After a nice camp shower after the narrows and some sausages for dinner, complete with Jiffy Pop, we woke up in Zion after a bright sleep under the full moon and decided to hit up one more hike before we headed to Grand Canyon.
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| Zion camp site |
We did Hidden Canyon Trail, a 2.5 mile trail that walks along a cliff face. Thanks to Brian, Kelly, and Dave for chit chatting and distracting me while we walked along the scary parts! Go me!
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| A view from the hike. There were narrow trails along the sides of these cliffs that we followed to get to Hidden Canyon. |
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| Kelly, Brian, and Dave |
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| I have no idea how he got up there, or got down... |
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| Dave and Brian in the arch |
We left Zion and began driving to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. Dave had found coordinates to a free camping place. Remember, it was Memorial Day weekend, so there was no way we were staying somewhere official. With the help of a hiking GPS and some sketchy directions from a little magazine cut out he brought, we drove on gravel roads for a very long time with huge potholes in rental cars that had like 4" of clearance underneath before we finally arrived at
Parisawampits Point at the edge of a rim. At first it was very anticlimactic, but after such a long drive in the car, I decided to jog around until I found out why this place was recommended. Well, I figured it out! I lead the cars to a camping spot just a few feet from a rim overlooking the valley where the Grand Canyon lay. We set up camp but also watched sunset from a cool spot overlooking the canyon. Brian and Dave both saw the elusive, black Kaibab squirrel, but I missed him.
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| View from Parissawampitts Point |
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| View from Parissawampitts Point |
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| View from Parissawampitts Point |
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| View from Parissawampitts Point |
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| Parissawampitts Point at sunset |
We made some dinner and went to bed and set our alarms for sunrise. As it turns out, Grand Canyon is pretty high elevation. I had packed for summer in the desert, not cold sleeping conditions! Luckily I had some jeans along and a well insulated hoodie.
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| View from Parissawampitts Point at sunrise (that's the moon!) |
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| View from Parissawampitts Point at sunrise |
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| View from Parissawampitts Point at sunrise |
Sunrise was a little anticlimactic due to haze, but it was still fun to see. We headed back to the main road and found a camping spot and dropped a car there, put up tents, then drove together to Grand Canyon.
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| Beefalo. They exist. |
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| Dave and I at Grand Canyon National Park |
We walked out to Bright Angel Point, but the drastic drop offs of the Grand Canyon really bothered me, so I spent some time sitting on a rock while the rest hung out on the edge.
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| Grand Canyon from Bright Angel Point |
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| Grand Canyon from Bright Angel Point |
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| Yay, a sign! I wasn't able to take this picture, I was too freaked out and was hanging out on my rock. |
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| I sat on this rock for a while and tried not to cry. I hate heights! The bridge behind me is what totally freaked me out! |
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| In front of the lodge at North Rim Grand Canyon, Dave and I |
We decided on a 10 mile hike called,
Widforss Trail, which included a fun trail guide which we totally milked for entertainment, doing it backwards from memory on the way back. The trail offered awesome views of the canyon as well as some nice forest. Poor Dave only had the hiking shoes I brought from Colorado, which of course were the rejects that didn't make the trip to NYC. I brought a huge suitcase on Southwest while he didn't check a bag, so I brought the bulky stuff. Anyway, his shoes were practically garbage and his feet hurt so bad on our 10 mile hike! What a trooper!
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| From Widforss Trail |
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| Ponderosa Pina |
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| Dave, Brian, and Kelly on Widforss Trail |
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| Me tree hugging the Ponderosa Pine |
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| Finally made it to the view at the end of From Widforss Trail, now 5 miles home! |
Afterwards we headed back to the visitors center to make use of the facilities, fill up water, and RELAX! There was a coffee shop/bar at the visitors center area and we got some spiked drinks and relaxed in the lodge with huge windows overlooking the canyon.
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| Dave and I after a 10 mile hike and a drink at the lodge. |
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| Sweet views in the lodge at Grand Canyon! |
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| Relaxing after a long hike. |
We made our way back to our other car and free campsite, and decided since it was our last night before we returned our rental cars and headed back to Vegas, we had to eat everything we owned. Fortunately, that included potatoes and peppers and onion, which we sauteed on our sweet
cat stove, which is a cheap way to cook if you are flying to your destination and don't feel like buying a full camp fuel for a few days of camping. Unfortunately, we also had to eat up our gross creamy potato soup and Dave's cup o noodles. These were not so gourmet. After our food was finished, we cleaned up and had an extremely cold sleep. We woke up early and went to breakfast before making our way to Hoover Dam.
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| Potato fest. Who needs chairs? |
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| Potato, onion, and pepper masterpiece on the cat stove! |
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