I hiked the Grand Canyon rim to rim!

 

I posted the other day about visiting Navajo Bridge on the way to the north rim. We packed up Saturday morning. I woke up at 3:30 and couldn't go back to sleep and everyone else was up after 4:00 to eat, load up, and head to the trail head.  It was a bit of a drive so we didn't start the hike until 6:00am at the North Kaibab trailhead.  We started with headlamps and sweaters and got to see the sunrise hiking the switchbacks of the north rim of the Grand Canyon.  So beautiful!

Rachel Willis and I hiked together the whole way and since it was both our first time we didn't know what to expect.  This carved mountain walk through called the Supai Tunnel was a surprise and there were so many stunning views the whole way!  The tunnel is about 2 miles down from the North Rim.

This was one of several bridges we walked across.  Lots of ravines in the canyon and little streams and rivers.

I took this picture to show Andrew the prickly pear cactus.  He was wondering if there was cactus in the Grand Canyon.

We crossed this bridge heading out of the Cottonwood Campground where there were bathrooms and our first water refill.  There were other water stops earlier that were already closed for the season.

More prickly pear!  We were fortunate to hike much of the day in the shade.  Once we hiked down into the canyon Rachel and I did some running at a slower pace.   It was nice taking advantage of the flat or down hill trail.

Just look at that!  So stunning.  We crossed the silver bridge (Bright Angel suspension bridge), by far our biggest, over the Colorado River soon after our 2 hour lunch and rest break at Phantom Ranch.  That was around the half way point.

View from the bridge looking west.  The water was actually moving pretty fast.

View from the bridge looking east.  You can barely see the black bridge in the distance which is the Kaibab bridge.  There are two trails heading back up the south rim.  The Silver bridge takes you to Indian Garden and up the Bright Angel trail, which is the most popular.

You can see the trail heading right, where we went.  The trail left takes you to the black bridge which we didn't need to cross.

Rachel's brother, Ben, sent this to everyone of him and James on the bridge.

Andrew thinks this photo is funny.  I was feeling good!  After a two hour lunch break (too long for a runner) and 3 ibuprofen I was in good shape for the next few miles.  No regrets on the ibuprofen.  It helps with inflammation and I had a big blister, a root canal I was recovering from two days before, and sore muscles all over. :)

See how little those people are?!  This is called Devil's Corkscrew.  We pushed our way up these switchbacks at a good pace.  Once again, thankful for the shade!

Indian Garden was our last water refill and about 5 miles from the South Rim.  There were a decent number of people hiking rim to rim, I was surprised.  Probably a few hundred that day.  It was nice to not be alone logon the trail, and the amazing people were one of my favorite parts of the whole experience.  These people are doers.  You do not accidentally hike the Grand Canyon.  You train, and show up, and do the hard work to get from one rim to the next.  It's humbling to be a part of that group of amazing people.

This was the hardest part of the while day.  Those last miles seemed to get longer and the switchbacks endless.

This was a cool sighting about a mile from the end.  There were a whole family of mountain goats!  About seven, and they were eating  dry moss off the mountain.  The only animals we saw all day, minus birds and squirrels.  So cool!

So close! At this point I could see the trail head at the top and it was such a comfort.  I almost cried.  The last mile or two I was nauseated from everything.  I realized I hadn't eaten enough, didn't sleep well the two nights before, I pushed myself hard all day and truly didn't know how we kept going with our legs burning from going uphill and the air was getting thinner with then higher elevation.  It was just. so. hard. The last mile and a half literally took an hour.

We made it!  We started at 6:00am, stopped at Phantom Ranch from 10:20 - 12:20, and finished at 5:20pm.  Such a relief and feeling of accomplishment!  Truly we made good time, and are so proud of ourselves.  To keep our legs moving so the lactic acid din't build up we walked to the gift shop.  I bought me an overpriced shirt, totally worth it, and some stickers for the kids to futon their water bottles. 

Once the sun went down it got cold pretty quick.  Marianne, Rachel's niece, and her friend Brigette finished and hour after us at 6:20, and we waited so long for Ben and James to finish at 11:00pm.  Because they finished so late we didn't get to eat dinner in Flagstaff since it would have been barely Sunday morning, so we just went straight home.  I got home at 3:40am, showered, grabbed a snack (so hungry!), and went to sleep just past 4:00am and had 3 hours of sleep.  Andrew had church meetings all day so it was a struggle but I finally had a good nights sleep that Sunday night.  It was glorious.

It was one of the hardest things I've ever done, and wish I started training earlier and harder but now I know what to expect.  I'm hoping to get a group together to do it next October!

Navajo Bridge & the North Rim

 

(not sure why this is blurry)

Last Saturday I had the opportunity to hike the Grand Canyon rim to rim with this group.  I started training three weeks before.  It really wasn't enough but I did my best with the time I had.  We set off last Saturday from Rachel Willis's house.  She's my running buddy.  We hike with her brother Ben, his son James, his daughter Marianne, her friend Brigette, and Gary (Ben's father in law) was the driver.  He's hiked rim to rim many times and it was great hiking with him the last few weeks and having someone experienced there.  Ben and Marianne were also experienced rim to rim hikers.

After a lunch break in Flagstaff we headed north.  This was our stop at Navajo Bridge.  There's the bridge for driving and a bridge for walking. 

Look at that background!  Those are the Vermillion Cliffs behind me.  I have memories coming here when I worked at Jacob Lake Inn the summer of 2005.  So nostalgic!

This was looking down from the bridge.  Just stunning!  And that water was moving pretty fast too.  Just north of here is Lee's Ferry where a lot of rafts get started but we didn't see a single floating device all weekend.  The Grand Canyon North and South rim visitor centers closed the week before so we were there at the beginning of off season.  

Thankfully the weather was perfect! It got much colder a couple days later.  I live in such a beautiful state!

Here's where we camped near the entrance to the north rim.  It got nippy as the sun went down and was a low around 35 degrees at night.  My bum was called all night but warmers kept my feet warm.

Loving the fresh air and ponderosa pines!  Arizona has the most beautiful forests!  There must have been a fire a few years ago because some of the drive south of Jacob Lake had burnt forest.  It was strange having a view down to the vermillion cliffs.  Normally there's forest in the way from that drive.

Rachel and I shared a tent and she made some yummy soup we shared too.

I brought the cookers, Trader Joes corn chips, and homemade chocolate chip cookies.  It would have been nice to have a camp fire but the fire was only a ring of rocks, not a metal ring, and with the fire hazard we had to do without.

As usual the moon and stars were so pretty at night.  It was so windy, the wind blowing in the trees kept me up much of the night but we tried to have an early start to bed since we needed to be up early.  I went to bed around 8:30 and had broken sleep all night.  I ended up not being able to sleep past 3:30 which wasn't too bad since we had a 4:00am start anyway.

Wish I slept more and drank more, but not a terrible way to start the hike.  Such a pretty day!  I was surprised how fast it felt getting to the north rim in one day.