I got to hike the Grand Canyon!

[CouesWhitetail]

Last week some friends invited my husband and I to hike the grand canyon with them. They had reservations for 10 to stay at a cabin in Phantom Ranch, but some of their group had cancelled so they had openings. My husband and I only had a few days notice, but we still managed to clear our schedules and get ready for the trip. I sure am glad we went! What an amazing experience.

 

We had 8 people in our group and here is a photo of us in the early morning light as we are getting ready to drop down the South Kaibab trail.

 

 

and here are some pics of the beginning of that trail. we had some snow and ice on the trail in the first half mile or so, but nothing that caused any trouble.

 

 

 

 

Here are some more pics of us on the trail. The first is of my husband, otherwise known as superman

 

 

 

 

and me, resting my tired legs:

 

 

 

Some panoramic views:

 

[BASS]

Very cool photos. Thanks for posting them.

[CouesWhitetail]

And some pics of the mules that were frequently seen on the trail hauling gear and people on the trail.

 

 

 

 

 

The trail down is steep and jarring on the knees but really not very hard. It's just long and relentless and so my legs were really sore the next day. The trail down is full of steps, many of which are much larger than a regular step.

 

here are some more views of the trail:

 

 

Phantom ranch is up the side drainage that has the yellow cottonwood trees in it.

 

 

We had a close encounter with some young bighorn sheep on the way down too. I had stopped to look at some birds when I caught motion out of the corner of my eye. I looked up and saw a bighorn sheep probably less than 50 yards uphill from me. It was surprised and ran across the slope and over a large rock. When it did that another sheep popped up on that far side of the rock and scared the first sheep again and then it ran straight down and crossed the trail near us and went onto a rock outcropping. Here is a digiscoped photo of the young ram.

 

 

and here is a view of where he was after we were quite aways below him.

[CouesWhitetail]

here are some photos of the lower part of the trail as you get closer to the suspension bridge you have to cross to get to the other side of the colorado river.

 

 

 

 

Staying at Phantom ranch is a great experience and the really nice thing is that you get good food and lodging and don't have to carry all that stuff down with you. Since it was near Christmas, they had decorated the doors of the cabins with a fragrant fir wreath.

 

 

 

 

We stayed down there for two nights and on the day we spent down there we did some hiking up some side trails. One goes up to Ribbon Falls (which my tired legs didn't quite make it to) and it goes through an amazing canyon with a nice creek flowing through it. We saw a really neat bird called a Dipper and that bird can literally walk underwater. It sits near the water and then just hops in and walks under all the rapids and such looking for invertebrates to eat. Very cool bird. Here is a photo:

 

[CouesWhitetail]

At Phantom Ranch there were two turkeys that spent their time begging for food from the visitors. It was rather amusing since everytime you came out of your cabin they would run up to you and look at you with the expression of "don't you have any grain to give us?" here are some photos:

 

 

 

 

After enjoying our stay at Phantom ranch we hiked out early on Friday and went up the Bright Angel Trail. That is a very beautiful hike out and not all that hard. It's long, about 10 miles but anyone used to hard hiking for Coues deer hunting can do it without much trouble. We met lots of neat people on the trail and even bumped into a family that had hiked down the trail about a mile or two just to have lunch. They shared their wine and cheese and sausage with us. It was great!! We were at an amazing overlook and it made for a perfect setting.

 

Also on the way up we saw several mule deer. This nice buck was just 10 yards or so away. He was following a group of does.

 

 

 

 

 

 

It was a great experience and I highly recommend it if you have the time and interest. It's not a real hard hike since it's on a trail, but it's not something to take too lightly. There was an older lady that hiked the day we went in and she had to get a medivac helicopter ride out because she blew out her knee.

 

December seemed to be the perfect time to do this hike. The foliage was beautiful at the ranch and the weather was perfect! Probably in the 50's most of the time and that made it so I only drank a quart of water on the way down and probably less than two quarts on the way up. The views were just stunning and changed all the time. Great hike.

 

Anyone else here done the same hike? How did you like it?

 

Amanda

[stanley]

Yikes Amanda, that is awesome!!!! Once in a lifetime experience for sure!!!

 

Thanks for sharing.

 

S.

 

 

PS: MERRY CHRISTMASS & HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!

[jamaro]

Cool..

Jason

[azpackhorse]

That looks like a gob of fun, I have always wanted to do it!

 

Thanks for sharing your adventure.

[Kilimanjaro]

great post Amanda!! Looks like a great hike!!

[Ron G.]

Great pictures and story Amanda! The Grand Canyon is an awesome place. I've hiked several of the trails, but it's been a while since I've been there. If possible, try and do a raft trip through the canyon. While expensive, I feel they're worth every penny. A motorized trip will take you about 8 days to do the length of the canyon from Lee's Ferry to Diamond Creek, just above Lake Mead. Very fun and relaxing! Once again, nice pictures!

 

Ron

[El Fuego]

Amanda,

 

Thank you for the wonderful post and pictures, along with the brief vacation from work!

 

[rabidApache]

Hey there Amanda,

I just had just completed a two week stay on the Bright Angel maintaining the Fish Weir near the Foot Bridge. Did you notice the funny contraption with all the alum. rods and cage near the confluence. We were camped out near the second foot bridge (silver colored one) about Mid-Nov.

The S. kaibab trail is an excellent hike, I thought the hike down was tough.

Did you do the Kaibab skip/hop from step to step on the trail. I'm short so it catches me about the middle of my stride too. Talk about sore calves....the following morning . Notice other hikers doing the Grand Canyon "waddle". Excellent pixs.

I recognized them turkeys! They would actually chase tourists around the campsites LOL. I had to rescue a couple that were camped near us. They (turkeys) had the campers standing on the table terrified and yelling for assistance. Too funny.

dewey jr

[CouesWhitetail]

Dewey,

 

Wow, must have been a great two weeks for you down there! And yes, I was doing the "waddle" for a couple days after that hike down the south kaibab.

 

I didn't see the fish weir, but I guess there were some fisheries people while we were there doing some work. I didn't get to talk with them, but someone else in our group saw them.

 

Great turkey story! I can't imagine being afraid of those turkeys! hehehe

 

Did you ever get to see Ribbon Falls while you were down there? That's a neat hike.

 

Amanda

[DUG]

Seeing those pictures bring back a lot of memories. My friend and I did a rim to rim to rim hike about 16 years ago. Did almost 43 miles in 19 hours. One year a group from work hiked down to Phantom Ranch. There were turkeys down there back then, too. I remember seeing a huge mule deer buck hanging around the cabins.

Hope to do another hike down there soon. Thanks for the story and pics.

[TwoGuns]

Amanda, thanks for sharing your story and photos, seems as though you all had a terriffic trip. It brought back a lot of great memories, as we used to take our basketball team from Yavapai College to the canyon and hike down and out in one day. It was a rough day indeed, and you would have laughed if you had seen our group...a bunch of 6'10" kids pounding the trail in Nike basketball shoes. Quite a sight. And, just in case anyone is thinking of hiking down and out in a day, think again. It was good for our players to experience, and good team-building activity, but we couldnt practice for a week afterward.

 

twoguns