Kalley, my sister-n-law, flew in from DC on Wednesday evening. On Friday morning we headed into the Grand Canyon to catch a shuttle that would take us 5 hours around to get to the North Rim. We stayed at the North Rim Lodge, had dinner (we even got called "hiking fitness yoga models" by our waiter, someone was working for that tip), watched the sunset and got some rest for our long hike.
Crossing the Colorado River at Les's Ferry. This was our first glimpse of the river.
Pit stop with the shuttle. Very windy, but beautiful cliffs in background.
We saw buffalo (which is what these are. Supposedly there is 550 in this herd. I had no idea that there were even buffalo near the Grand Canyon), elk, turkey and beautiful aspen/pine forest.
First glimpse of the canyon after having dinner. We both had a bit if nervous energy, knowing what we were planning to do the next day.
Awesome Kalley!
Looking west.
We walked out onto that ledge to get our sunset pictures. Very windy and narrow.
We got free cheesecake from the chef. Yum!
Picture of a picture.
Hiking buddies!
Sun has set. You can kind of see Mt. Humphreys (the highest Mtn in AZ in the background).
Here goes nothing. We started hiking at 6am.
Just being goofy.
We hiked down the North Kaibab trail and up the South Kaibab trail. Most people hike from the north to the south because the north is 1000ft higher in elevation.
You can faintly see Mt. Humphreys again in the distance. This was the sight of Steven and I's first date.
Dropping a little further down into the canyon.
Love this bridge. That is Kal on the bridge. Just makes you feel so small to be in this place! There is definitely someone greater than us all.
Coming up on Roaring Falls. Water just pours out if the side of the cliff (can't see falls in this picture). Very cool!
Getting hotter. Time to convert to shorts. Ahhhh! North Kaibab trail hikes along Bright Angel creek for at least half the way. It is so nice to hear the sounds of nature. Truly heaven on earth.
Can you see the deer. It was mom and her baby. We didn't see them at first, but then saw the baby move. Pretty impressive that they would be this far down in the canyon.
Crossing one of the small streams.
There were tons of lizards. Some of them were quite big. We also came across a rattlesnake hidden in the rocks at the edge of the trail. A kind hiker in front of us warned us of him and boy was that snake a rattling his tail at us. Scary!
We came upon this water line break dead center in the trail. Very exciting and tricky to get around.
My shoes are no longer water proof because they are so worn out, so I had to find another way around. Tried to go on top of the rock, but it apparently dropped off a bit on the other side. Who would have guessed that I would be scaling a rock on this adventure.
We are getting close to Phantom Ranch at this point. We have just hiked 13.4 miles at this point. We stopped and had lunch at the ranch and put our feet in the mountain stream. It felt amazing on our throbbing feet!
Fixing to cross the mighty Colorado River on that bridge in the background. 6 more miles to go!
This is the half way sign on the South Kaibab Trail.
Getting closer to the top. Whoop whoop!
Gotta love this sign, but so true!
We made it.
22 miles later, 12 hours and we did it!
Came upon these beauties on our way out of the park.
