The Way UP!

Our second night at camp included a typical Ryan scene...

 

 

Rather nonchalantly Ryan pulled out his scorpion hunting gear. Yes - scorpion hunting gear. Without telling us why, Ryan, Patrick & Andrew directed me and Courts over to the side of the cabin before turning on the UV light to reveal DOZENS of scorpions all over the cabin wall. AHhhhhh!!!!! At first we thought they were playing a practical joke on us and the scorpions were just glow in the dark stickers. We were wrong....check this guy out....

 

 

After listening to that night's ranger talk (one of the female rangers was an excellent storyteller and had a hour presentation each night - the first night was on the geological history of the canyon and the second night on the sounds of the canyon), there were mixed opinions on whether we should check inside the cabin for scorpions. We were all afraid they'd  be by our bed and we wouldn't be able to sleep!! Luckily there was only one and it was my Andrew's head on the wall.

 

 

We all slept well again and were ready to go after a full pancake, egg and coffee breakfast. The hike out takes about 6.5 hours so we started before sunup. Hiking during sunrise was spectacular and such a nice way to start the long hike out.

 

 

We took the Bright Angel trail out, which is a bit longer but not quite as steep as the South Kaibab Trail.

 

 

The first 5 of almost 10 miles weren't too bad, with the toughest part being The Devil's Corkscrew which is comprised of many, many switchbacks.

 

Luckily, the vistas along the way provided ample distraction from the slow but steadily increasing burn in everyones thighs haha

We again split into a few groups based on speed and ability. The boys trekked ahead and the Hofflanders were somewhere in the middle but we were all able to meet up at Indian Gardens for a lunch break.

At this point we could no longer see the Colorado River and could see the rim of the Canyon. Right up the middle of the shadow in the above picture is the Bright Angel Trail.  Where the shadow ends about halfway up the photo is the edge of the plateau we hiked up from the canyon floor.

 

 

The last 3-4 miles took a surprisingly long time to climb and were pretty much switchback after switchback after switchback, however, some of the most beautiful views were from this last section of the hike.

Again, if you look up the middle of the photo above (where the darker green trees and shrubs stand out) you can see the path we slowly traversed. 

Below is a good example of the type of trail and views we enjoyed the second half of our hike out.

 



Mom and Grandma had made their way to the GC the evening before and enjoyed dinner at El Tovar before taking on their duty of "Welcoming and Cheering Committee" for each of our groups.

 



The three boys and Uncle Steve for the first to make it out. They hoofed it out in under 5 hours. Seriously impressive! 

Hungry and thirsty, the four of them (plus G'ma and Mom) grabbed a table inside the resort while waiting for us slow pokes :)

 

Courts was the next out, followed by me and Dad.

It was SO nice to have people cheering you out at the very end! The last 1.5 miles were definitely the worst part for both me and Dad - I had an old injury that was flaring up and Dad's asthma was bothering him. But we made it!!

 



 

Happy times rehashing our hike out experiences with the boys relaxing in the restaurant.

Tired and a little sore - but thrilled with the whole experience.

 



Caroline was the next out.

 



And looked great. Way to go Caroline!!

We assembled a cheering crew for Jim and Karen.

 



I was seriously impressed with Jim and Karen's performance. They certainly earned one of the custom t-shirts mom had made for us and could honestly proclaim "We survived the hike!".

 



Shortly after making it out of the canyon we we got back in the cars for the ride home to Prescott where we enjoyed a big pizza dinner and photo viewing session. Dad, Mom, Courts, and Grandma had an early flight out the next morning but we were able to to swing by Nini and Poppa's before catching our flight back to CA.

 

All in all, I cannot recommend highly enough the 3-day Grand Canyon hike down to Phantom Ranch and back out. And doing it with family made the whole trip that much more memorable. If you can get a reservation, jump on it! You won't regret it!! Oh, and don't forget your walking sticks - seriously... ;)