I've been wanting to do the Grand Canyon since moving here. I decided for my birthday this year I was going to cross this off my bucket list. I called my sister Jenn to invite her and she happily accepted! My best friend Steph and I began training for this early in the year. I was starting to get a little nervous as time grew closer because every time I talked to Jenn she wasn't really training to prepare and Steph had some injuries she was dealing with. Regardless I was determined to do the rim to rim to rim hike!
I love that my sister Jenn is up for adventures with me. My family isn't that close and I don't get much support from them, so I really appreciate Jenn making an effort to have a relationship with me and joining in on these adventures I've been planning for my birthdays. It really means a lot.
We did a stand up paddleboard class at my work after she flew in and before we left for the Grand Canyon. So much fun to do it together!
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| Jenn really goes out of her way to connect and play with my kids. I really love that. I love my boys having contact with someone from my side, who shows an interest in them! |
This gas station had some pretty funny things going on. Kanab Utah is an interesting place!
Steph's husband Justin ended up coming along as well (we thought we had an another guy going at one point). We stayed at Jacob Lake and were totally surprised to get there during a SNOW STORM! in MAY! (When it was over 100 degrees just 2 hours away in St. George!)
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| It was BEAUTIFUL! So refreshing to feel the crisp, cool air! |
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| Jenn was getting all worried after reading books on her way out of all the wrecks, missing people, etc that happen. She always cracks me up about that kind of stuff. |
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| We ate at the diner in Jacob Lake. We laughed because we ate dinner before we left, so we ordered a hamburger to share. What were we thinking?? So we ordered another one. Two Westhoff's, two dinners. Ha! |
We got to sleep and woke up early Friday morning to head to the north rim, about 30 minutes down the road. It was snowing! We started down around 5:30 am.
WOW, WOW, WOW! It was steep the first 7 miles, but gorgeous! The Grand Canyon was not what I expected at all. I thought it was a big bowl, but wow, was I dumb. It's a bunch of canyons within a BIG canyon. It's pretty amazing.
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| Jenn read in a book to elevate her feet every hour, so she was diligent in popping her feet up, no matter how awkward the position. We laughed a lot about that! |
Once down in the box, it's pretty rolling but relatively flat. There isn't much shade so it got warm, but lucky for us, the weather was cool and PERFECT for this trip! The slight breeze was refreshing.
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| They stopped us right before Phantom Ranch because they were flying in materials to build some more toilets. |
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| This bridge was pretty sketchy! Totally see through so walking across a rapid moving river was exciting! |
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| My sister Jenn was amazing to help plan this. She brought a little backpacking stove and freeze-dried food. We stopped and ate some meals at Phantom Ranch and it was perfect to get some real food after snacking for most the day. From Phantom Ranch it's all up hill to the south rim- about 8 miles to go! |
Our first view of the Colorado River. It was SO beautiful!! I love this part of the world!!
We randomly found a wheelbarrow along the trail. Really random, so I took Steph for a ride!
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| This sign cracked us up. This guy vomiting all over the place. I guess they are serious about making sure you are prepared to do this hike! |
This is about where the wheels fell off for Justin. He was getting tired and the lack of his training really started to show. He started nagging Stephanie to take a shuttle around with him at the south rim. Steph was feeling torn, since he was totally being a brat about it. I was like, "Seriously?? You've been training for this! Have him take his grown up butt back around!" She was feeling good and wanted to finish the R2R2R like we'd planned.
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| So lucky to have a cool day! |
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| These views gave me chills all day. I LOVE THIS KIND OF STUFF! The world is amazing! |
Our timing was amazing. Everything was still in bloom from spring. Flowers everywhere!
Justin was moving super slow- we kept pushing ahead to make sure we'd make it to a shuttle in time to take us to our hotel in town. 13 hours and 26 miles later, everyone was up to the top of the Bright Angel trailhead. (We did North Kiabab to Bright Angel north to south).
We made the VERY last shuttle by seconds and ended up at our hotel. Justin was pretty whiny at that point so Steph and I walked down to get some food (it's amazing how far 1/4 mile feels after hiking that!). He wasn't feeling great, but we were pretty amazed that he had done as well with no training. He moaned and complained and had Steph spoon feed him in his bed, and sadly he had talked her into staying back, even though she physically felt like she could go back (and wanted to).
Jenn, Steph and I had a good soak in the hot tub and settled in for bed. Round 2, heading back south to north early in the morning at 4:30 am!
