Now that we’d seen the Grand Canyon, it was time to go down into the Grand Canyon. Only 5% of visitors venture below the rim and we weren’t about to be on the wrong end of that statistic.
We chose to hike a portion of the Bright Angel trail which is considered one of the most dangerous trails in the United States. The 9.5 mile trail climbs 4,380 vertical feet from the canyon and temperatures can reach over 110°F. Let’s gooooo?? 😵We prepped our hiking packs with lots of water, salty snacks and some motivational candy. Then we hit the dusty trail!The trail just happens to be along the edge of a cliff so I was a little nervous about watching the kids hike ahead of me. I eventually decided to lead so I didn’t have to watch anymore. 🤪There were some cool tunnels that we had to pass through.The trail starts at 6,840 feet and descends quickly.Getting below the rim gave us a whole new perspective of the Grand Canyon.The friendly rock squirrels along the trail were highly entertaining. Visitors are most often bitten by this viscous creature making it the most dangerous animal in the Grand Canyon. 😆Our goal was to do the first 1 1/2 mile of the trail (which admittedly didn’t seem like much at first) but the elevation change of 1,120 feet makes it a 2 to 4 hour hike.The views were unbelievable!The first rest stop, at 1 1/2 miles down, was currently under construction. The Transcanyon Waterline, a 12 mile waterline, is being replaced at the staggering cost of $208 million. The equipment had to flown in with a Chinook helicopter so I’m guessing that took a big chunk out of the budget. Naturally, Matt inquired about the scope of the project and got all of the details from the engineer. Not a bad view out of his office window!That’s as far as we have time to go today but a new family goal is to hike to the bottom, camp at Phantom Ranch and then hike out to the North Rim.*adds R2R to the bucket list*Time for the fun part – going up!The view was just as pretty on the way out. 😍We had plenty of time to study the stratigraphy of the canyon during our many rest breaks.Almost back to the top and still going strong!Matt’s trekking poles were eventually confiscated by Everett.🥾 Hiked it. Liked it. 🥾After our hike we headed back to the RV, quickly ate dinner and rushed back to the Grand Canyon to catch the sunset.This time our best friend could come with us!It was neat to see the Bright Angel trail that we had been on just a few hours earlier from this vantage point.Everett captured some footie of the sunset. 🎥We’ll be back someday soon to finish what we started.Only 80 flights?! I feel like it should have been more!
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