3rd day of the Grand Canyon: Indian Garden to the top!
I slept even worse the 2nd night consequently I woke up right at 5 when there was barely any light. I was going to let the boys sleep a bit longer but I was so bored so I started getting our stuff ready like filling our packs and what not.. they got up like 10 min later.. didn't help that I accidentally flashed the headlamp on them a couple times....
We started up the hill by 6:30 and luckily we got to do most of it by the time the sun hit us. The trail was incredibly daunting as it went right up the cliff face. Luckily there are waterhouses every 1.5 miles up Bright Angel trail so we took a couple of nice rests along the way. We needed to put those packs down every once in a while!
See that peak.. look down along the edge, right at the entrance to this part of the canyon is where we spent the night... ya crazy I know!
We love switchbacks! Thank you Y trail for being so awful! You make everything else seem so much easier!
We're about 1/3 - 1/2 of the way up here. Even though I wasn't in the sun very often I was still sweating like crazy from my head and face! I don't know why I sweat so much there!
We passed 3 different groups of mules- 2 pack trains carrying supplies, and one passenger train... they have it easy!
Here we are with just this last white cliff to surmount and we'd be at the top! The last 1.5 miles Ty took off to walk a little further and get the car... I stayed with my dad to offer motivation... I don't know how fast he would've made it without me... but with me we only took like 30- 45 min longer than Ty.. pretty good I'd say.
My dad did awesome!
Last little tunnel that we pass through, we were feeling really victorious as we only saw like 4 more (really long) switchbacks to the top and we'd be done!
Another view of the white cliff at the end.. this is the south rim where we saw the people's lights the night before!
We got out and Ty picked us up! We promptly took shoes off and bought our triumphant Rim- to Rim shirts!
The drive was longggg! And we hit a couple flash floods and of course it had to rain like crazy, put me behind the slow RVs, and give me no passing lanes when I drove, and was peachy keen for Ty while he drove. We stopped for McDonalds in Page then drove the scenic highway through Zion ( I love the Mt. Carmel tunnel!!) to St George to meet my mom. We took a quick dip with the girls in the hot tub and swimming pool (wash and grime off) and then had Chuck-a-Rama for dinner! SOOOOO good! I love the place!
I very generously drove allll they way home from St. George and we didn't get home until midnight! Blehh exhausted! Ty took a shower and I set about unpacking and everything. I finally sat down to rest while he finished getting ready for bed and noticed that my feet... are huge! The toes and arches and ankles... everything! Soooo swollen I couldn't believe they were my feet!
Wicked fun (and exhausting) trip! We'd happily do it again any day!
Comments
Post a Comment