Grand Canyon the Easy Way - Going Down

Sunday, Sept 13 - Grand Canyon National Park, Arizona

Woke up at 3:45am to break camp and drive to a parking lot to pick up a 5am express shuttle to the trailhead (since there was no parking at the South Kaibab trailhead).

Picture to the right is shortly after heading out down the trail - the sun hasn't even come up yet but its light enough to start walking.

Looking down on the South Kaibab trail. The trail has great views but the trail needs some work. Between the cedar posts laid across the trail are large ruts that you have to step down into. My legs were still sore from the Half Dome hike of four days ago, so they were feeling it almost from the beginning of the descent into the canyon.

Sunrise at the Grand Canyon - the picture doesn't come close to showing how beautiful that is when you are inside the canyon rim.

It was so windy that I took off my hat and tucked it into my waist - makes for a pretty dorky picture!

The first decent view of the Colorado River.

More of the South Kaibab trail. I must say you got pretty tired of stepping over those cedar posts. I didn't count them, but there must have been five or six thousand to step over.

I thought this was a cool view within the canyon and the sun was lighting it just right. One of the cool things about leaving at sunrise was that as the sun came up, the same views got painted in completely different ways, which made it great all the way down - except for those stupid posts!

Our first view of Phantom Ranch - its up and around the corner a bit from the trees - you can barley see the roof of one of the buildings in the picture to the left.

I had never seen a blue and green squirrel before this morning. His coloring was exactly the same as some of the rock formations on the way down.

The silver bridge from the Bright Angel trail over the river. There are two suspension bridges over the Colorado - the black bridge will be the one we cross over from the South Kaibab trail.

And there it is - I liked the reflection of the bridge on the river. Today, the river was green, but the next couple of days it was the more traditional reddish brown that originally gave the river its name. I think the boys upstream controlling the dam decide how much water and silt to release and that dictates the color of the river.

We're starting to get close and its starting to get a bit hot too.

See the rafts sitting on Boat Beach to the right.

The mule train delivering dinner and hopefully beer to Phantom Ranch.

Mules on a bridge! Mules on a bridge!

I thought this was a cool shot coming out of the tunnel that leads to the black bridge.

View from the black bridge looking downstream to the silver bridge.

The cabins at Phantom Ranch. I was in a bunkhouse with ten beds. Tough night's sleep, since the beds were all squeaky and I had a USC fan in the bunk above me.

Bright Angel creek and campsite next to Phantom Ranch. If you stay there, you can always walk up to the Phantom Ranch canteen for air conditioning and a cold drink. Reserve meals in advance though - they don't have any express mules to go fetch extra food.

Timed shot from the bridge - lucky my camera didn't end up in the river.

It was so hot at the bottom, I really, really wanted to jump into this boat as it came under the bridge. Looks like a much cooler way to see the canyon than hiking down into it.

Had a beer upon arrival at 10:45am - probably a record. That evening, had a steak dinner at Phantom Ranch. The steak wasn't that great (probably mules that couldn't cut it), but when else are you going to get a steak at the bottom of the freaking Grand Canyon? And the beer was cheaper than at a baseball game - three cheers for mules!