7-21-17

My alarm was set for 5:00 but like most other days I was awake shortly before it went off. We packed backpacks the night before with water and snacks and we were on the rim trail walking towards the Bright Angel Trail by 5:30 AM.  It was a relatively cool morning. Temps in the high 50's, rising to about 65 by 7:30. Lorelei even took a jacket. We started our descent right as the sun was beginning to rise and seeing the color change along the Canyon walls was a great spectacle. We were in no hurry, stopping as often as we liked to take pictures or gaze at the sun. The boys walked ahead. Lorelei and I lingered and took our time on the steep slopes talking and enjoying the pleasant hike. Several people passed us on the way down but most of the time we had the trail to ourselves.  We made it to the mile and a half rest house and stopped. We felt good enough to keep going but knowing that our descent was 1131 feet over the course of that mile and a half and we would have to go back up, going down more didn't seem like it would be a good idea. We could have done it but we wanted to enjoy the rest of the day without being too tired so we turned around and headed back up the trail towards a real breakfast. 

The mule train bringing guests down the Canyon passed us on our way up. Perhaps next time we will try that. Lorelei and I agreed that we would like to take a rafting trip and I would love to hike rim to rim. There were a lot more people coming down as we went up and I was so happy that we started early because it would not have been nearly as enjoyable with all of those people. We arrived back at the rim at 7:45. The trail guides say to allow 2-4 hours to hike that section and we were pleased to be towards the lower end of that range and we still felt we took our time going both up and down. We went straight to the restaurant for pancakes and eggs then back to our room for showers and to lay down. Around 11:30 we decided it was time to get back outside.  It was a pleasant day with highs around 80 and clouds so the breeze was nice. Luke has had a sore throat and stuffy nose off and on for a week now so we stopped in to the clinic to be told that he has allergies. He doesn't have this at home so we figured perhaps the mesquite or ponderosa pine trees. Thankful that it wasn't something serious we grabbed some Claritin and sudafed then went over to the market to grab some groceries and then we went into Tusayan to get gas which is the town just before the South Entrance. The only gas station there was 3.49$ a gallon for 87 which was a complete rip off. That was more than I paid anywhere in California so we drove 20 more miles to Valle to save $5.40 in gas. You have to live by your principles I guess. 

We drove back into the park and hit the visitor center again so Lorelei could turn in her Night sky ranger book then headed to one of the lodges to get pizza for lunch. It was quite good. It was now about 4:00 and the kids were tired and content to watch TV while Scott and I went for a walk on the rim trail. We sat on the edge of the Canyon dangling our feet off, watching people on the trail below us. There was not really a sunset because of the clouds but we stayed out until about 7:45 the went back to the hotel and watched TV. Sometimes you just need to be lazy.