Grand Canyon

Last month, I went to the Grand Canyon! It was amazingly beautiful, but unfortunately, I don't have any pictures yet. Until then, here's some of my highlights from the trip...

• It all began with a four-day white water rafting trip down the Colorado River (my dad, my brother Derek, my cousin Mike, my uncle Niles, and me). After finally finding our way to the raft (which took some effort due to many Walmart trips because I forgot important items, we had a lost lodging reservation, and we forgot about the time zone change), we were off!
• The first day, it was pretty cold but light on rapids, so it was good that we didn't get too wet. I was grateful my dad bought me a rain suit because it definitely came in handy despite my lack of enthusiasm to get one. We also hiked up South Canyon, our first day hike on the trip.
• The second day we hit bigger rapids (the "roaring 20's" as they called them because they were between mile markers 20-30), and had lot of fun! We also did a couple day hikes.
• The third and fourth days were the most action packed with numerous day hikes, switching from the oar boat to the motor boat (and still getting soaked from the water!), and preparing to arrive at Phantom Ranch. We hiked North Canyon, Clear Creek (my favorite), and others. Our crew was fantastic and fed us extremely well for every single meal. Our cook was even a culinary school graduate!
• After rafting down the river, we arrived at the bottom of the canyon early in the morning. Immediately following that, we began our hike up the South Rim to meet the rest of our party. The hike wasn't too difficult, but then again, I only had to hike about a mile or two before we met up with the rest of the group (Kenny, my brother Scott, and my brother-in-law Anthony). My dad and Mike continued up the South Rim, but the rest of us went back down the mountain to Phantom Ranch.
• We spent the rest of the day setting into Phantom Ranch and taking it pretty easy. We did the River Trail (only a little longer than a mile) which was nice because it goes right along the river. My dad and Mike barely made it back in time for dinner because they decided to hike to the top of the South Rim and then hike back down the Bright Angel Trail, a total of over 17 miles of hiking! Needless to say, I was extremely grateful I had decided to turn back around when I did :)
• We spent two other days at Phantom Ranch before hiking out. We ate delicious meals (the beef stew was so good!!), did a few more hikes, and spent some time laying in the river right outside our cabins. They even had benches in the river so you could sit and just hear the water flowing around you. It was amazingly beautiful.
• After our visit at Phantom Ranch, we hiked out of the canyon. After a hearty breakfast, Niles, Derek, Kenny, and I began our trip out using the Bright Angel Trail. It started out fairly easy and we made it up to the halfway mark in good time. However, a few miles after that, it started getting steeper and more difficult since we were already tired (or at least I was). It wasn't easy, but I'm very proud to say that we all made it up to the top in pretty good time :)
• After we reached the top, we looked around for a little while before returning to the car that was left at the top of the rim for us. It took some time to find the car, but once we did, we were shocked to find that it was about to be towed! If we'd arrived just a few minutes later, the car would've been gone because they had already broken into it and the hood was even up! We explained our situation to the cops, and they let us take the car.
• We drove to the North Rim Lodge to meet with the rest of our group and barely made it in time for dinner.
• The next morning, we all ate breakfast and packed up our things. Kenny and I had to leave early because we needed to get on the road to make it his brother, Kyle's wedding the next day.

All in all, it was an amazing trip, and I'm really glad I did it!