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Grand Canyon

When I came back from Nepal I was still psyched to do more hikes, even though I had been hiking every day for several weeks. I felt like I was in pretty good shape after all that trekking and had even lost some weight. I did do some hikes in Idaho on my own, to Bench Lake in the Sawtooths and to Stack Rock in the Boise Mountains. Then a few rainy days in Boise brought snow to the mountains and the Idaho high country was pretty much closed down for the season.

I still had one hike that I really wanted to do though, that I had been thinking about even while I was trekking in Nepal. I wanted to go to the Grand Canyon and hike down to the Colorado River and back up to the rim. Since backcountry permits are hard to get for staying overnight, I would have to do it in a single day. Checking the weather it still looked good. I talked to Sandy and she was up for a trip. Our friend Mary Beth, who hadn't been to the Grand Canyon but had it on her bucket list, was anxious to go as well. Since it was late in the season, we could get lodging in the park even on such short notice. We made our reservations, arranged a dogsitter for Abby, and the trip was on.

It was going to be hectic because I had made arrangements to go to BottosCon, a wargaming convention, in Vancouver British Columbia, the weekend before the Grand Canyon trip. I would only be back for one day before we would leave again. Unfortunately the day I was supposed to drive to Vancouver there was a major blizzard in the Cascades. When I saw that in the forecast I cancelled out. Turned out to be a good thing as I90 was closed down for a few hours. While I was bummed to miss out on wargaming, it did make getting ready for the trip to the Grand Canyon easier.

We left early on Tuesday morning, picking up Mary Beth at her house. Unfortunately we didn't leave early enough because we hit heavy traffic on the freeway heading through Boise. Once we got past the commute traffic it was an easy drive. Since MB had never been to Zion before either I picked a route that passed through a portion of the park. We didn't have time to do any hiking or to take the shuttle into Zion Canyon but at least she got an idea of what the scenery in Zion is like. It was very late in the afternoon so a lot of the cliffs were shaded - not good light for pictures. But after we left the park and drove towards Mt. Carmel Junction, we did get a beautiful view of the sunset turning the Elkheart Cliffs red. The effect only lasted for a few minutes but we were able to find a viewpoint where we could pull off the highway and enjoy it while it lasted.

We stayed at the Comfort Suites in Page Arizona, the same place that Sandy and I had stayed on the way down on our last trip to the Grand Canyon. We planned to eat at a restaurant called Bonkers. It had a varied menu and with a name like that, I figured that it might have a cool tshirt. But even though Page isn't that big, we had a lot of trouble finding it. Even Google seemed confused. Eventually we found it but it turned out that it was closed for the season. Because it was dark we had driven right by without seeing it. We ended up going to Stromboli's, which was the same place we had eaten on our last trip. It was like deja vu all over again. We enjoyed the food and had a good bottle of wine so things turned out well.

I must have been anxious to get going because next morning I was up super early and even made a trip to Walmart and the local C-Store before Sandy and Mary Beth were up. Then after breakfast it was an easy two hour drive to Grand Canyon National Park.

We spent most of our first day playing tourist. As you enter the park from the east the first place to stop is at Desert View. It features a spectacular view of the east end of the Grand Canyon and far to the north the Painted Desert stretches off into the distance. It's the highest point on the south rim. Here the inner canyon is not as steep or pronounced as further west so the Colorado River is easily visible almost 5000 feet below.

Besides the view of the canyon, Desert View is known for the Watchtower. Built in 1935, it was designed by Mary Colter to resemble an ancient native american structure. It does a good job, right down to the deliberately designed cracks in the walls to the weathering of the exterior bricks. The inside resembles the interior of a kiva, a structure built by the Pueblo Indians for religious ceremonies, and is decorated with beautiful native-style art.

It was a bright, sunny morning so we took lots of pictures of the canyon and of the watchtower. There was a brisk breeze blowing which made it chilly, so pretty soon we moved inside to escape the wind. We climbed the 85 steps to the top and enjoyed the 360 degree view from the top room of the tower. Afterwards we stopped at the gift shop on the ground floor, as well as at the nearby gift shop and grocery store in another building. We made the first of many souvenir purchases. For once Sandy got as many tshirts as I did (two) right off the bat. Three if you count the one she got as a gift for someone else.

From Desert View it's about twenty five miles to Grand Canyon Village along Desert View Drive. The road is always close to the rim and there are numerous viewpoints where you can park to get a spectacular view of the canyon. We stopped at a couple of them. After a while your mind just saturates from all of the incredible scenery. We stopped at the Visitor Center but it didn't have much to see. It's mainly a place to get information from Park Rangers. From there we took a walk to Mather Point, one of the grandest of the many viewpoints of the canyon, and walked along the rim for about an hour.

By now it was well after noon and we were all hungry and definitely ready for lunch. Our next stop was the Market Plaza and the Yavapai Lodge Restaurant. They had a totally automated system for ordering food. You placed your order at a kiosk and then sat down till your number came up on the display. Pretty cool actually and very efficient since there were lots of kiosks for ordering. No waiting around in line. I had a pizza while the ladies had burgers, while we all added a glass of wine to celebrate arriving at the park. Lunch was good. Either that or maybe we were just really hungry.

After lunch we checked in at the Maswik Lodge. Our rooms were really nice and not that expensive, another advantage (besides the fact that there were no crowds) for coming during the off season. We spent some time checking out the historic buildings in Grand Canyon Village that were right along the rim. We checked out the various restaurants, each one of which was different, as well as all the souvenir and gift shops, which were also all different. Finally Sandy and Mary Beth took a rest before dinner while I went to check out the trailheads for tomorrow's big hike.

After evaluating all our choices, we settled on the closest choice for dinner, the Maswik Pizza Pub. They were slow but the pizza was pretty good and there was a lot of it. It wasn't exactly carbo loading but we all filled up when we finished, so that we were fortified for the heavy-duty hiking that we had planned for the next day.