A trip to the Grand Canyon

Is it sad that after twenty six years of living in Arizona, I’ve never been to the bottom of the Grand Canyon? It may be sad, but it is definitely true. Or at least it was, until this past weekend.

 

My squeeze, Courtney, used to work at the canyon and she tells stories about it with a sort of beauty-inspired awe in her eye. I told her that I wanted to see her canyon, and so we figured out a date that we could take a long weekend down there.

 

We hiked down the Bright Angel trail to Phantom Ranch. We stayed down there for two nights, hung out with the awesome ‘ranchers’, ate some good food, hiked around some of the trails down there, and then came back out via the South Kaibab trail. It was a beautiful weekend, even with the ridiculous number of people on the trails.

 

And I decided to take my big-boy camera with me, because what’s a little extra weight when you have so much to photograph? Without further ado – the pictures:

 

My ugly mug as we walked down:

 

An idyllic spot to eat lunch, just past Indian Gardens:

 

And with the water, we found these pretty purple bushes:

 

As we approached the river we heard reports of a rock slide on the trail. Sure enough we came upon a trail crew working seriously hard to clear it:

 

 

Shortly thereafter we were at phantom where things are GREEN, a stark contrast to the red walls:

 

The Black bridge where dude and pack mules cross the Colorado, bringing all the supplies in for Phantom Ranch:

 

A different view of Black bridge, from within the rock tunnel:

 

Speaking of mules – here they are, ready to ride trash and detritus out of the ranch:

 

I decided to get up early one morning to get some different light for the river. It was gorgeous (with the Silver bridge spanning the Colorado in the foreground):

 

I also got a nice morning view of the local wildlife, baby dear who aren’t terrified of humans:

 

Courtney, up on the Clear Creek trail:

 

From which you can also see this:

 

Not that you had to go far to see the beauty. Here is the creek that passes right by the ranch:

 

As with all good things though, this trip had to end. So we hiked out on a beautiful trail that always seemed to point UP. Like this set of switchbacks:

 

But it did afford us some pretty views of the dusty day:

 

A gorgeous place, that I’m sure I’ll be going back to.

 

All photos available on flickr, in a pretty slideshow.