Hiking the Grand Canyon

Another early start on Saturday, as we had to get to a lodge in the park at 6.30am to see if we'd managed to get the accommodation at Phantom Ranch. Unfortunately there was only one male space left, and no female places (its a dormitory style set up). In hindsight, this was a blessing in disguise, as we found it tough enough doing one day's hiking!

So we jumped on the hiker's express shuttle bus to take us to the start of the South Kaibab trail. This was recommended as the most picturesque of the one day hikes (view from ooh-aah point near the top pictured - can you find me?), but also the steepest! The early morning sunshine was beautiful as we gradually descended into the canyon. We were very excited by the views and kept stopping to take lots of photos, as all the other hikers overtook us.

After a couple of hours, and about 3 miles, we got to Skeleton Point (pictured), which is where we could first glimpse the Colorado River (lower right in photo) and they recommend turning back for a one day hike. However, it was only 9.30am and we really didn't feel very tired at all at that point. So we decided to continue a further 1.5 miles to the next rest area. This was the steepest and most exposed part of the track (final picture), and both of us started to ache on the way down (not a good sign when you know you have to climb back up the same way!) It was beautiful though, and we passed some mules on the way. After a brief rest, we started our climb back up. We were quicker than we thought we'd be (they suggest it takes twice as long to climb up as to climb down). However, the last mile and half was pretty tough, and we had to take multiple breaks to admire the view!

We eventually made it back up to the top about 7 hours after we started, thoroughly exhausted. We headed back to the lodge where we'd parked the car, for a welcome beer and snack. Then we hobbled off to listen to a ranger talk a little about the California Condor, who have been specially bred and released into the wild at the canyon. (One featured on a previous post of our trip to the San Diego Wild Animal park). Unfortunately we didn't manage to see any at the canyon, although several other people at the talk had. But we did learn how to spot the difference between a condor and a turkey vulture in flight!

We then dragged our sore limbs back to the car and drove an hour down the road to a town called Williams, where we found a lovely motel room on the original Route 66, and crashed out for the night.