Sonya's Blog - Day 260 - Bright Angel Trail

Sonya’s Blogs - Day 260 - March 8th - Bright Angel Trail

Today we are hiking The Grand Canyon and we chose Bright Angel Trail. We were not sure how far we would get, we decided that we would hike for 2.5 to 3 hours down and then start back up again. This would allow us to get back before dark. It was another chilly morning, so we took our time getting out to the hike. We started our hike at 11:30.

I was taking this picture, before we started our descent and this guy totally photo-bombed it:

He then was nice enough to take a picture of the four of us, which was awesome. I promised him he would be on my blog:

From the top, it looks like the trail is dry. Once we started down and came around the second switchback we discovered that there was a lot of ice on the trail. This area doesn’t get a lot of sun, or maybe not sun at all, so the ice was quite thick in some places. It was a little touch and go in these parts. There was a sheer cliff on the one side, that we really did not want to slip over. This was not my favourite part and I was very nervous about the kids, especially Isaac. It took us about 1/2 hour to get past all the icy parts. It was a relief to be past the ice, but we had not made great distance for the amount of time we had been on the trail. We picked up the pace and made the first 1.5 mile rest house in under an hour. There are rest houses every 1.5 miles, on the way down, and these have a picnic shelter and washrooms. We had a little break here and then continued on our way.

First tunnel, we had only been on the trail for about 5 minutes at this point:

A view of the Canyon from the first tunnel. See that clump of greenery in the middle of the photo, you can see the trail coming out the other side. We will end up at that clump of trees:

Ahhh, it's a long fall down:

The second tunnel, Isaac and Blake are coming through it:

It was warming up nicely by this time, plus the temperature at the bottom of the canyon is warmer than the temperature at the top. We made it to the 3 mile rest house within the next hour and went a little ways past it to find a good place to stop for lunch. We found a nice rock and had a nice break.

Our lunch spot:

We decided to hike a bit farther into the canyon after we had finished lunch. We had been on the trail for 2.5 hours, so we decided that we would turn around at the 3 hour mark. The trail started to level off a bit, after this point, as we got into a valley. We made it to Indian Garden, but we were a little past our 3 hour mark. Isaac had already sat down on a rock and was going to wait for us. There are washrooms and a backpacking campground at Indian Garden, as well as water refilling stations. Blake and I took off to find those and Natasha sat down by Indian Garden with all our packs. Well the washrooms and water filling station were another 1/2 KM down the path! We had to pass the backcountry campground, on the way to the washroom. Blake is sold, he wants to come back and do a backcountry camping trip for 3 or 4 days so that we can really explore the Grand Canyon in earnest. I am not so sure, as I have never gone camping with only a backpack. I guess it would be an adventure! We hustled back and Isaac was coming down the path, because now he had to go to the washroom. It was getting late by this time, but Blake ran him to the washroom and filled up his water bottle. By the time we were done all our messing around it was 3:45 PM and we were nervous about getting back to the top before it was dark. I was very nervous about walking on the icy parts of the path in the dark. We wanted to be out of the canyon by 5:30, 6 at the latest. That means we had to set a decent pace, in order to accomplish this.

Continuing our descent, look at that amazing cliff. It echoes really well:

Not so steep now, but still going down, down, down:

Indian Garden:

I set the pace to start off with. The first part was pretty easy, as it was not so steep, so my pace was pretty fast. It was a bit too fast, though, and soon I was way out front. Isaac caught up with me and we went hard for that first little bit. Blake stayed with Natasha, who needed a few more breaks and couldn’t keep my pace. I slowed down a lot, as we got closer to the 3 mile rest house, as the path gets very steep. Blake and Natasha caught up with us and we had a short rest. We made it back to the 3 mile rest stop by 4:15, which was awesome. If we could keep this up, we would have no problem getting out before dark.

On of our rest stops, getting tired:

We set off again, and Blake set his timer for 20 minutes. We were going to have a short rest every 20 minutes, for water and a snack to keep our energy up. Isaac had the most energy and was having no problems with the steep climb. Soon he was 2 switchbacks ahead of us and I had to tell him to wait up. We had our short rest at 20 minutes and then made it to the 1.5 mile rest house within the next 20 minutes (before the timer went off). We had our rest and started up again, when the 20 minute timer went off, so we were a bit ahead of schedule.

