Walking the Grand Canyon - Part 2

On the way out of Monument creek, view of the Colorado, it's the brown river

After the really long first day, I think it was something like 17kms with the heaviest packs of the day, it was a nice short day for the second. Just a stroll really, down to the Colorado River, though we did get to slide through some canyons. That was pretty fun, especially since we were already hot at 9am.

I think camping on the shores of the river was the best night. The river was not what I expected at all. For some reason I thought the Colorado river would actually be quite shallow and narrow. I think because we had been spotting glimpses of it for so long. But these were from so far away that it looked pretty calm and not that big. And then you got down there, and it was pretty scary. It sounded like a jet engine, it was roaring, and bubbling, a real chocolate milkshake - but a scary one. It was also freezing cold, I can't think of a less inviting place to swim, and given it was so hot otherwise, with not a cloud in the sky, it really felt a little unfair. We had to camp a little away from the water, just because there was no way you could sleep through the noise, and I have never thought that of flowing water before, normally it is quite peaceful. Wowsers.

The chocolate milkshake of the Colorado

These gullies were serious, you wouldn't want to go wrong.

That was a bit of a lazy day, with a paddle in some pools, away from the river, and a relax in the sun. Really quite pleasant, with yet more delicious food cooked by our awesome guide.

The next day we were off to hermit camp, this was again on the banks of a creek, and yet another great camp spot. The national park has really done a great job at choosing these camp spots. I wish the national parks in England and Wales had these as well, campsites that you had to walk to. Scotland has the wild camping, which is great, but England and Wales don't have anything like that. It's a real shame, since it also has great open spaces, but you are not meant to sleep out there. Perhaps people do anyway, so long as they are away from paths and not really visible, perhaps they don't care. Because Wales has some great beaches, and I'm really dreaming of finding an overnight walk to some beach that you can only access on foot. How great would that be?

Last view of the monument

The lovely sunset colours in the canyon

Apparently there used to be a hermit, Louis Boucher, who lived in the area for 20 years or so, though I'm not sure how much of a hermit he really was. This region of the park has all these trails and campsites named after this guy. This part of the park also used to be in private hands, and the trail down was built to service a luxury campsite. In fact there used to be a tramway from the rim, as well as a car for transportation and a chef. It must have been some campsite. This was all back in 1910 or so. And there is not much remaining at all. The trail has seen some serious rock falls, nothing major, but you couldn't even get a horse along there now. At the time they really wanted to capitalise on the canyon, luckily tourism has moved away from that style of enjoying the wilderness.

You have to visit this place, it's amazing

Not a cloud in the sky at sunset. The top cliff is 1000m above.

This was our last night in the canyon, and the next morning we were getting up at 4:30am to try and beat the heat when we slog our way back up the 1000 metres to the rim. Again this is when the guide is so good. You didn't need to worry about having the will power to get up that early, since it was up to him to rouse us all. I am such a fan of guided walks, at least where I don't know the flora, fauna or terrain.

We had to pick our guide's brain too, since this had been so amazing. Everywhere you looked there were fantastic views, just the scale and the colours, everything about it. So we ask him which is his favourite national park, and he doesn't even say the grand canyon! He likes Glacier and Olympic national parks more, so guess where we are off to this summer. If they are better than the grand canyon, then I have high hopes!

Sunrise at the canyon

The cathedral steps go through the pass - fantastic sunrise.

It was quite fun leaving before dawn, we had our head torches on and it was so still and quiet. And then the sun started to come up. I really should have got up earlier during the trip, the colours at sunrise were amazing. We had breakfast at the top of the Cathedral steps. I don't really remember going down these on the way in, but they were super steep, a lot of switchbacks. It did mean though that most of the ascent was done before breakfast, which is a nice way to climb out of the canyon

One last shot on the way out

Then it was just the slog back up to the truck, and since we were going up the way we were going down, you knew how far everything was away. It was still nice to finally reach the top. You start to pass other people the closer you get to the carpark. I always find that slightly strange after a few days away from people, where I am all smelly, in the same clothes I was wearing 4 days ago, and they are all nice and clean, and in jeans and stuff. Thankfully it wasn't that hot, and our packs were light, and we were enthused for more back country adventures in the US. Before we left the canyon for good we stopped at one of the lookouts for some photos. We could see the whole route we had taken, even the paths that we were walking on, that was pretty cool. And actually having been down there, amongst it, that's not something you forget.

View from the lookout, you can vaguely see the trail if you look closely