Grand Canyon Rim-to-Rim 2015

Last weekend (May 22-23), Steven and I got the opportunity to hike the canyon together.  This was his first time and my fourth. We were pretty excited to be there together and get to scope it out to hopefully bring our kids one day.  We headed up to catch the Transcanyon shuttle on Friday morning.  We barely made it because we got behind an accident, but thankfully they waited for us. Whew!  As we neared the North Rim it began to snow. And not just gentle falling snow. We're talking about snow that blows sideways!  Seriously!!! This is totally something that would happen to us.  No adventure we attempt is ever straight forward.  

Start of the snow.

Snow got much thicker as we approached the park.

Oh man!

Beautiful trees with snow.

Snow paused enough to get these cool picture at sunset.  Clouds were rising up out of the canyon.   The coolest thing ever!

Snowing again at 5am as we began our walk. 

We finally got below the clouds and saw the magnificent canyon. You can see the trail below.

Looking back up the canyon. You can see the trail on the left side in the yellow area.

Still walking!

We decided to take a little side hike to Ribbon Falls. I had never done this and I am so glad that we took the extra steps to get here. 

I think this is normally a smaller waterfall, hence Ribbon falls, but the rain made it bigger.

Up close.  The color of the moss, contrasting with the canyon, was so beautiful!

We hiked behind the falls.

So amazing!

Oasis in the desert.

Had a quick bite at Phantom Ranch and then headed over to the river.  This is the Siver suspension bridge that we are about to cross. 

Taken for Hubter.  He loves history.

Looking west.  The clouds were really getting dark at this point. It started raining just after we crossed the bridge and rained for nearly the rest of the hike out. I guess at least we stayed cool!

Looking east. You can see the other bridge for the South Kaibab trail.  Shortly after these pictures were taken a group of rafters came by. It was so fun to watch them (rafting the river is another thing on our bucket list).

Making our way out. At this point, we had just left Indian Gardens. Five more miles to go!

Heading for that wide, darker area above (touching the top and to the right a little  bit) above Steven's head. Sure looks further than 5 miles!

Getting higher up on the wall.

This is that dark, green area you could see from Indian Gardens. About 3 more miles.

Loved these clouds.

My sweet husband was such a trooper. No doubt, we were pretty tired at this point!

Yay!  We made it to the tunnels.  This means that the end is super close. Finished in about 10.5 hours and headed home. Grateful for the experience!

Beautiful sunset on the way home.