Resting on our ascent:

There is a small Fountain Shop at the top, in the Bright Angel Hotel, and I promised Isaac an ice cream if it was still open. Well, I guess that is enough motivation for him, because he was off like a shot. I finally yelled up to him, that he was not allowed to get too far ahead and that once he reached ice, he needed to wait for one of us. I did not want him taking on the icy sections without a companion. I caught up with him and convinced him to do my pace, because I could not do his. We found some great view points and he took some Duffy photos, while Natasha and Blake caught up with us. We had one more rest stop, at the 20 minute mark and then we just had 20 minutes to go and we would be at the top, if we could keep up our pace.

Amazing views, as the sun is setting:

The icy patches are much easier on the way up, than the way down. A lot of people had walked over the ice, as well, so there was more sand and mud on them, giving us better traction. There were still people coming down the path, which surprised me, but most of them were going down to the campground for the night. We were almost at the top, when we ran into three ladies from London, England coming down. They were struggling with navigating the icy parts, with their heavy packs. It was almost 5:30 by this time and they had a good 2 to 2.5 hours of hiking ahead of them before they reached the campground! They were not making it before dark, that was for certain. At least they would be out of the icy patches before it was dark.

Family picture as we near the top:

We made it to the top by 5:30 and were pretty darn proud of ourselves, although sore and exhausted. Right at the trailhead is a water filling station, with spring water from the canyon. It was so cold and delicious! We all filled up our bottles and drank heartily. I drank my full bottle and then filled it up again. Indian Garden is a 9 mile (14.4 KM) roundtrip. I gotta say, after doing this hike, I prefer to do the up portions before the down. It is much easier to go up at the beginning of your hike, like when we hike mountains, and slog your way down at the end. No wonder around 250 hikers, per year, are rescued from the Grand Canyon. They completely over-estimate their physical ability and cannot make it back up. Our temperature high today was 10 degrees Celsius and we were pretty warm coming back up. I cannot imagine trying to do that in a months time, let alone in the middle of summer, when the temperatures are significantly higher.

We hiked from Bright Angel Trailhead to Indian Garden and back up:

The Fountain Shop was not open, so a little disappointment from Isaac. He got over it quick, so that was good. Too tired to keep up a whine, I think. I promised him ice cream tomorrow and that cheered him up. Plus, they both got some souvenirs from the gift shop.

Blake went and got the truck and picked us up outside the hotel and we were on our way. It had been a long day for Kizmet and we wanted to get back to camp. We still had a 1/2 hour of driving ahead of us and it was really dark by the time we got back.

The sunset on our drive home:

Kizmet was so happy we were back. Blake took her out for a walk, while I put supper on. Luckily, I had made chili awhile back and we had remembered to take one out of the freezer. I had forgotten to put it in the crock pot before we left, but it was quick to heat up on the stove.

After supper, Blake and I dragged our butts out the door with Kizmet to give her a longer walk. We walked over to the gas station to get some treats for the movie and to make sure that Kizmet got her good walk in. It was a tough slog, but we made it through.

We all needed showers or to wash up before we went to bed. There is so much red dirt on the path and my face was all grimy from it - yuck. All our clothes were covered with a fine layer of dust and we all smelled fantastic from our hike. We all took our turns and it was so nice to have hot water and get clean.

After supper, we ignored the dishes and Blake put on a movie. Blake and Isaac wanted to watch Guardians of the Galaxy, but it had not uploaded properly. They settled for Pitch Perfect 2. I missed 1/2 of it, because I was having my very long shower, but I had already seen it. Natasha, who had also seen the movie, just washed up and went to bed. She was sore and tired and just wanted to relax and sleep. Isaac, who was rejuvenated by his shower, was hyped up and ready to do lots of stuff. I had to tell him to tone it down, because it was just too much for the rest of us. He, thankfully, settled down once the movie was on.

It was so nice to crawl into bed, wow am I sore!

Sonya