A quest for ice cream (and some exercise)

9/1:

Happy September! It appears that I've been on the road now for 5 weeks, give or take a few days. I welcomed in the new month with another quick visit to Williams for a couple of pictures and a cool Route 66 shirt (I'm a sucker for memorabilia, it seems).

I then booked it on up to the Grand Canyon and got settled in at my campsite at Mather Campground. Awesome place - the perfect combination of wilderness and convenience!

A pretty gigantic bull elk by the campsite!

Anyways, after lightening Jane's load we headed in to the Visitor's Center. I wandered around that area for a while, snapping a few semi-decent shots along the way:

I then decided that I had had enough with conventional easy tourism. So I headed to Bright Angel Trail during the heat of the afternoon for a nice vigorous 4-mile hike. Fortunately I calculated right and the location of the trail on the side of the canyon meant that the trail was shaded from the afternoon sun in most spots. Score!

Yessssss, sweet shade

The problem with hiking in the Grand Canyon is that you get to do the easy part first... and then you have to hike your butt all the way back out. So there's no "oh, it's all downhill from here, no problem!" at the end of your hike. I remembered what it was like hiking back out of the canyon from my visit as a kid and kept that well in mind when heading down. I went a half mile past 1.5-Mile House and called it good. I then proceeded to hike my legs off coming back up, as I hate walking uphill slowly and had also remembered that there was an ice cream shop at the top of the trail. The ice cream was the real incentive, of course. About a mile from the top the switchbacks started and then I really, really, REALLY needed some ice cream. Some other hikers commented on my insane uphill hiking speed and I chose to smile and nod instead of confessing my true motivation. Because really, who goes faster going uphill than downhill just to get some cold dairy? That would just be silly. Fortunately I didn't die (not even close, in fact) and so I was able to get a cone at the top of the trail.

I should write a book on how to be this cool. I'd sell millions of copies.

There is nothing better in this world than eating ice cream after a good hard hike, I'll tell you that. Except maybe eating ice cream after a good hard hike while hanging out with your feet over the edge of the Grand Canyon. Which is exactly what I did.

Having eaten my dessert, I then hopped on a shuttle bus to take me to one of the best scenic points for a classic Grand Canyon sunset. No spectacular clouds or anything, but still lovely to behold.

Early evening sunrays coming in over the cliffs

Quite fantastic.

I made dinner in the dark and then went to bed early with the intent of waking up at 4:30AM to go see the sunrise. Of course, 4:30AM rolled around and my alarm went off and I went, "Haha... no." and went back to sleep. Which of course I can do because I am on vacation and running solo and I can do whatever I want. No regrets on that as I've seen a Grand Canyon sunrise before and I expect that the sun rises in the same spot now as it did a decade ago.

After a leisurely breakfast I headed out to my next trail: the South Kaibab Trail. This one is a bit of a monster as it is most steep near the top, so there's no way to avoid hating yourself when you come back up.

I don't think this trail has enough steep switchbacks.

Regardless I found it to be more scenic than the Bright Angel Trail, especially down around Cedar Ridge. There's a few points where the trail runs along a pretty thin ridge with spectacular views to either side.

The trail to Cedar Ridge was a mile and a half long. I did some exploring along the ridge and then abruptly remembered the climb I had back up to the rim. It was midday and I found myself wishing I had one of these to ride:

The famous Grand Canyon mules!

But alas, I didn't, and so I began my ascent. The Bright Angel trail is much better for ascending than the South Kaibab because it gradually gets less steep as you go up. The reverse is true for the South Kaibab, and I was doing this during the middle of the day, so you can imagine about how well that went (not well).

At the end I was making a game out of guessing the number of switchbacks left until I reached the top of the Rim. I never guessed right.

Even more frustrating, there was no ice cream located conveniently at the top of the trail. Despite this overwhelming adversity I did make it to the top... and then took the bus to the ice cream shop, where I got more ice cream. As an added bonus there was a Native American performing duo nearby, so I sat down to watch some native dances. My favorite was the eagle dance, though the hoop dance was also super cool.

This dude was awesome.

I spent the rest of the afternoon wandering around the South Rim. I took all of the buses to all of the stops until I had literally run out of new places to go. So I went back to camp to hang out there. While I was making dinner a guy named Ronnie pulled over to check out Jane; we chatted about hot rods for a few hours and I totally forgot to eat my dinner, which frequently happens when I start talking cars with someone. Fortunately camp dinners are pretty easy to reheat and they taste about the same no matter what you do to them.

Overall it's been a pretty awesome two days! The camping has been first rate, the trails have been challenging but fun, and the ice cream has been delicious. Tomorrow I'll pack up and head out via the Desert View road, along which I hope to see some more lovely scenery. Until then, Kelly signing out!