At the end of January I was a able to be a part of a group of eight women who hiked the Grand Canyon. Yes, THE Grand Canyon-one of the natural wonders of the world. It was AMAZING.
But, before I was able to go on the trip, I had a mini trip of my own. Three days before we were to leave for our trip, it started to rain, and rain, and rain. I am not a complainer of rain but it was non-stop. Rain hasn't really ever affected the way we go about our day to day business but with the non-stop rain it was becoming inconvenient to do a few normal tasks. But, what can you do? On day three of the rain, the kids and I ran a few errands before we headed home. When we got the dry wash we cross to get to our house, it was RUNNING and running swiftly. It was kind of a novelty, so we watched for awhile and then headed to Nimrod's office to wait it out. During monsoon storms, the was runs for a little bit and then goes down. Two hours later, it is dinner time and the was is going up, not down. We decide to go out to eat since we are stuck in town and then plan to head home. We have a nice dinner, yadda-yadda, time to go home. The wash was not going down, the rain is not stopping and we need to get home. Nimrod's dad was with us and so they decide we will park our cars at a ranch on this side of wash and walk our home.
We drive to the ranch and park the cars. With the kids bundled up and the daylight slipping away we headed down the railroad tracks and across the railroad bridge to get over the wash. From there we veered off into the desert and slopped through the wet mud while being rained on. Twenty minutes later we see the lights of my in-laws house. We finally get there, wet, cold, and tired. My mother-in-law drove us over to our house just down the road and we were very thankful for our warm, dry home. While we were hiking, I kept thinking, "If this is what the canyon is going to be like, it will be MISERABLE." But, I was set to go 2 days later.
With the continuous rain in our area, the Grand Canyon was getting pounded with snow. The eight of us were throwing emails and texts back and forth, trying to figure out who was still willing to go. There had been more ladies, but with the terrible weather, people were dropping like raindrops. The few crazy ones were still in it. Nimrod's anxiety was going up with each rain drop falling . I was going to be gone for 3 days, it was snowing, I was driving the women and I had never driven in snow. I, however, chose not to think about those things.
The day came for us to leave and it was still raining. I picked up the ladies and off we went. This was the view out my front windshield as we approached the Canyon area.
This is the lodge we stayed in. I could not get over the icicles.
The next morning, the day of the hike down, we woke up to clear skies. God is great! Isn't this an amazing view? You cannot even see the bottom of the canyon from this view.
My self portrait. The enthusiasm is just oozing from my face. This is before I really know what I am getting into.
There were places where the snow drifts were deeper than me.
When we finally got to the bottom, 8 hours later, it was much warmer. The Colorado River looks like chocolate milk and made me want something sweet. I was not to be disappointed. The Phantom Ranch is known for it's great food, especially sweets.
Here is one of the little waterfalls that just flow out of random places throughout the canyon.
When we got to the bottom of the Canyon and were checking into our cabins, I looked up on the mountain and saw 2 big horn sheep. I about died! I couldn't believe I spotted them. All I could think was that Nimrod would be so proud of me for seeing them and so jealous that I saw them and he didn't. While we were down there for 2 days, I was constantly scanning the mountains to catch a glimpse of them again. I didn't see any and was disappointed.
However, on the hike out we were on one of the many switchbacks and heard this guy get really excited. I looked up the switchback and here is this big horn sheep walking down the trail we are walking up. It was unbelievable! The ram just walked down the path while the group above us was pinned against the mountain. Then he just walked over the edge of the trail and disappeared into the canyon. I would have never even imagined that could happen. If you look at this picture, you can see the ram on the left edge of the picture, about half way down. He is on the second switchback trail and you can see the man a little ahead of the ram on the trail.
I survived hiking the Grand Canyon, deep snow and wildlife encounters. It was a unique experience spent with some great friends, new and old. AND, the food at Phantom Ranch at the bottom of the Canyon is definitely worth the hike down. I will do anything for good chocolate cake and I was not disappointed! Of course, I had to drive home with a broken speedometer (a challenge with no cars on the road) and couldn't walk for 3 days. Minor discomforts for a trip of a lifetime.
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Rumor has it Aunt M got ice cream when she left too. I think Uncle D had it planned all the time. He was missin' Lickity Splits and needed to replenish his reservoir with THREE trips to the ice cream shop!
