The objective of the first "day" of our hike - now that we had arrived - was to get to the Esplanade, which (as it turns out) is not just a fancy name, but a reference to the layer of rock that constitutes it, a 330 foot red sandstone shelf. Mileage was about 5 miles*: 2 miles along the Rim, then 3 miles or so of hiking down into the canyon, with an descent of about 850 ft.
(* = Author's note: Distances in come cases may be approximate, based on measured versus reported.)
The trail along the Rim is a series of undulating hills. At one point one reaches the high point and begins the last downhill. In the back of my mind, of course, is that we have to come up all of this as well: the trail in will be our trail out, at least here.
The trail down:
The sky was partially cloudy, but we were spared any significant rain. It made for even more spectacular views though; I do not remember seeing clouds of this kind when I hiked here 3 years ago.
Monument Point. This is a useful gauge of how for down (or up) one has come:
This was a very steep descent with a series of narrow switchbacks. Descents for me - and for most people that I hike with - are the more difficult part of the hike. Rocks can slip, poles can slide out, feet can slide - twisting knees and ankles or just causing one to fall. All of us went down at least once during the descent.
One of the things that struck me as I continued down was the silence. There are no birds, no insects, no particular wind or rain in this case, just silence. To someone that is surrounded constantly by sound, it was terribly noticeable.
Looking back up at Monument Point for perspective:
Even in the Grand Canyon, you can find flowers in Autum:
Our campsite for the night:
Sunset getting ready to put on a show:
And, of course, very fragile. Step lightly.
Dinner this night was pizzadillas (basically quesadillas with pizza makings). Sadly, I failed to grab a picture.
But the view on the veranda while waiting for dinner was amazing.
Quite the vistas there TB, as far as the silence, not even plane traffic off in the distance?
ReplyDeleteNylon12 - Occasional planes, but not nearly like one sees along the more traveled routes (flying in this part of the world, I have had pilots point out the Grand Canyon).
DeleteBut - he said, with an air of foreshadowing - wait until tomorrow...
The formations are so unique. It's one of the things that makes it all so interesting.
ReplyDeleteI recall the profound silence from my family trip to Canyonlands. All I could hear was ringing in my ears.
Did you mention your temperature ranges for the trip? I don't recall.
Leigh, they really are unique. And the layers and layers and layers of multi-coloured rock.
DeleteOne of the nice things about being near water, when it happened, was sound.
This was the coldest day and night that we had, with night temperatures into the low 60's (we had condensate on the tents in the morning). The temperature climbs as you descend into the Canyon, so we will start to hit low to mid-80's during the day and low 70's at night. Not completely horrible, but a little hotter than I cared for with a full pack.
Yes, with a pack, give me uphill all day long over a steep decent. Fortunately, all my hiking in the innards of the Grand Canyon were day trips so I just clipped two water bottles to my my camera case shoulder strap and stashed a sandwich inside and called it good.
ReplyDeleteEd, one thing I was a bit more conscious of, given the width of the trail at times and the steepness of the descent, was overbalancing when I slipped. One would not have fallen all the way down, but even 20 feet can be catastrophic.
DeleteTrekking poles are a great help.
For sure! Anyplace off trail was likely full of cacti spines and sharp rocks so even if you don't slide a great distance, you were sure to get injured.
DeleteEd, occasionally for "fun" I would imagine particular places and what it might be like. It was not a pleasant thought experiment.
DeleteThese pictures are magnificent, TB. And the clouds are a wonderful added bonus.
ReplyDeleteThank you Becki - Although to be fair, I do not think you can take a bad picture in the Grand Canyon.
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