Mississippi River Trip: Flight!

For an early birthday present I bought Larisa a helicopter tour of the Grand Canyon, something I remember fondly from my first trip here with my parents when I was a kid.  Her flight was the first of the day, so we had to get up early to be there.  We checked her in, she watched the safety video, and she boarded the helicopter excited to be able to sit up front with the pilot.  Her flight departed, and I hung around the airport enjoying air conditioning and people watching.    Her flight returned.  You’ll have to read the Russian version for her thoughts on the trip, but she liked it a lot.

After her flight we hiked a few miles of the rim trail, stopping for a bit at the Yavapai Geology Museum.  The museum is tiny, but holds a wealth of information on how the Grand Canyon formed and what the future holds.  As is usual with the National Park Service, the displays were great and the information fascinating.  We lunched near the visitor’s center as a small storm began to roll in, cooling the air and dropping a few bits of rain on us.  It was refreshing! 

We planned a longer hike for the evening – Bright Angel Trail.  The trail takes you down into the canyon and ultimately you can follow it to the Colorado River and up the other side to the North Rim for a multi-day trip.  Our hike was a little shorter.  The trail warnings say that it is a strenuous hike, and that on average you should allow twice as much time going up as you do going down.  With that advice, and the fact that we were hiking near the evening, we decided to do an hour down, two hours back.  

Bright Angel trail is phenomenal.  It twists along the canyon wall in a series of switchbacks that take you past the many layers of geologic rock formations.  The views of the canyon itself can’t be beat, and the fact that the trail actually takes you through a natural arch makes the trip even better.  We plodded down the trail sipping water to wet mouths dry from hanging open in wonder.  We paused now and then for pictures, but the light wasn’t right yet, so on we went.  Our downward trek took us to a point about 5 minutes from the first resting area 1.6 miles down in the canyon.  We considered hitting the station for more water, but both of us were still well stocked, so we turned back after taking a 15 minute rest and picture break.

On the way down I’d identified four resting areas for the trip back.  Mainly I picked them because they had easy landmarks to see and gave great views of the canyon.  Heading upward I found that I had such a roll going that I missed my first two resting areas completely.  I don’t mean I decided to skip them, I mean that I missed them entirely.  I guess I was watching the canyon too much and the trail too little.  I decided to press on to the third rest area, but when I got there I had energy to spare and decided not to stop yet again.  Maybe I hadn't taken a flight this morning, but I was flying now!

 Larisa was perhaps a quarter of a mile behind me at this point because she was taking pictures along the way.   As I got to the natural arch I asked another hiker what the time was and was pleasantly surprised to discover I was ahead of schedule.  I power walked to the top and stumbled onto the trailhead breathing hard and sweating heavily to find that I’d done my return journey in exactly 45 minutes.  It was a heady feeling while it lasted.  A woman and her daughter were sitting at the trailhead when I got there, and she kept giving me looks like I was going to collapse or something.  I didn’t, though I did go directly to the water station and pour a bunch of water over my head and back.  Ah, what a relief in the heat!

I waited for Larisa to arrive – she came up exactly an hour after she left, so we both kind of hauled butt up the trail – an accomplishment we kept congratulating ourselves on.  I do have to say that I think a lot of credit needs to be given to the trail planners for Bright Angel Trail.  While steep, the trail has well planned switchbacks that don’t tax the hiker too much, and they alternate between uphill segments and short flatter segments that allow you to rest on your feet as you go up.  Essentially the trail does a lot of the work for you, and doesn’t force you to take rests along the way unless you want to.  Great trail, well planned, and well maintained, and it took me 45 minutes instead of two hours to ascend.  Whoo!

We watched the remnants of the sunset from the rim trail and were rewarded with a pure red and gold finish to the day, only touched a little by a pack of clouds over the canyon that the sun set on fire.  We headed back to camp, exhausted but happy.  This was by far my favorite hike of the trip.  We've decided that if we ever make it back here we'll try an overnight trip to the river.