Grand Canyon II

The morning began early for us due to the time change. Our bodies are still an hour ahead of Mountain Standard Time.

Just as we were about to leave the room for breakfast we received a text message from our son-in-law that our daughter was in labor. This is a couple weeks ahead of schedule, and we had instructed this baby to wait with her arrival until after our return from this trip. Babies, however, have a way of doing their own thing.

After breakfast we drove back into the national park and parked the car as near as we could to the Bright Angel Trailhead. This trail is the most popular below-the-rim hike in the park, and everything we had read suggested that it would be very crowded. However, because we got started early in the day, we found it less congested than Kaibab Trail had been yesterday. It’s all about the timing.

The Bright Angel Trail clearly gets more traffic, as there was less loose gravel on the way down. The quantity of fresh mule droppings was about equal, though. The morning was again bright and clear, and the early light made for spectacular views. There are only three waypoints on this trail: One at 1.5 miles, another at 3 miles, and a third quite near the canyon floor. We opted to go to the 1.5 point and then return. Despite the steep grade, we accomplished this in almost exactly 3 hours. Not bad.

Along the way we received a text message that our fourth grandchild, Clara Christine, had been born by caesarian section due to some complications. However, everyone was doing fine. Mary was so excited that she started telling total strangers on the trail about it.

After returning to the car briefly to change from hiking boots to shoes, and to pick up our lunch, we returned to the trailhead to catch the Red Line shuttle bus into the western rim of the canyon. Private vehicles are not permitted here (other than bicycles) so the shuttle is the only way to reach this end of the park.

Since shuttle buses run every 10 minutes or so, people stream off the bus at each view point, then get on again, en mass, 10 or 20 minutes later. The first stop gave us a panoramic view of the Village and the Bright Angel Trail segment we had just completed. The next stop gave us an entirely different view of the canyon.

The Bright Angel Trail we hiked as seen looking down from the Rim.

Guidebooks Mary had read suggested walking from the second to third, and from the third to fourth view points. We did the first walk, which was far back in the trees from the rim, and longer than it appeared on the map. After that, we decided we had had enough walking (we still totaled about 5.5 miles for the day).

We kept searching for a picnic table or bench on which to have our lunch, but didn’t find one. At the third bus stop, Powell Point, we finally gave up and sat on the stump of a dead pinion pine to eat. Had we walked just a bit father, to the point itself, we would have found two very nice benches. Such is life.

By the time we had reached the eighth overlook we were spent. There was only one bus stop left, Hermit’s Rest. When we got to it, we didn’t even get off the bus. Our legs just wouldn’t carry us. The ride back to the trailhead was long enough to allow us some recovery. And we even got to see some elk along the road on the way back.

After leaving the park, we had an hour’s drive to Williams. The motel here was quite a bit cheaper than near the park, and very nice. However, the outdoor pool and hot tub were not yet open for the season. Our tired legs could have used that hot tub. As a consolation, however, Williams has several brew pubs. One was having happy hour, where we enjoyed some very good beer at ridiculously low prices, and made a toast to Clara Christine .

Downtown Williams is old and very touristy. The main street is part of the iconic Route 66, and they make quite a deal of that. We had a very good Mexican meal at a very reasonable price before returning to the hotel.