Grand Canyon Backpacking Weekend

Last weekend we took our much anticipated trip to the Grand Canyon. You have to apply for a backcountry permit four months in advance so we have been waiting for this trip since June 1st! They only give out 30 a night so permits are super hard to come by and we were lucky enough to get one on our first try! It was a great weekend just like we knew it would be. We took over 800 pictures - not even including my brothers. I have narrowed it down to two versions - a 185 picture slide show with captions and a "short" version of 34 pictures that highlight some of my favorite moments but certainly don't tell the whole story. I'm going to go through the "shor"t version here and, for those of you interested, the full picture album is at the bottom of the post (Just jump to the bottom if you don't want to ruin the surprise!)

Ready? Let's go!

DAY 1

We left San Diego at approximately noon on Thursday. The first stop was a random park and ride outside LA to meet my brother Jason. My brother isn't really an avid hiker - and he had never carried a real backpack before - but he was surprisingly up to the trip anyways. I was excited he decided to come though since we don't really get to spend much quality time together these days. Here he is sporting his very appropriate Grand Canyon cowboy hat. 

Then it was 7 hours east through the middle of nowhere to get to the Grand Canyon. Joey drove while Jason napped and I enjoyed the beautiful desert scenery. Unfortunately Joey was fighting off a cold and sniffled and sneezed the entire way. The car was filled with dozens of tissues. I started getting really worried about his ability to hike into the Canyon!

We arrived at the park around 9pm and stayed at a little cheap motel called the Grand Canyon Inn. 

DAY 2 

The next morning we had a good breakfast and headed to the main park. The area outside the rim of the Canyon is actually pretty high elevation - around 7000 feet - so it was pretty cold, like around 30 degrees. Joey was still feeling crappy but insisted he was hiking in. I was having a serious motherly instinct dilemma - debating whether or not we should cancel the hike. I was afraid he may have to be rescued by mules if he got down there and couldn't hike back up! Somehow Joey subsided my fears and we set out for the trailhead. Here is my brother posing with his newly rented hiking gear - ready for the expedition. 

Unfortunately, Jason soon realized he couldn't wear his hat with his backpack and had to settle for a gilligan style hat I had in my trunk. Definitely not as cool. Here are the guys at the trailhead of the South Kaibab trail.  This trail is one of the steepest in the park as it descends 5000 ft over 7 miles.

The path was full of switchbacks and a surprising number of day hikers. 

It took us forever to get down the trail because we stopped to take so many pictures. Here we are at one of the first marked viewpoints - Ooh Aah Point.

As we descended the terrain and the rock changed a lot - red, brown, yellow, green - all sorts of colors!

At some point the weather got a little foreboding. Joey and I were prepared for rain but my brother was not - so we were really hoping it would pass us by.

All along the way there were official resthouses with milemarkers and restrooms. I couldn't believe there were so many restrooms in the middle of nowhere - but I wasn't complaining. There isn't really anywhere to hide to do your business out there!

We were in amazement at the beauty of the canyon at every turn of the trail. So beautiful!

Finally, at about 6 miles in and 3 hours later, we reached the Colorado river. My legs were shaking like a leaf from all the steep downhill and I was ready to reach our camp!

The guys at the entrance of our camp - Bright Angel Campground. The temperature at the bottom of the canyon was a comfortable 50-60 degrees - perfect for camping.

We set up the tents and made some delicious freeze dried dinner. (Check out the full album for details about my brothers $20 walmart tent!) The campground was also really fancy - with a picnic table, running water, and lighted restrooms - I couldn't believe it!

After dinner we went for a little walk to tried to see more of the river and to try to catch the sunset over the canyon. 

We couldn't see much but it was cool none the less.

DAY 3

The next morning we woke a the break of dawn to prepare for our very daunting hike out. We were taking a different trail out - the Bright Angel trail - that was approximately 9 miles. They estimate that it takes some people about 8 hours to climb it though since it is so grueling for the last 4 miles. I made a giant bowl of oatmeal with raisins and nuts to power everyone up! However I made WAY too much (a person can only eat so much oatmeal!) and we ended up having to pack some out - gross.

The scenery on this trail was very different than on our way in. We were continually amazed at the variety of terrain - although you may not be able to tell from the pictures....

As the sun came out it warmed up quite a bit down there and started getting hot. My brother stopped like every ten feet to reapply his fancy schmancy 70 factor spray-on sunscreen that he carried conveniently in his pocket - he does not like the sun!

The first 5 miles of the trail were relatively flat. There were a couple steep portions but nothing too terrible. As we started climbing, more beautiful scenery came into view. 

At one point we walked through the oasis of the canyon at Indian Garden. Here is Joey taking a little breather under a tree. He was holding up surprisingly well considering he was kind of sick. I guess he just isn't a complainer - I would've totally been whining if I were sick. 

So many nice views, I just couldn't help myself. Joey caught me mid-self-pic here.

The last half of the hike was brutal - 4000 of the 5000 feet are over the last 4 miles. This was our view for much of the day - stairs and more stairs!

At this point, the three of us couldn't keep a constant pace and we started to spread out over the never ending switch backs. I lead the group with my legs of steel from Power and Step, followed by Joey with thighs of fire about 5-10 minutes behind, and lastly my brother with screaming calves and a slow shuffle about 5-10 minutes behind him. We regrouped at every resthouse - about 1.5 miles apart. Here is Joey at the 3 mile resthouse in disbelief that we still had so much more to climb - and he was already dying!

I'll spare you all the dozens of pictures of Joey in pain but I have to share this one. At one point I was waiting for Joey and I see him coming around the corner and just stop. What is he doing!? 

He is crouched over on his trekking pole hating his life! I was worried he wasn't feeling well because of the cold but it was actually just his quads burning like crazy. He said he felt like he was in weight training class and his coach was screaming at him to do one more squat and he just couldn't do it. He was contemplating ways to convince someone to carry his pack up for him! He was not a happy hiker!

Even worse, by the time I made it to the top, Jason was WAY far behind. I think we waited like 30 or 40 minutes until we saw his little shuffle coming up the trail - and it had only been 1.5 miles since we regrouped! I started to get a little worried and was so happy to see him make it. 

After finishing the trail we grabbed a hot meal and headed to a spot to view the sunset. It was getting very cold at the top with the sun dropping - back into the 30s. 

Joey took some really nice photos. 

We originally planned on car camping at the rim the second night and having a big celebratory bonfire but we totally chickened out from the cold and went back to our little cheap motel. I really liked the motel - it was so cute and lodge-y - and decorated for Halloween. This picture cracks me up because my brother was really just sitting like this in the background!

After a hot shower, I pulled everyone together to have a local beer to celebrate our accomplishment. What a great trip!

DAY 4

The next morning we waddled our way to the car with our unbelievably sore legs and enjoyed the 9 hour drive!

So that's it! There are many more fun pictures and little stories for those of you that want to see more! Otherwise, thanks for reading!

See the full album and captions here: