Yesterday, I started reminiscing about my trip to Arizona last year, so today I’ll finish off the recap of the Grand Canyon and then take you through Sedona and Scottsdale. 

After doing part of the Kaibab Trail, I had a really long debate with myself about whether to go back and finish the trail (to Skeleton Point) or to try out another trail. I ended up choosing to do another trail and this one started right outside of the lodge I was staying at, so as soon as I finished breakfast, I was able to get my pack ready and head out the door. Since I had all day, I decided to hike the Bright Angel Trail and head down to Indian Garden (4.5 miles down). The layers of snow made for some beautiful pictures. The top left picture shows the first of two “tunnels” through the rock that the trail takes you on. The bottom right picture shows a wide angle view from near the top of the trail where there is still a lot of snow, but the bottom left picture shows what happened as I continued on the trail – the farther I went down, the less snow there was and the more the temperature rose. I started out hiking in my ski jacket, but as I descended, I was able to shed that layer and stay warm enough. Right before I got to the 1.5 mile rest house, I saw some horses coming up the trail, so I moved off of the trail into a little stone building that sheltered me from the weather. Unfortunately, one of the horses was not happy on this section of trail, so I had to wait quite awhile before they were able to pass. Luckily, the rider was able to keep the horse under control enough that no one got hurt and they were able to continue on their journey as well. The top right picture is a view as I was getting closer to the Indian Garden. By this point, all the snow was gone and the trail had flattened out. 

One thing I learned is that my camera does not like to be dropped in the snow (who knew?) but if you do that sometimes you end up with some really interesting effects, like this picture:

From the Grand Canyon, I headed south toward Scottsdale by way of Flagstaff and Sedona. I didn’t spend too much time in Flagstaff, but it was cheaper than staying in Sedona, so I spent the night in Flagstaff and then left early to check out Sedona before I had to be in Scottsdale. After seeing Sedona, I wish I would have spent the extra money to spend the night there – it was beautiful! Because I had left so early, I was able to get the sun coming up over the red rocks and even caught the moon in a few of my pictures. 

In Scottsdale, I was able to get some more hiking in at Pinnacle Peak. The weather was much warmer in Scottsdale and the scenery is completely different! The cacti are huge! The one in the top right picture is probably over 100 years old and maybe even over 175 – there’s a growth chart on the trail that shows an estimation of how big a cactus is at various points in its lifecycle. 

I hope you’ve enjoyed my trip down memory lane through Arizona. Have you ever been to Arizona? 

Vacation Races held a contest on Monday for a free race entry to one of their national park series race events this year in honor of the first entrance-fee free park days. Unfortunately, I did not win a free entry to the race I chose (Grand Canyon), but it did get me thinking about my first trip to the Grand Canyon which I took around this time last year. I was able to spend a week in Arizona and made a road trip out of it – I flew into Phoenix (and caught a hockey game, of course), then drove up to the Grand Canyon and stayed there for 2 nights, then headed to Flagstaff for a night and finally made my way through Sedona to Scottsdale for 2 days. It was an awesome trip and I can’t wait to go again!

I really didn’t know what to expect from the trails at the Grand Canyon – I’ve done a few hikes by myself, so I felt comfortable going alone (though I’m not sure my family felt the same way!) but I wasn’t sure how I’d react to the elevation change – 750′ in Charlotte to 1,100′ in Phoenix to over 7,200′ at the Grand Canyon! Luckily, I didn’t have any physical issues, though the change in elevation did create some interesting weather conditions.

I got there around lunchtime and started at the main visitor center. I took the Rim Trail until I got to the South Kaibab Trail  which was about 2.5 – 3 miles. The weather was great for this part of the trip – it varied between sunny and overcast with some sprinkles, but that meant I got to see lots of rainbows. I would highly recommend taking the Rim Trail – it’s a paved path that does have a few “uphill” sections, but they’re minor and there are a lot of great opportunities to take pictures. I took all of the pictures with either my iPhone (great for panorama’s) or my actual camera, which is how I got the pictures of myself during the trip (thank you 10-second delay!).

When I got to the South Kaibab Trail, there was a few inches of snow on the ground and it was a pretty steep trail, so I put on my shoe spikes and started down the trail. I decided that I would just take the trail as it came and just go as far as I thought I could manage. Starting with the top-right picture is a view of the trail I was heading down – lots of switchbacks and definitely steep! The bottom-right picture was my favorite part of the trail – it’s a section of trail that is surrounded by super steep drop offs on either side. It’s frightening and exhilarating all at the same time! I was comfortable walking this trail, but there is no way you could get me on a horse to go down these trails!! The bottom-left picture is another view of the trail looking down from Ooh-Aah Point (.9 miles down the trail) toward Cedar Ridge (1.5 miles down). I made it to Cedar Ridge before deciding to turn around since it was getting later in the afternoon and I didn’t want to get stuck on a trail as it was getting dark. The top-left picture gives you and idea of the expansiveness of the view – it really is breathtaking.

Monday morning I got up early to head out to try to catch the sunrise and was shocked by what I found outside – about 6-8″ of snow! At this point, I was glad I let the rental car company convince me to get the 4 wheel drive. I bundled up and headed out toward the west side of the Rim Trail toward Hermit’s Rest. I wasn’t ever able to get a great picture of the sun coming up, but it was really neat to see the clouds slowly disappear as the sky lightened. The top left picture is one of the early ones that I took – you can really see the clouds hanging in the air. With all of the clouds in the canyon, you could see how fast the wind was moving.The next two pictures on the left are once it started to clear up a bit and you could see the snow in the canyon itself. I really like these as it shows the steepness of some of the drops (where none of the snow stuck) as well as the elevation change where you can see the snow just stops. The top right picture is at the far west end of the Rim Trail at Hermit’s Rest and the bottom right picture is from one of the lookouts on the Rim Trail – it’s funny how the panorama ends up distorting some of the image, but it’s fun to see the change in sky color throughout the picture. It was really quiet when I went out, which was to be expected as I didn’t see that many people when I was out in the middle of the day on Sunday, so I didn’t expect to see many this early in the morning. 

Tune in tomorrow for more trail pictures and a recap from Sedona and Scottsdale!

Have you ever been to the Grand Canyon?