We went out with the intent to hike the Grand Canyon (at least that was my focus), see Great Sand Dunes, visit a family friend, and hike Zion. We hit three of the four, and I got to see Zion and Bryce. More on that later.
First stop: Great Sand Dunes
We got there earlier than expected, and we were going to stay at a hotel, but we had the opportunity to arrive after dark and camp at Great Sand Dunes. The forecast was 9 degrees Fahrenheit. When we woke up, it was around 18 degrees in the tent. First time winter camping and it was surprisingly awesome.
This is what I woke up to:
The skies were bright blue and the dunes were calling our name. We headed up and out. Chris got some fun photos that we'll all see in about a year :) Here was one picture I took:
The dunes had some major dropoffs, which made it all the more cool. We hiked to the highest point visually (there was one higher when you measure from the base to the top). I was a little worried about hiking Grand Canyon after this because of how winded I was getting hiking up sand, but I was also excited.Second Stop: Phoenix
Because of a little thing called geography, we decided to head down to Phoenix to visit a family friend. At that point, I was starting to get even more nervous about taking the right stuff into the Grand Canyon, so this was a welcome chance to relax and enjoy an evening with Dale. It's incredible meeting the people who've had an important part in Chris's life.
Third Stop: The Grand Canyon!
Then came the big day. We packed our packs the night before, which put my mind at ease a little bit, but I still managed to toss and turn for a small part of the night. You need a backcountry permit to camp in the Grand Canyon, and we unfortunately just missed the deadline of getting it mailed out to us when we were planning our roadtrip. Chris called the park though and they said winter is definitely the off-season and we shouldn't have any issue getting a permit.
Sure enough, we walked into the Backcountry Office and got a permit without issue. We decided to take a day hiking down South Kaibab Trail, camp at Bright Angel Campground, then take Bright Angel Trail back out of the canyon in two stages with a stay at Indian Garden Campground in between. The guide books suggested this as an option and it seemed like a logical one. Plus by taking two trails, we got to see a tiny sliver more of the park than we would have otherwise.
Prior to the trip, I purchased hiking poles and I am so grateful that I did. Not sure my knees or big toes would have survived without them. The reason I say big toes is that parts of South Kaibab were quite steep and unfortunately my big toes were slamming into the front part of my hiking boots with each step. The hiking poles helped, and I think it's because of them that I didn't lose my right big toenail (it was bruised after the hike down).
I'm definitely making it sound way worse than it was, but close to the end of the first day, I was exhausted and all I wanted to do was take off my hiking boots and let my feet rest. Also, my muscles hated me at the end of the hike. Apparently, one is supposed to train some before hiking into the Grand Canyon :)
The views on the way down were absolutely incredible. What was amazing to me is the fact that we were only able to see a very small piece of the 277-mile long canyon. It was amazing! The South Kaibab Trail was great to go down because of the way it wound down into the canyon - you couldn't ever see where you were going to end up. That is the complete opposite of the Bright Angel Trail, where you can see where you're going to end up the entire way down (sounds a bit maddening to me!).
Here are some pictures from the way down:
Yep, that's the trail you see in the distance. 
Chris taking some pictures at a rest point along the trail. This was the first time the Colorado River was in view.
The elevation changes were incredible: starting at South Kaibab, we hiked from an elevation of 7,260 feet down to 4,780 feet (a total of about 7 miles). Then hiking out, we went back to an elevation of 6,860 feet over two days (a total of about 9.5 miles). I'm really glad we decided to do Bright Angel Trail over two days because my legs hurt each morning until we got back on the trail.
This was starting out from near Bright Angel Campground. Our stay at Bright Angel Campground was great - we camped right next to Bright Angel Creek that fed into the Colorado River. It was perfect white noise to fall asleep to. Plus the temperatures were in the upper 40s/lower 50s (in other words, warm).
That first stage back out was fairly easy - the trail followed the Colorado River and we only hiked about 1/3 of the way up in terms of elevation. It felt so wonderful mostly hiking up hill instead of down. I had no idea how many different muscles were in my legs! I never thought I would enjoy hiking up!
We arrived at Indian Garden in the early afternoon, which gave us ample time to set up camp and relax in the sun. Something that was surprising is how aggressive the squirrels are. There are ammo cans at every campsite, and you are encouraged to put all of your food and plastics in those cans as soon as you arrive because of the squirrels. I didn't think it would be that bad, but sure enough, as soon as we were getting our lunch ready, a squirrel starting "sneaking" towards the campsite. We had to shoo him off several times during lunch. If only Banjo could have been there...
Here's a choppy video of our campsite at Indian Garden:
After a couple of hours relaxing, we headed out to Plateau Point to see the sunset. Plateau Point is a formation gives you a 360-degree view of the Canyon. It was incredibly beautiful. The sunset had only brief periods of brilliant colors, which would fade and a few minutes later, the brilliant colors would return again.
Here's another choppy video, this time from Plateau Point:
An interesting thing for me was the hike back from Plateau Point. By that time, it was getting dark, which meant we could see the Bright Angel Trailhead at the top of the rim (there's a lodge right next to it that had lots of lights). You can't see the trail itself going up Bright Angel though, which makes it look like there is no actual way out of the canyon.
I didn't take any more pictures the second day because I was focused on getting out and my camera wasn't super happy (the temperatures were cooler given the change in elevation). Chris took enough, and we'll see them when we see them :)
The final day consisted of a lot of switchbacks, meaning we headed up quickly. I'm really glad we didn't try to do Bright Angel all in one day. Another interesting thing was ice covered the trail for the last two miles. We had Stabilicers though (traction devices you stretch on the bottom of your shoes), and I managed to slip mine off each time we hit mud. For some time, the trail alternated between mud and ice.
I am pretty sure I did the final stage too quickly, but the anticipation of completing the journey was too great. We didn't see many people towards the top of Bright Angel (meaning people that were going to do day hikes), and I'm guessing it was due to the ice. The views were incredible all the way.
In early afternoon, we made it to the trailhead and there was much rejoicing (Yeaaaa....). I looked out over the Grand Canyon and felt pretty damn good. I just hiked into and out of the Grand Canyon! A few years ago, I never would have though I could do that. Running definitely helped my endurance and doing the hike during the winter months helped immensely too. I can say I never want to do a hike in the Grand Canyon in the summertime. We are thinking about doing a rim to rim hike sometime in the future - the North Rim is closed down during the winter due to snow/ice.
We celebrated our successful journey with a hamburger and onion rings for me and a chicken sandwich and fries for Chris. We took some time at the top to talk to Will from Tennessee (I was tempted to have him read us a book because I could have listened to his accent all day). We talked about other hikes and areas we have explored and would recommend. We slowly packed up the car and waited for a couple we met along the trail, who we happened to park by. They are living in Canada and were absolutely delightful.
Now it was time to figure out what we wanted to do next. We decided to move onto Zion.
Fourth Stop: Zion and Bryce
We stayed at Best Western with a restaurant sign that read: Thunderbird Restaurant Home of the Ho-Made Pies. Hee hee. Breakfast there was really tasty.
After breakfast, we headed out to Zion. I was worried in the morning about my legs. They hurt a lot and I quickly realized I wouldn't feel comfortable doing any serious hiking. We had the intention of hiking Angels Landing, which is a strenuous and challenging hike for an incredible view of Zion. We've heard from a number of people we should do it.
When we got to Zion (which was incredible), we were thinking of what to do next. Given the time of day, we decided to drive to the northern part of the park (the Kolob Canyons) to do a short hike and wait for the warmer afternoon weather before attempting Angels Landing. We did an easy, half mile hike through mud and snow to get to a point that overlooked the Kolob Canyons. I decided about 5 steps into that mini-hike that I couldn't do Angels Landing. I felt horrible about not being able to do another hike that I wanted to, but I also knew it was the right decision. I wasn't physically or mentally in shape to do such a hike.
At that point, I wanted to go home. I knew my legs were going to take a long time to heal (it's now four days after the Grand Canyon and our calves are still sore). We did driving tours through Zion and Bryce, and we've decided we'd like to do a multi-day hike in Zion, from the Kolob Canyons down to the main part of the park, sometime in the future, and I would love to do some hiking in Bryce. Did you know they have prairie dogs too?!?
Final Destination: Home
After driving through those parks, we started making our way back home. The drive through western Colorado was absolutely gorgeous. After incredible views of mountains, we reached eastern Colorado, which can be summed up in two words: boring and smelly.
We made it back to Minnesota and Banjo on Sunday afternoon. He did a kind of double-take when we got to Chris's parents and then went crazy with excitement. Thank you again for taking care of him, Sue and Jamie! Sue had soup and biscuits waiting for us when we got there and we enjoyed the first home-cooked meal in several days. It tasted very good, and there were leftovers!
We got home yesterday and quickly unpacked the car and started laundry and airing out the tent and our sleeping bags.
It was a very fun journey. Chris and I had a lot of fun on the road together and we're looking forward to future trips. We also feel a lot more comfortable with multi-day hikes. We've gotten some experience and the trust level in ourselves has grown.
Banjo has brought us Duckie, signalling it's time to go. Thank you all for your well-wishes!
I didn't take any more pictures the second day because I was focused on getting out and my camera wasn't super happy (the temperatures were cooler given the change in elevation). Chris took enough, and we'll see them when we see them :)
The final day consisted of a lot of switchbacks, meaning we headed up quickly. I'm really glad we didn't try to do Bright Angel all in one day. Another interesting thing was ice covered the trail for the last two miles. We had Stabilicers though (traction devices you stretch on the bottom of your shoes), and I managed to slip mine off each time we hit mud. For some time, the trail alternated between mud and ice.
I am pretty sure I did the final stage too quickly, but the anticipation of completing the journey was too great. We didn't see many people towards the top of Bright Angel (meaning people that were going to do day hikes), and I'm guessing it was due to the ice. The views were incredible all the way.
In early afternoon, we made it to the trailhead and there was much rejoicing (Yeaaaa....). I looked out over the Grand Canyon and felt pretty damn good. I just hiked into and out of the Grand Canyon! A few years ago, I never would have though I could do that. Running definitely helped my endurance and doing the hike during the winter months helped immensely too. I can say I never want to do a hike in the Grand Canyon in the summertime. We are thinking about doing a rim to rim hike sometime in the future - the North Rim is closed down during the winter due to snow/ice.
We celebrated our successful journey with a hamburger and onion rings for me and a chicken sandwich and fries for Chris. We took some time at the top to talk to Will from Tennessee (I was tempted to have him read us a book because I could have listened to his accent all day). We talked about other hikes and areas we have explored and would recommend. We slowly packed up the car and waited for a couple we met along the trail, who we happened to park by. They are living in Canada and were absolutely delightful.
Now it was time to figure out what we wanted to do next. We decided to move onto Zion.
Fourth Stop: Zion and Bryce
We stayed at Best Western with a restaurant sign that read: Thunderbird Restaurant Home of the Ho-Made Pies. Hee hee. Breakfast there was really tasty.
After breakfast, we headed out to Zion. I was worried in the morning about my legs. They hurt a lot and I quickly realized I wouldn't feel comfortable doing any serious hiking. We had the intention of hiking Angels Landing, which is a strenuous and challenging hike for an incredible view of Zion. We've heard from a number of people we should do it.
When we got to Zion (which was incredible), we were thinking of what to do next. Given the time of day, we decided to drive to the northern part of the park (the Kolob Canyons) to do a short hike and wait for the warmer afternoon weather before attempting Angels Landing. We did an easy, half mile hike through mud and snow to get to a point that overlooked the Kolob Canyons. I decided about 5 steps into that mini-hike that I couldn't do Angels Landing. I felt horrible about not being able to do another hike that I wanted to, but I also knew it was the right decision. I wasn't physically or mentally in shape to do such a hike.
At that point, I wanted to go home. I knew my legs were going to take a long time to heal (it's now four days after the Grand Canyon and our calves are still sore). We did driving tours through Zion and Bryce, and we've decided we'd like to do a multi-day hike in Zion, from the Kolob Canyons down to the main part of the park, sometime in the future, and I would love to do some hiking in Bryce. Did you know they have prairie dogs too?!?
Final Destination: Home
After driving through those parks, we started making our way back home. The drive through western Colorado was absolutely gorgeous. After incredible views of mountains, we reached eastern Colorado, which can be summed up in two words: boring and smelly.
We made it back to Minnesota and Banjo on Sunday afternoon. He did a kind of double-take when we got to Chris's parents and then went crazy with excitement. Thank you again for taking care of him, Sue and Jamie! Sue had soup and biscuits waiting for us when we got there and we enjoyed the first home-cooked meal in several days. It tasted very good, and there were leftovers!
We got home yesterday and quickly unpacked the car and started laundry and airing out the tent and our sleeping bags.
It was a very fun journey. Chris and I had a lot of fun on the road together and we're looking forward to future trips. We also feel a lot more comfortable with multi-day hikes. We've gotten some experience and the trust level in ourselves has grown.
Banjo has brought us Duckie, signalling it's time to go. Thank you all for your well-wishes!
