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Published: June 26th 2007
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The Grand Canyon We set the alarm for 6:30 in order to be at the complementary continental breakfast when it began at 7. You wouldn’t believe how crowded breakfast was! It seemed as if the whole hotel decided to wake up at the butt crack of dawn to eat! (Excuse my French!) Anyway, we were on the road and on the way to the Grand Canyon by 8 am. Needless to say, I drove the two hours to the Canyon while Brian slept like a baby next to me in the passenger seat. Let me just say that you know you’re in the middle of nowhere when you push seek on the radio and it goes through every single station over and over again!
We had decided that our first stop for the Grand Canyon would be the visitor’s center to see the National Geographic IMAX movie about the “secrets of the canyon”. While parts of the movie were interesting, Brian and I felt a little jipped on our $15 tickets. When the movie ended we set off for the canyon, which is HUGE to say the least. Much like the ocean, the canyon stretches beyond the horizon in every direction. For
miles upon miles there is nothing but the vast canyon and when looking down upon it you can practically see/imagine where the water used to run through the crevices of red rock. After snapping a few photos, Brian and I set off for the South Kaibab Trail with some bottles of water and wheat thins in our bag.
The trail was gorgeous, leading straight down the canyon for what seemed like an eternity. Brian and I had decided we’d do the three mile hike (round trip) into the canyon. It was smooth sailing on the way down. The views were extraordinary and while the temperature wasn’t too bad in the beginning, the further down we hiked, the hotter it got. We think the difference in temperature between the top of the ridge and 1.5 miles down was around 15 degrees, going from 85* to 100* rather quickly! When we reached Cedar Ridge (the turning point) we took a break to enjoy the majestic beauty of the canyon. By this point we had hiked 1.5 miles straight down, and yet we still could not see where the canyon ended below. While we had practically skipped down the trail to the
Cedar Ridge turning point, the hike back up was an entirely different story! We stopped to rest after almost every steep hill and then we stopped anywhere a tiny bit of shade was available. The trail was tough, but definitely doable and by the end of the 2 ½ hour hike we felt extremely accomplished. Unfortunately we were also extremely sunburned which is why a week later, we’re still peeling and have terrible tan lines!
Overall the Grand Canyon was amazing and I’d like to go back one day to have the opportunity to hike to the bottom of the canyon, stay overnight, and maybe go white-water rafting through the canyon, before heading back to the top. I would also love to see the canyon as the sun sets. The colors on the rocks would be amazing.
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