I have to say, that given the bright lights of Vegas vs the grandeur of the National Parks, and the great outdoors, I'd have to pick the latter. Although YD wouldn't say that she agreed with me totally, she did admit that they were at the very least equal.
After perusing the trail maps, we decided to attempt a relatively short, although exceedingly steep decent into the canyon along a trail called the "Oooh Ahhh trail" (seriously, how could we pass that up?). Everything we read and every sign we saw were designed to caution, OK, panic, hikers, from attempting hikes they were unprepared for. NEVER attempt to hike all the way down to the river and back in a single day, was the biggest warning we saw. Also lots of signs about how when the temperature is 80 degrees at the rim, it quickly rises to 105+ as you descend. Carry plenty of water, food, and other supplies.
We decided not to even attempt the trail until about 4PM, when the strength of sun decreases dramatically. We packed pb&j sandwiches and water, lots of drugs (epipen, benadryl, ibuprofen, bronchodilator), bug spray, sunscreen, and hit the park. We decided to hike along the canyon rim trail in the morning, have some lunch, and then tackle the oooh ahhh. We probably hiked about 3 miles along the rim trail. Flat, and a mix of paved and gravel paths. It was easy walking, but it was HOT. Instead of lunch, we stopped for ice-cream, and then set out for the main event.
As we boarded the shuttle bus for the trailhead, we noticed the large, black clouds blowing in, but we decided to give it shot. The trail descended at even a steeper grade than I had anticipated (see photos. One is view of trail going down, see people at the bottom on the trail. Other is view of the trail going back up. The dots on the side of the cliff are people going back up). Despite her fear of heights, YD was a trooper, and just as anxious as I to have a go at it. Of course, down is easy, as expected, but the trail is loaded with the warning messages of how hard it is to get back up. Looking back up at the trail, I did have a few moments of doubt. But the ooohs and ahhs just keep you going. The views are indescribable, and we were actually hiking down into the grand canyon, which is what I came to do.
The wind picked up and some drops of rain began to fall. Then we came across 2 young men resting on their way up. Let's just say that resting is a kind word. Recovering? Preventing total collapse, might be better ways to describe it. How much further to the top they asked us? Not far we told them, we just started out. They then told us that they had started at 6AM and hiked all the way down to the river and were having trouble with the trip back up. They were young and fit, and half-dead. I am old, but fit, YD is young, but not so fit, and I began to get a bit more worried, but we continued on. Then the clouds thickened a bit more, and we had to shield our eyes against the dust blowing up from the trail, and about 30 min after we set out, we decided we'd best turn around, so we did.
The hike back up that steep zig-zagging trail was much less strenuous than expected, and we were both a bit sorry we hadn't gone further, but the warnings had put the fear of god in us. Since we had gone to the trouble of making our sandwiches, we did stop and eat them, in the drizzle on the trail. We passed our struggling friends as we reached the top, and one was barely standing. The 4 of us hopped on the shuttle bus and it was clear that the older of the 2 men was suffering from heat stroke. They told us they couldn't believe the difficulty of their hike. The one with heat stroke had hiked up Mt Fuji with no problem. They were both Marines stationed in San Diego. They insisted they hadn't seen any of the warnings not to attempt the hike all the way to the bottom and back in a single day. When we got off the shuttle we discovered they had no way back to their campground, so we squeezed them in the back of Bobby, among the cooler, shoes, travel books, maps, and other detrius we'd collected along the way, and took them back to their tent. I hope they're OK!!!
But, we had the time of our lives, hiked into the Canyon (although not as far as we would have like to, given the weather conditions), and can't wait to get to our next 2 canyons, Zion & Bryce.
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