At the rim
After a 5.5 hour drive we arrived at the south rim of the Grand Canyon and checked into our hotel. You can see the view from the window on the right. Not very spectacular, but then, you don’t spend much time in a hotel room on trips like this.
Tomorrow we take the shuttle bus to the North Rim, where will spend another night in the lodge there. On Saturday, we hike down on North Bright Angel trail, and will stay in a cabin at Phantom Ranch for the next three nights, doing day hikes from the bottom of the canyon on Sunday and Monday. We will hike then up on Tuesday, coming up Bright Angel trail to the south rim, completing our first rim to rim hike. Once we check out of our hotel tomorrow, we will be out of contact with the internet until we return to the south rim. I hope the world doesn’t fall apart in the interim.
This will be Diane’s third trip to the bottom, and my fifth. I can’t express how happy I am to be back. This is truly one of the grandest spots on Earth.
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One of the folks I work with makes that hike annually. I asked him what it was like, and he said to imagine being on a Stairmaster for hours in 100+ degree heat.
Diane routinely hike in hot temperatures, with no problems. The key is to bring a lot of water. In the Canyon, on Bright Angel trail, this is not a problem, as they have water stations periodically.
I took the lazy approach and bought a ticket on a sight-seeing plane at Grand Canyon Airport.
Did you get out?