Backpacking the Grand Canyon... Complete with lots and lots of pictures!

I just finished backpacking the grand canyon. 28 miles in two days, a trip of a life time, and it was amazing, but it totally kicked my butt. I drove to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon after work wednesday night, and pitched my tent in the rain. I spent a very cold night tossing and turning in a wet tent. In the morning as I drove to the trailhead, it started snowing. I was completely debating the trip, but then the sun began to peak through the clouds. There was a low fog hanging in the valley when I initially started the hike.

The first stop was 1.7 miles down at Supai Tunnel. Here was also the first stop for water. The sun was still out, but the clouds were covering the valley so I didn't get a lot of great views of the canyon, which probably was good so that I didn't know exactly what was in store for me... Looking back after the hike, the canyon was completely daunting. Fortunately I dropped my gear halfway down and pitched the tent before the rain hit.

It rained the last four miles down and the last three miles up. What I didn't get to see on the way down though, I got to see on the way back, and vis-versa. It worked out well. I hiked 21 miles the first day, 14 miles from the rim down to the Colorado river and Phantom Ranch, and then 7.2 miles back up to Cottonwood campground. I had to hike for about 2.5 hours in the dark the first day, but fortunately it was almost a full moon so I had enough light to hike without a flashlight.

I crawled into my tent that night and completely crashed, but fortunately my tent was dry again! I woke up once for about a minute because I was cold. I rolled over, grabbed my ski hat, pulled my hood up and curled back up in my sleeping bag. I slept so well.

The second day, I had only 6.8 miles to go, but they were all up-hill. It took me 5.5 hours to hike out of the canyon that day. One of the interesting things along the way, was this little spot (above) where water was actually bubbling out of the ground. It was really strange.

It was really the last four miles that were the steepest part of the trail. Right before the substantial uphill portion, there's a place called roaring springs, where a waterfall shoots straight out of the side of the cliff. Right at the base of it, was also a helipad. The whole scene felt very Jurassic Park-esque, especially with the clearing fog in the morning of the first day.

Above is the Bridge to the South Kaibab Trail (I was on the North Kaibab trail). This continues up to the South Rim. There's another bridge just down river from this one as well that heads to the south rim on the Bright Angel Trail. Bright Angel Creek, is the stream that followed the trail all the way down the North Kaibab Trail. That's also the creek I am crossing on the bridge in the picture below. The trail started out in hilly aspen groves, then traversed along cliff faces. After reaching the bottom, the valley opened up for 5-6 miles, eventually to close in again in what's known as "the box" as seen in the photo below.

Hiking back up the canyon on the first day when it was dark, I could see the lights of El Tovar, the lodge on the south rim, on that cliff face in the distance, seen in the picture below. This picture was taken about halfway out of the canyon, and the Colorado runs right in front of the south rim cliffs seen in the distance. That's a good example of how far I had to hike, especially since that was only about 7 miles away out of the total 14 one-way.

The picture above shows how far I have to hike still on the second day. I have to hike up above the cloud cover seen in the distance of the picture. It was an exhausting trip out. The picture below shows how far I've come, complete with the helipad as a tiny dot in the distance. Once down at the bottom, the trail turns to the right and continues down the canyon, but you can't see that far.

Both of these pictures show how the trail is cut into the side of the cliff at the beginning as well as the end of the hike. But, on the hike out, the fog wasn't as heavy so you could see more views of

the canyon, you could also see how freaking far, I have left to hike. OY!

The above picture shows Supai Tunnel, this means only 1.7 miles left!!!!! I was so happy, unfortunately it started raining for that last little bit. It was beautiful though and as I said a trip of a lifetime. I'm so glad I did it and if I do get to hike it again, I will definitely not attempt it in just 2 days. It was exhausting, and other than some bruised and sore toes, my muscles aren't too bad. Fortunately, I'm not walking with a limp anymore. I've recovered, and it was amazing!!!!!!!!!!

