Sunday, May 19, 2013

THE Grand Canyon

Where to begin is as puzzling as this 2 billion year old land formation itself. I have been to the Grand Canyon once before as a 5 year old on a family vacation. I mainly remember being very small and my mother worrying about me falling 9,000 feet to my death. I have been anticipating my return for years.

The drive to the Grand Canyon was mainly unpleasant with the whole Hoover Dam fiasco and a Subway experience that I'd prefer to not relive. Arriving to the park was a major relief. We pulled in right before sunset and checked out the jaw dropping views at Mather Point. It was truly incredible walking up to the rim together not knowing what to expect. Beauty, beauty everywhere! We climbed out to swing our legs over the edge and drooled until it got dark.

The next day we quickly decided to stay another night. There simply wouldn't have been enough time otherwise. We decided on going in via the South Kiabab trail and looking for Skeleton Point, a 3 mile trek along the spine of a glorious ridge. The way down is a bit of a blur. We were a pair of giddy wig wams frolicking down the switch backs. The people passing us in the other direction were not nearly as amused by the part of the hike that increases in elevation. Halfway at Cedar Point we befriended some boys from Georgia who would later become lifesavers. As we continued on we finally started realizing that the way back, climbing up over 2,000 feet, would not be as enjoyable. Our worries disappeared when we finally made it to the viewpoint where we caught a glimpse of the Colorado River rushing and winding doing its eroding thing. It was awesome. We were IN the canyon! We gazed for a while until deciding to get the heck out of there and get a taste of our medicine.

Guess what? We ended up going back up way faster than we came down! In part because of all the dilly daddling on the way down but also because us super women ladies know how to move our cabooses.

The clouds had been heavy and we worried about it getting dark. We had packed up our campsite in the morning and prepared to leave that day or move to another site. We decided to head east to the campground the Georgia boys had mentioned and said "was not crowded at all." First though, we had to check out the viewpoints along the way including from the top of the historic Desert View Watch Tower. The canyon is a wonder from every angle. We caught one last view of the place at sunset and then arrived to the only other campground on the south rim that was at this time FULL. We did some more dilly daddly giggling about our wig wamness until we found a campsite with Georgia plates. Horray!! We found our friends who were more than happy to share the site. We chatted about our cross country travels over rye, wheat and free flowin' rhymes from my one and only co pilot and "J Cole." The battle was hardly one. The female prevailed as usual and left those boys stumped about who in the world these northwest hooligans were.

Overall, it was a hoot! The Grand Canyon was good.















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