“Many precede and many will follow / A young girl’s dreams no longer hollow / It takes the shape of a place out west” – The Dixie Chicks
I don’t think there’s any space more wide open than Grand Canyon National Park. Even the one star reviews acknowledge that it’s “. . . A big crack in the ground”. Today we ventured a mile and a half down the Bright Angel Trail into this marvelous crack. The experience was something like my first visit to Bryce Canyon in that it only whet my appitite to descend further.
For quite a while I’ve wanted to hike to Phantom Ranch at the bottom of the canyon. The hike doesn’t seem that bad on paper: 4,800 feet and 10 or so miles. This is very nearly the same elevation gain and distance we’re hoping to cover in our summit attempt of Mt. Elbert later this summer. Unfortunately, it is 111 in the canyon today, making it a trek only for the truly avid and/or insane. On the bright side, Zoe has been the most resistant to the prospect of a complete canyon hike and I think this hike may have changed her mind. My fingers are crossed for Spring Break 2020!
Upon returning to the rim we headed to one of the cafeterias in the Grand Canyon Village in search of an ice cold Coors Lite. We got a few odd stares since it was only 10:30 in the morning, but the frosty brew was worth it. With an entire afternoon ahead of us we decided to walk the twoish miles from the Village to the Visitor Center along the Rim Trail. The views across the canyon were as spectacular as the idiocy of the throngs of people walking with us. The girls are planning a post specially dedicated to stupid people in the national parks, so I don’t want to spoil their thunder. Two highlights though were the kid who got bit by a squirrel while trying to feed/pet it and the guy trying to climb down the canyon wall despite the pleas of his family. Morons.
By this point in the day we were all feeling a bit hot and warn out so we took the Greenway Trail, a less scenic but deserted express route to the bar we spent last night avoiding camping at. We also got to see James, our server from last night again while enjoying a last Grand Canyon IPA.
In desperate need of showers we walked to our hotel for the night and were able to check into a room. While the accommodations are much better than last night the internet isn’t so I’m not sure if we’ll have pictures again today. Fingers crossed that Zion NP, tomorrow’s destination has better wifi. Tonight we’re going to splurge on a fancy dinner out at El Tovar. We’ve had awesome meals at several of the other old NPS lodges so we have high hopes for tonight.
