GRAND CANYON
The Grand Canyon was the apex of our first national parks trip. After Mike had traveled to South America years earlier and saw the sites in and around Cusco and Machu Picchu, the suggestion was to save the really big and wonderful thing for last, that way nothing would pale in comparison to it. After leaving Petrified Forest and making our way to Flagstaff for the night, we took it easy because our next day was going to be packed.
Knowing that we didn’t have the necessary equipment to camp, nor had we ever camped together prior, we decided against hiking the Bright Angel Trail to the Colorado and back in a single day due to the pure logistics of it. This meant that we were gearing ourselves up for a lengthy adventure along the South Rim Trail, about 13 miles of it. After being raked over the coals at the local McDonald’s (pack your breakfast and lunch everyone), we made our way to the canyon.
Our goal once arriving was to not look at the canyon for the first time until we reached the start of our hike. This was a good plan, but it involved facing backwards and looking at the ground on the shuttle busses a lot. Upon reaching Hermit’s Rest, the furthest western point on the South Rim side, we turned and were blinded by beauty. There is nothing like that first time you see the canyon, mostly because it is so hard to comprehend it’s size, but also mostly because of it’s beauty.
We spent the final day of our trip taking in the sites of the Grand Canyon, truly appreciative of the awesomeness of nature and with the excitement that one day we would come back to hike to the bottom and to see the North Rim, which was closed during our visit.
Grand Canyon National Park is on the traditional and stolen land of the Pueblo, Hopitutskwa, Havasupai, Hualapai people.
Listen while you look! This buttons will link you to the podcast episode for this park and gallery.
