It Is GRAND, and a New Policy

Although Zion promised to be warmer, we chose the Grand Canyon. The temps would be about the same as the Paria, and warmer in the canyon. We’ve been to Zion quite a few times in recent years, and we haven’t been to the Grand Canyon since my birthday in 2000. At that time, we hiked down to the Cedar Ridge on the Kaibab Trail. A puny 1123 ft decent. We were back at the moto lodge by noon. And the ‘cowboy’ bartender started feeding me White Russians. The next day was rough.

We roll into the park with time to pick a nice spot to photograph the moonrise. With all of our time outdoors, we were in tune to these things, and the moon is now full. Wilson pulls out one of his “by my calculations” and picks an overlook. The road to that overlook is bus access only, so we will jump on the bikes. Uh oh. Flat tire. We start walking up the road. OK, we need to walk quickly to make it on time. I spend the brisk 1.25 mile walk wondering why he couldn’t pick one of the dozens of other pull outs right off the road. Nonetheless, here is the result. We scan the only park campground that is open. There are plenty of sites, but it is already past dusk. We figured a motel was likely tonight, and the temps are dropping quickly. Besides, I need a shower. The afternoons have been too short to get in our camp showers. We’ll be better set up to succeed hiking in the canyon if we get a room. We settle in to our comfort, and Curt is busy on the computer. After checking the weather, he announces a ‘new policy’. We are campers, but there is no shame in sleeping indoors when temps are in the 20’s, the hotels are only $60 more than a campsite, and only 3 highway miles away. We add another night and hope to make it to the inner gorge tomorrow.

The hike was great. I was happy to see stimulus $ at work on the trail. The maintanence crew was using McClouds, but they didn’t have a LFD or a blaster, like my crew. I thanked them for their work. Millions of people will enjoy the trail for decades the way they are rebuilding it.

We quickly negotiated the first 1123 foot decent to Cedar Ridge in just under 40 minutes. Our next destination, Skeleton Point, is down there in the shadows, with the Inner Gorge running through the bottom of the tree. We reached Skeleton Point, another 1200 feet down, an hour later. Now it was decision time, we had a nice perch on a rock over looking the river . . . should we continue down to the inner gorge, or relax here and face just a 2300 ascent ? We both felt like our tanks were full, so we headed down to the inner gorge, another 1000 feet below. We're headed to the plateau just above my PB&J sandwich.

The day hikers were thinning out, it was us and some German guy in white sneakers and jeans. We reached Tipoff, found another nice rock ledge, and enjoyed lunch (my final Italian meat sandwich) and tried to take in the scene without thinking of the 3300 ascent that awaited us.

I was jealous of the hikers who continued down the trail, all were staying at the Phantom Ranch, a great option if you can plan your stay 23 months in advance. When we started the Kaibab trail, there were hundreds of people slogging up and down, the further we went, the less people we saw. After the German guy sped past while we ate lunch, we were nearly alone. It was still 4 hours until dark, and the trail was deserted except for us, a lone Ranger, and a group of folks who looked like they would be challenged to reach the bottom before next week. It was kind of spooky on the way up, the shadows lengthening, the rim seemingly out of reach, and no people for the final two hours. Curt divided the ascent into three stints, and we just focused on keeping the feet moving between each stop. Ipod’s helped, as did the warm temps. We based our return plan on the setting sun, and were rewarded by catching up to the warm sunlight, and keeping the shadows a comfortable and consistent 300 feet below us. Surprisingly, the 5 mile ascent took almost exactly the same amount of time as the descent, 3 hours and change. We were both thrilled to have tripled our distance from our last Grand Canyon foray, and figured we could have done the Rim to River if we had started earlier in the day. Perhaps, we will take that one on next March during Spring Training, or we could plan like normal people and spend the night at the bottom.

Obviously, Grand Canyon is spectacular. However, the gateway town of Tusuyan left much to be desired. I knew the food was going to be crappy, as was most of the service. I kept wondering what the overseas visitors were thinking of the crappy breakfast buffet, and piss poor dining options. Is this the best we can do? Both Tusuyan and Ruby’s Inn (Bryce) should take note of Moab (Arches, Canyonlands) and Springdale (Zion). Those gateway towns have become destinations in their own right.

After having spent several hours in the Canyon, and witnessing 2 dazzling sunsets, we decide that and another day of riding bikes along the Rim would be nice, but repetitive. Thus, we decide to head out the following day and stick to the Colorado River theme by camping on Lake Mead or Lake Mojave before heading to Las Vegas so Wilson can pay for the trip by crushing the Cup.

Good idea by us, poor execution by the National Park Service. Apparently, campers are not welcome in these parts. Our first stop was Lake Mojave, just below Hoover Dam, a wonderful oasis in Black Canyon. Perfect for boaters, but no camping allowed. Across the desert we went, this time to Temple Bar on Lake Mead, no camping allowed anywhere except the official campground which happened to be under construction. We took this as a sign, and looked to the western sky, was that another astounding sunset, or was that the light display from the newly built Trump Tower in Vegas? We are officially out of the bush. There will be no pics from Vegas, unless of course, I hit 3 straight 00’s on the roulette wheel, or Wilson cashes an IRS trifecta. We’ll recap the weekend and the overall trip on the way home! Good luck to us.