, I was up, dressed, had my camp gear all stowed, had got a fire going, had already eaten breakfast and was smoking a cigar and sipping my second cup of coffee before any of the others started to surface. Clearly, we weren't going to make our intended start time of 4am, young folks haven't learned how to handle their whiskey yet
.But, better late than never! At about 5:20am, we finally started down the trail.
My companions at the start.
A few miles in as it started to get light. The lights below are other hikers ahead of us on the trail in the dark.
We couldn't have asked for better weather. It was fairly cool, mostly overcast and for a bonus it started to rain on the last part.
Just a bunch of pics from along the trail.
In this one, our starting point is that furthest visible rim. The end is still quite a ways to go! It had warmed up quite a bit but not yet started to rain at this point. When the rain did come about two hours later, it was most welcome.
One of the signs warning you not to do what we were doing
. Actually, what were doing was a bit more than the sign was talking about...
Starting to drizzle... It would eventually turn into a decent downpour before reaching the top.
Made it!
We all had rooms in Tusayan for the night. Got showered, ate much Mexican food and drank many beers and margaritas. Next morning, we all piled in my truck for the four hour drive back to our starting point to pick up the other vehicles. From there just the long drive home.
Total of almost 1,200 miles driven and counting the walk to where my truck was parked about 25 miles hiked. Too much fun! Looking forward to doing it again.
- DAA
