Hey Actifitters,
For our second day in the Grand Canyon yesterday, we didn't waste time in the morning. We already decided that we'd hike the iconic South Kaibab trail, one of the most strenuous. We were planning to hit Skeleton Point and turn back, but as we'll see later, we went a bit further. Anyways, even before starting walking, the view from up there was already great, and a nice motivation for the hike.
It's very steep at the beginning of the trail, it drops a lot of elevation right away. That's actually one thing I am not used to. In my beloved Alps, when I was a kid, you'd climb up first, and the descent would come next. So even if you get tired, it's a bit easier. In the Grand Canyon, you first drop a few hundreds meters, and later in the day, and when it's much hotter, you have to climb back up!
Anyways, the steep parts are always worth it, for this kind of scenery!
We slightly missed the trail but it was actually a good mistake, because it lead us to this platform with yet another great view.
We reached the first destination 'Ooh Aah Point' and guess what, another fantastic view of the canyon!
We didn't stop there of course and reached the next destination 'Skeleton Point', our original target.
That's where we started to get beautiful views of the Colorado River.
We felt good enough to walk to the next destination 'Tip off'. More steep switchbacks.
And more massive views!
There's a small shelter at Tip Off where we had lunch. The sun was really getting hot!
But it was time to start on the steep climb back up.
Everything was going well, we were actually making good time, almost as fast as the descent! But I don't know what happened, something hit me real hard! Not sure if it was dehydration, light heat exhaustion, or plain old weakness and lack of stamina, but I had to really slow down somewhere between mile 7 and 8. It didn't last too long fortunately and after many short breaks, we finally made it to the last 'wall'
I was a bit disappointed in myself but it was a great hike and we made it!
Next we rode the orange shuttle to Pipe Creek Vista, so we could walk back the easy 2 miles trail to Mather Point.
We met an elk on the way. We were a bit impressed as these things are huge, especially compared to the deer we have in Michigan. But we were told these elks are everywhere near the Grand Canyon South Rim, and indeed we saw more of them later.
Some more views along the way.
At Mather Point, the view was so cool, even this squirrel couldn't help admiring it, from the best spot too!
I'd have to agree with the squirrel! He even helped me pick my photo for Around The World contest:
And that was it for our last big day of hiking. We just went back to Williams where our hotel was, and hung out in this cute little village along the Historic Route 66. But that will be for my next report.
As always, thanks for stopping by and see you tomorrow.
[//]:# (!pinmapple 36.05323 lat -112.08373 long d3scr)
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