The Mystic.... Hippie Commune, complete with hotsprings

I know it's been a long time, but I've had a full past few weeks. The week before this last one, was my wonderful and beautiful friend Mykensie's 22nd birthday, so I drove up to Provo and had a wonderful date with her. A few days later, she ran her first marathon, 26 miles in 4.5 hours. She's so impressive.
This past week on my days off, we went to a place called Mystic Hotsprings, which is about an hour and a half north of Bryce Canyon in the town of Monroe. The hot springs is very representative of a hippie commune, complete with old hippie buses you can rent to sleep in, and of course Tie-Dye. When we pulled up, after dark, and checked in, the man told us that our bus was the large blue one with the whale painted on the side of it, as seen below.

It was an old school bus, with an extension chord running into the bus through one of the windows. This connected to a power strip that operated a lamp and a heater. No other electronics filled the bus. We hiked up to the hotsprings that night and hung out in old iron bath tubs under the stars and the yellow moon. It was quite amazing, and I have to say, much better than the day time, solely because the stars were so absolutely phenomenal.

Above is the fleet of buses, and I have to say that I am super glad I had my sleeping bag and didn't sleep in their linens. But, I think my favorite part, was when the lamp was turned off, the cieling was glowing with a bunch of dots and swirl patterns meant to represent the stars. I'm pretty sure the bus was decommissioned after the days of Grateful Dead following, but it totally felt like a flashback to the descriptions and literary representations of the life of the well-known, "hippie".

In the morning, we hiked back up to check out the hot springs in the daylight. It was really cool to see the water pouring over these built up rock formations, which are actually growing over and around the bath tubs they fill. Below is the top tubs which were the hottest and also the most secluded. They looked off towards the mountains with their fresh layer of snow and the surrounding valley.

There were troughs just dug into the hillside that channeled the water into the tubs and the lower pools. Apparently, the water actually boils out of the ground at it's above-ground starting point. This is the main trough, however, that leads towards the upper bathtubs.

These three tubs is where we spent most of our time hanging out and watching the stars. At one point there was a bright orange crescent moon that rested just inside the teepee before disappearing behind the mountains in the distance. We met some lovely traveling artists and of course the family that owns the hot springs. Having spent the last four years in Eugene, which is notorius for it's liberal and hippie population, aka the country fair being a perfect example, this hot spring reminded me entirely of that area. However, it was noticeable the conformity that must be necessary in a place like conservative rural Utah. Before going up to the tubs, there was a big sign reading, no alcohol, no nudity, no glass. There were also gender separate bathrooms, and changing rooms. The tie-dye and the blown glass and all the other elements was a scene straight from Eugene, however, there was no cougar hotsprings-esque nudity or modesty. It was very interesting.

After we came back, my friend Dash and I hiked part of Fairyland Loop and I got probably my first and only picture of myself on a hoodoo, as seen below. (Yes Mom and Dad, I do understand the dangers involved with walking out on narrow and crumbling rock structures, but as you can see we aren't standing over the window where the rock is more dangerous!) hahaha. Although this looks more like a rock wall than anything, it is a long narrow spine of rock that is jutting from the side. Still, I'm excited I have at least one picture!

I worked on Thursday, but we just adjusted the schedule, so everyone in the gift shop is working four 12 hour days. This ultimately meant that my days off switched to Friday, Saturday, Sunday. So I then had Friday off. On Friday, Dash and I went hiking down at the southernmost end of the park on a trail called Riggs Spring Loop. As you can see below, we are definitely in the middle of Fall down/over here in Utah.

The trail was an 8.8 mile loop and offered above and below views of the red cliffs known to Bryce, but this area of the park also offers more valley views as well, even as far as seeing glimpses of the Grand Staircase. It was kind of a cloudy day once we got down there, but only caught a little bit of a thunder storm, which is better than the four inches we had the week before. One of the interesting things about rain in Utah is that when it rains, all the washes become full. So, on my drive back from Provo, there were rivers everywhere. This is a phenomenal place to actually measure how much four inches of rain actually is. In Oregon, or more specifically Eugene. When it rains, nine months out of the year, the volume of the Millrace, the Willamette or the Mckensie rivers doesn't really seem to change that drastically, but in Utah, you almost always feel like you're in the middle of a flood when it rains.

