part one

Way back on our grand road trip of 2016, Dan and I visited the Grand Canyon for the first time. All the while planning our trip, we thought of the Grand Canyon not only as our mid-point, but as the focal point of the trip. In the end, it was definitely the favourite stop of the trip for both of us, though it didn’t go quite as we expected.

We took our time a bit driving from Albuquerque, stopping along the remote road leading up to the Canyon to admire the local artisan’s jewelry and other creations. By the time we were driving in, sunset had just begun and we caught incredible glimpses of the Canyon through the trees with the sunset setting the sky on fire.

Before it got too dark, we came across a group of people pulled over on the side of the road leading up to Grand Canyon Village (the south rim). Turned out they were admiring some incredible elk that were just grazing along the road. After we got back from our road trip, much of our family gathered at my mom’s house to hear about the trip and watch a slideshow of all of our pictures. As the pictures from the Canyon drew nearer we brought up the elk and our families were horrified to see our pictures of people standing so close to them just to get a cool picture. They said well at least you two stood a ways away and weren’t that stupid…and of course that’s right when we got to the picture of us standing just a few feet away from the elk. Someone had snapped a picture for us, so our teenage foolishness is forever captured on camera.

Anyways, we camped our first night at the top of the canyon and then planned to hike in early the next morning. Mind you, the summer of 2016 was the year that the US was hit with a major heatwave all across the southern half of the country. On top of that, we stayed at the Grand Canyon July 21-23. Needless to say it was INCREDIBLY hot, about 115 degrees Fahrenheit or 46 degrees Celsius to be exact.

Other than a class backpacking trip I took in 7th grade, this was both of our first times backpacking. We had to apply for permits and everything. By the time we arrived at the Canyon, my anxiety was sky high as I looked at weather warnings not only about the heat, but also about lighting storms that were predicted to hit the Canyon the following day. Eventually, I calmed down a bit and we got settled at our campsite at the top of the Canyon which we had booked for the night of July 21st. Our plan was to hike into the canyon 4.5 miles the next day to get to Indian Garden Campground (now Havasupai Garden) where we would stay one night before hiking back out to stay another night at the campground on the south rim.

The next morning we packed up all of our things into our packs, got our permits ready, and headed to the trailhead. Dan borrowed my stepdad’s big backpacking pack and I used a hiking pack of my mom’s, both of which we stuffed full of food and water, and not much else. This turned out to be a bit of an issue later on. We left the campground and showed our permits at a checkpoint, where we were warned by the park ranger about the weather and told that it was not recommended for us to continue with our hike and stay in the Canyon.

At this point, I was calmer than the night before, but still pretty nervous. Dan was much more calm, and perhaps a little over-confident, but neither of us wanted to cancel our plans. We decided to go ahead with our trip and took some advice from the park ranger about avoiding hiking during the hottest hours of the day. Finally, we arrived at the head of the Bright Angel Trail that would take us to Indian Garden Campground and we started our hike.

Along Bright Angel Trail, there are rest stops every mile and a half until you get to Indian Garden. Each rest stop has potable water and restrooms, although I think they’re only open seasonally. The trails going into the canyon are just one switchback after another as you’re facing such a dramatic elevation change as you make your way down (or up) the wall of the canyon. It’s pretty easy hiking honestly, other than the fact that it’s still a bit steep and, at least during our trip, it was so incredibly hot.

We ended up packing far more water and water bottles than we needed, but much better safe than sorry in that kind of heat. For snacks, we had frozen some pickles at our Airbnb in Albuquerque that were still quite cold and a lot of our water started out as pretty frozen too. This was so incredibly refreshing to sip and snack on during our hike. We had a jet boil to make ramen, beef jerky, fruit snacks, and a variety of nuts as our snacks and meals. We did try drinking the pickle juice, thinking it would be a great way to replenish our electrolytes, but that proved better in theory.

Honestly, after facing the extreme heat for the past week I think we had gotten somewhat used to it, and it didn’t end up bothering us all that much. We soaked our shirts and hats with water at each rest stop and drank a ridiculous amount as we hiked, which I’m sure helped too. We stopped briefly at the first rest stop and then for much longer at the second to try and wait out the hottest hours of the day. It was funny seeing the number of people on the trail drastically reduce the further into the Canyon that we went. We ran into some people coming from the North Rim who were hiking rim-to-rim, and if I’m remembering correctly even one small group that was doing rim-to-rim-to-rim. That was the start of our dream to hike rim-to-rim someday, with a stay at Phantom Ranch in the middle of our hike.

At the second rest stop we decided to have our lunch and rest for a bit. We had been warned about the squirrels in the Grand Canyon, and quickly realized that the people who warned us weren’t kidding. The squirrels in the canyon are vicious. If you leave any food unattended they will quickly get into it and once they’re in they will defend it from you fiercely. We kept a close eye on our food, but had many squirrels creeping up towards us trying to snatch a snack.

While we were on our road trip, we kept a journal of all of our stops. Here’s an excerpt of Dan’s journal entry for our first day in the Canyon…

Find part two of our adventure hiking the Grand Canyon here!

Have you been to the Grand Canyon?