Grand Canyon descend

10/6/11

The Grand Canyon is truly a geologists paradise. The canyon exposes over a billion years of history in the different layers of rock as one moves from the top to the bottom. During our stay, we learned a little about the geological history of the canyon. Millions of years ago, the collision of two continental shelves caused the Colorado plateau, location of the canyon, to rise. For perspective, this same event created the Rocky Mountains. After the Colorado Plateau rose to high altitude, the Colorado River began to carve it's path and create the Grand Canyon. This erosion event has taken 6 million years to carve the Grand Canyon as we see it today. Apparently, it carves out a depth each year equivalent to the thickness of a sheet of paper. Today, from the rim to the Colorado River, the Canyon is about a mile deep.

So, we began our two day, overnight hike to the bottom of the Grand Canyon and back out. Our itinerary had us descending the South Kaibab Trail, camping at Bright Angel Campground and ascending the Bright Angel Trail. 

Standing on the ledge at the South Kaibab Trailhead, one cannot see the Colorado River, over 5000 feet below. Apparently, the South Kaibab Trail is one of the most famous in the country. We set out at 11:00. Hiking the Grand Canyon is the opposite of climbing a mountain. You start out going down and finish going up. So, the first day down the South Kaibab trail was relatively easy. It provided a great opportunity to enjoy the spectacular views of the Grand Canyon.

The hike down was steep and we were glad we were not taking this trail back up. A couple other groups were hiking down at about the same time and we saw them periodically during the trip.

We arrived at the Bright angel campground at about 3:30, the hike lasting a little over 4 hours. The campground is located at a beautiful setting along a small creek that flows into the Colorado River.

From this location it is impossible to see the canyon rim or anything outside of the canyon save the night sky. We read that people can feel very claustrophobic within the canyon walls, but for this one night we enjoyed our view.

Soon after arriving, we set up camp. We had a brief crisis when we brought out the tent and realized that we had melted some large holes into it by putting it in the drier earlier in the day. Fortunately the rain fly was intact but our tent was now open to any critters that wanted to join us.

In the camp area there is a ranger station and a small lodge that are kept stocked by daily mule teams. In the evening there was a ranger event that we attended where one of the rangers told mysteries about the Grand Canyon. After that, we went to the lodge to enjoy a cold beer and hot tea before going to bed. When we returned to the camp, Paul noticed a sand trail of footprints of a small animal in the tent. He waited until morning to tell Monica so that she would not lose sleep worrying about more small animals coming into the tent during the night.