The hike started downhill, like every hike in this park, and traversed across the ridge of these red cliffs and hoodoos through Yovimpa point and down to Riggs Spring campground which was absolutely beautiful. Once at Riggs, we had about five miles left. This was all up hill, but it was so gradual, so even though we were going up hill, I wasn't breathing as heavily as I normally do when going uphill. But, after four miles of uphill my calves were cramping and are still sore today, two days later.

I'm not sure which route would have been better to have five mile gradual downhill and three mile steep uphill or the way that we did it. But it's not a well traveled trail in the park, and was absolutely beautiful, especially in the fall and at 9,000 feet.

So I had Friday off, worked 12 hours Saturday, and then had Sunday off. Tomorrow, I go back, do three 12's in a row, then hike the Grand Canyon Thursday and Friday, that is, if everything goes according to plan and it doesn't snow! Yes, the snow is coming, it's getting cold, and a little rainy right now. I have three weeks left in Bryce Canyon and I'm not sure that I've experienced everything that I want to, there's so much to see. But that also means, in three weeks I leave on my six week road trip and will face so many more adventures. I'm so happy with my decisions after college thus far. hahaha!

The Great Basin and underground

I had a really big craving for homemade salsa this past week and had to drive 20 miles to find the ingredients to make it. Fortunately some of my friends, Val, Matt, and John (seen below) were awesome enough to ride to Tropic, Utah with me. On the way back we stopped at Mossy Cave and hiked in to both the cave and the waterfall. Below, we are in front of the cave and above is the creek before the waterfall.

Being that this was actually still part of Bryce Canyon, of course there has to be hoodoos. You had to hike across a log above the waterfall however to get to these rock formations and only Val and John had the energy or courage enough to do so. I was tired after working at 7:30 in the morning, so I just hung out by the water for a bit.

This same day, a very sweet man came into the gift shop and offered me the use of his cabin at Lake Tahoe whenever I wanted it. He also asserted the idea that he was a happily married man and that this was not in fact a pick up but rather he really like my curiousity and personality and found me to be a good person. Therefore, he offered me his cabin. In spite of exhaustion, it was a pretty good day, and it was also my friday, which made it infinitely better!

On my days off, Dash and I went to Great Basin National Park just across the border into Nevada. It's a relatively large park but not as well established as Bryce or Zion or similar ones. At the base was a town of approximately 86, but they did have a bar. It was so nice to be in a real bar again, not a family restaurant that serves beer. It was a good scene, lively, and we befriended some locals. The first day we got there, we headed up to the top of Wheeler Peak and hike the alpine lakes trail to Stella and Theresa Lakes. It was also fall, so you can obviously see the amazing turning of the aspens.

The lake loop was beautiful and very peaceful. There were lots of aspen leaves that had already fallen and were crunching under our feet. The area was laced with the scent of bristlecone pines however, which are in fact one of the oldest living things on the planet, some surviving around 5,000 years today and dating back beyond that. The top of the mountain was above 10,000 feet however, and although I've been living at 8,000, I still got an altitude headache while we were hiking.

There is a cave in Great Basin National Park as well called Lehman Cave. It was absolutely gorgeous and we got up early to go explore (on a tour of course). But, the cave was really unique and surprisingly much more interesting than either of us had anticipated. A lot of caves I have been in are much more open and you are cordoned away from the structures and the walls, but this one was very tight and at times you had to duck or contort your body to slip through creases or openings in the walkway. It was very cool and very much worth the $10 ticket price for the tour.

After the cave tour, we drove back up to the top and hiked to Rock Glacier, as seen below. Granted, it was a small glacier, but I was just shocked that Nevada did or could even have a glacier. The hike was amazing and offered phenomenal views of the great basin valley. The trail stopped at 10,800 feet, but we were still a ways away from the Glacier, so I decided to hike up the rocks to get a closer look. It was well worth it, but I have very little desire to do it again. It was essentially crawling across a boulder field.

The area is gorgeous and I was so happy with how amazing the park was. It was much more beautiful than I had anticipated, which is most often how it is when you go to our world's wild places. I'm really glad I went in fall too, as the colors were absolutely beautiful. It was another successful adventure and I very much look forward to the ones to come in the future.