Grand Canyon.

We visited the Grand Canyon from Sunday to Tuesday. It’s hard to put into words such a spectacular place.

The drive from Moab was long, and the sun felt hot through the window. However, by the time we got to the Grand Canyon, there was a lot of snow on the ground around the rim. And it was cold. The rangers at the gate had built a four-foot-tall snowman. Brrrr.

We drove along the rim and took in the view, which was amazing. I even threw a few snowballs into the canyon. Huzzah! We saw a lot of elk on the road on our drive to the campsite, but we got there just fine. We ate a quick dinner, played Quiddler, and hit the sack.

The next morning, we ate pancakes and then drove over to the Backcountry Office to get a permit for the canyon. We got the permit, snapped a few photos of the mules, and then packed up and got ready for the hike into the canyon.

The hike down was really good, although it was cold in the shadows. It took us three hours to reach Indian Gardens, our campground in the canyon. We set up camp, and then hiked all the way down to the Colorado River. We dipped our feet and hands in, ate a snack, snapped a few photos, and then hiked back up to our campsite, where we ate chili for dinner. A big highlight of the evening was watching the full moon rising over the canyon. We played a couple games of Quiddler and then slept.

When we woke up in the morning, we packed up, ate a couple Powerbars, threw on our packs, and started the arduous climb out of the canyon. It was tough, but not as bad as we thought it would be. We did the fist 1.7 miles in 50 minutes, and the next two 1.5-mile sections each in 45 minutes. Not bad. When we got to the top, we weighed our packs, put them in Geronimo, and then got beer and hamburgers at the park restaurant. Then we hit the road for Gallup, New Mexico.
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