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2010-11-26 01:01
in Hiking
After a Nice flight from Palo Alto and Sunset and Sunrise viewing from the South Rim, it was time to start our hike.
The trail was slightly snowy at the top, but became good very quickly, with smooth sailing/hiking all the way to Bright Angel. The only hard part for me was going down with over 50lbs on my back (a bit hard o ny knees).
Here is a picture of what the hike looked like:
Day 1: South Kaibab Trail
After hiking the Rim trail at sunrise, we went backpacking down South Kaibab Trail to Bright Angel Camp.
Day1: Phantom Ranch and Bright Angel Camp
After a relatively easy 8 miles and 4h30, we got down to Phantom Ranch and setup camp at Bright Angel Camp. The Camp was pretty busy, but eh, you can't expect otherwise around thanksgiving.
After setting camp and saying hi to the local deer, we went to Phantom Ranch to listen to a ranger led presentation.
We got to learn about rocks :)
This shows the hike back up:
Day2: Bright Angel Camp to Indian Garden
The original plan was to hike around the canyon bottom on the second day and sleep at Indian Garden. Unfortunately, the weather forecast was for bad weather the next day (rain and snow, which wasn't great for hiking, and not great for flying out either if the plane is iced up and the runway snowed in).
So, we elected to get out early and go through Indian Garden directly back to the top.
this looks the way to get up :)
we trailled and passed the mules a couple of times
Old mine shaft
the mules beat us there by a little bit :)
Day2: Indian Garden to South Rim
We took a break at our supposed camp site for the night, Indian Garden, since we had reached it by 11:00.
After the quick lunch at Indian Garden, we pushed for the top (4500ft climb total and 11 miles up in 6h30):
back to the top, in record time!
After getting back up by 14:45 or so, we cleaned up quickly, and got a cab to the airport to fly to Vegas before sunset. If it weren't for the cab almost taking an hour to show up (!), everything else was perfect.
Georef Map
If you wish, here is a link to a big georeferenced map of Vegas/Grand Canyon Trip. |
