Exploring Grand Canyon--October 26, 2013

Last night, temps were predicted to go down into the twenties (a 40 degree drop from daytime highs), so Ray unhooked the water hose for the night.  After filling water bottles, packing lunch and snacks, and slathering on sunscreen, we headed toward South Kaibab trail. The trail descends 1000 feet from the rim to the point we determined would be a turnaround spot, Cedar Ridge. As we set out on the trail, I made a promise to myself not to take any photos on the way down. I figured that photo breaks on the way back up would probably be appreciated.

If you enlarge this photo, you can see hikers on the trail up in switchbacks along the hill ahead.

At a breezy Ooh-Aah Point

The trail down was dusty, but as expected, spectacular. One spot on the trailhead been aptly named Ooh-Aah Point, a place on the trail that offered a 270 degree view of the canyon. Wow. We had to carefully watch our steps to avoid rocks and also mule droppings.

As we descended, in the back of my mind, I somewhat dreaded the ascending return. As the Ranger had told us: "Going down is optional, going up is mandatory." But the return from Cedar Ridge was not bad. The fact that temps were in the high 50s really helped. We were amused, amazed, and confounded to see several parents carrying babies and /or toddlers down the trail. We wondered how far would they really go before they realized they had to carry or drag their kids back up.

On our return to the rim from the trail, we set off for a different section of the rim trail, a bit west of where we had walked yesterday. To get to the trailhead we made use of the park buses. What a convenience! They allow you to be dropped off at one point of the rim trail and picked up a few miles down the road. (The shuttle system here at Grand Canyon allowed us to avoid using the truck and all here.) That part of the rim trail was gravel and took us close to the edge of some steep precipices. By the time we took our last steps on the trail,  the sun was casting golden light over the canyon making for an awesome finish to our hike.

By the time we got back to the trailer, it was almost sundown. Before we had left this morning, I'd made beef stew in the crock pot. So dinner was just about done when we returned. Let noone think we are roughing it, in the least. One last treat at Grand Canyon after dinner: another glimpse of the Milky Way.