19 SEP 2010

This morning we planned to wake up early to do the South Kaibab Trail. The Trail begins at Yaki Point and to get to the trail head we needed to ride on the shuttle bus which meant we had to walk about 10 – 15 minutes from our campsite to the shuttle bus stop. I will describe more about the trail shortly. We learned that we have no cell service here and of course no internet connectivity. We are cut off from the world!

So we do not have an alarm to wake us up since I put the Blackberry away and we figured no problem. Well it was not a problem but we did not wake up until 7:15 and I had hoped we would be on the trail into the canyon early to beat the heat which was to be a high of 31 (37 in the canyon). As it turned out we did not get on the trail until 10 according to our watch.

The trail has 3 different turn around points and Wes had picked that we would go to the third. But because of the trouble I had breathing in Sante Fe we agreed that would evaluate this at the 2nd stop. Here are the stats:
Stop 1 – Ooh Aah Point - .9 miles (1.8 return), 600 feet drop down (and back up)
Stop 2 – Cedar Ridge – 1.5 miles (3.0 return), 1 140 feet drop (and back up)
Stop 3 – Skeleton Point – 3 miles (6.0 return), 2040 feet drop (and back up)

The interesting think about hiking into a canyon the route is always down at the start. And on top of that you are doing this first, in the cool of the morning and you feel great. When we got to Stop 2 we both felt great and heading to Skeleton Point was not a concern. We made the trip to Skeleton Point in about 1 ½ hours which is reasonable time. This included stops for pictures of course.

Now, the Ooh Aah Point was the first place that you are on a point that gives you views in all directions. It really is an ooh Aah Point but it does not look like much. It is a large boulder at a switch back corner that you can climb out on and marvel at the sights around you.

From here we carried on to Cedar Ridge, the first stop on the trail with rest rooms. Apparently this is a popular place. It really is just a ridge that has several cedar shrubs but as your travel, anything that provides shade is considered a friend. Lots of friends to be found here and welcomed friends too. As we were setting out to head off to Skeleton Point we were stopped by a Park Ranger (everyone was stopped) and questioned about amount of water we had, if we had any snacks etc. And she wanted to remind us that the trip up was 3 miles and lots of uphill.

Once we had her convinced we were prepared, we carried on to Skeleton Point. This is a point about half way down to the bottom of the canyon that is really a ridge that reaches far into the canyon. So on this point we can see around completely and it was almost like standing in the middle with views up, left, right, forward, backward, and down. We were able to see the Colorado River and where the campsite was at the bottom (another 3 miles and 2000 feet drop yet).

Since it was still before noon we visited with a group that were hiking down to the lodge in the Canyon and the next day hiking back up to the south rim on the Bright Angel Trail. This is something that Wes would love to do and I am thinking, lets get back up to the top from here. It is 11:30 and the heat of the day is around 2 so we might get back before the real heat arrives. So we wished them well and we turned around to head back up to Cedar Ridge for lunch. The hike up was a slog but I found that I was breathing much better now so not as much of a challenge as I had expected. We got back to Cedar Ridge by 12:30 and passed many people still going down. I marvelled at how much energy they must have to think about hiking in the absolute heat of the day.

At any rate, we started up to the top which is only about 1 ½ miles. We followed a family with 4 kids, oldest I would guess to be about 6ish. Dad had a backpack and carried one toddler, mom had a backpack and carried a baby I guessed to be 8 or 9 months...just walking when mom put her down. The other two kids just trotted along. We chatted with them for a minute and dad admitted that the young girls were setting a fast pace uphill and that he carried an altimeter and took breaks every 50 foot climb for the girls sake. I am not sure who sake it was really for, but it was great to see a family out doing things together like this. Fortunately I am happy to report that we did get to the top before they did. Officially the hike is gauged to be a 4-6 hour hike and we were back (including lunch break) in 10 minutes short of 4 hours – not bad for a couple of old men.

Another interesting occurrence was for us to watch a mule train head down into the canyon. No one was on them other than the handlers.

Needless to say by the time we got back to the top, we were a bit tired. We had to wait for the shuttle bus to take us back to the campsite and during the wait learned about a talk being put on by one of the park staff that evening so we now knew what we were planning to do this evening after an afternoon of rest. Oh did I mention that we learned that we had the time zone correct but we did not know that AZ does not go on day light savings time, so we were out by one hour all day (fast) so we did get up early after all.

After dinner we went back to the rim to watch the sunset again. We actually had a couple of unexpected shows too. There was an event happening on a ridge below us and we thought that the parks staff were doing a rescue drill. Turns out a young lady actually was in danger of falling (reasons unknown – drug related or just suicide wish) and the parks staff had to restrain her and eventually bring back up to the rim. We met a nice couple from Ontario and had a really nice chat while we waited for the sunset and other drama to conclude.

Then we all walked over to listen to the Park Staff talk about the CCC and their impact on park development. If you are not familiar with the CCC it was part of the New Deal put forward by Roosevelt. Google it for details. That was the finish of our first day at Grand Canyon.