The Grand Canyon

We left Williams, AZ on Tuesday and drove the 50 some miles to the Grand Canyon National Park. On this trip is the closest we have come to being in an accident. On a two lane road a Nissan van passed us in a no passing zone and zipped in front just before hitting a truck in the oncoming lane. Some people just can't tolerate life in the slow lane.

We reserved a space in Mather Campground for two nights. Our space is equidistant from every bathhouse (that is far), but a nice spot and Rose was happy to be able to rest for a day. It's mixed use so we are in with pure tenters and RV owners who never come out of their boxes and run the generators. Gotta see Oprah!

Shuttle buses run in three loops which intersect, so you can ride from the East to the West along the South Rim just by waiting for the bus. They run either hybrids or CNG powered buses and it does cut down on the congestion in the park. The park can only be described as magnificent. One quickly runs out of superlatives. On Tuesday we hiked a bit on the Rim Trail which is paved from the main visitor's center east to Yaki Point. Many overlooks provide stunning views of the park and a photo really does not do justice but I'll put some in the post anyway.

The Grand Canyon is 277 miles long (as the Colorado flows), 10 miles across and roughly 5000 feet deep. Rocks range in age from somewhere around 2 billion years old at the basement Vishnu schist to 270 million for the Kaibab limestones at the surface. Estimates of the time taken for the canyon to actually form (based on a rate of erosion of 1 sheet of paper thickness of rock removed every year) is 5-6 million years.

Yesterday we decided that we would hike into the canyon. The most popular trails are the Bright Angel and the South Kaibab. We took the Bright Angel and set a goal of the first rest house which is 1.5 miles. The trail is well maintained and heavily used and is also the route taken for most of the mule trips which provided and additional hazard although like everything else, the mules' attempts to fertilize the trail quickly turns to dust. We hiked through three formations (about 1200 vertical feet), getting to the base of the Hermit shale before reaching the rest house where water and restrooms are provided.

Along the trail we were fortunate to see some grazing Bighorn Sheep at one of the few places where water was available.

 The mule wrangler guides the lead mule perpendicular to the path and the other mules line up. They do this periodically for rest and the make sure everyone is accounted for.

 We met two young gentlemen (in their 60s) who were finishing a 25 mile through hike. They started at the North Rim and camped at the bottom before hiking out at the South Rim. North Rim trails are steeper so it is easier to hike out at the South. One of them took this picture for us.

A good hike.

Time to check with the social director to see about today's activities (she's reading AAA books now) but we need to break camp and get showers. Later.