20051123113423-bryan
This photo appeared in the following ideotrope albums:
Grand Canyon November 2005 - Julie and I rented a car in Boulder and picked up Heidi and Jason in Carbondale. We spent Friday night at Heidi's house, the four of us drove to the Grand Canyon on Saturday, and we started hiking on Sunday.It was a fantastic backpack trip. We were fortunate enough to have stellar weather for the entire 6 days we were in the canyon. We hiked in shorts each day and had cool, but not too cold, evenings.We camped outside the park near the Desert View entrance on Saturday night. We didn't get an early start on Sunday morning due to the cold (~20F), the long drive the day before, and the general laziness of the first day of vacation. Once we got moving we wanted to check the 5-day forecast with a ranger, we had our photographs taken with Japanese tourists at Desert View, and we checked out the Tusayan Museum and the adjacent ruins. It was noon by the time we started hiking.The first day was a long one: 4500 feet down the New Hance Trail to Hance Rapids. About 1/2 way down Heidi fell and messed up her ankle. The injury turned out to be fairly serious but not quite bad enough that Heidi couldn't continue the trip. She survived the next two days by being tough and consuming 1200 mg of ibuprofen daily. We hiked for an hour or so in the dark with headlamps that night. The last couple miles of the New Hance Trail follows the wash in Red Canyon which was thankfully easy to follow in the dark.Hance Rapids is only about 2600 ft altitude, our lowest night of the trip. It ended up being the only night we slept without tents. The warmth that the tent provided was welcome (or would have been) even down that low. That night also turned out to be our only camp with water. We had dry camps the rest of the nights, usually by choice.The schist of Granite Gorge is first exposed (travelling down the river) just downstream from Hance Rapids. The Tonto Group (or at least the lower layers of the Tonto Group) is also first exposed there. We got on the Tonto just after leaving camp and climbed 1400 feet before the Tonto leveled out at 4000 feet. The unexpected climb (I could have paid more attention to the map before starting), another late start, and the decision to camp above the Colorado River rather than in a side canyon found us finsihing the hike in the dark again.We camped each day on the Tonto plateau above the Colorado River as opposed to in the side canyons where water was available because the side canyons were cold and shady. Out above the Colorado River there was more sunshine and beautiful views.We cruised the Tonto for four days around Hance Creek, Cottonwood, Grapevine, Lonetree, Boulder, and Cremation and walked out the South Kaibab Trail. We saw people every day, usually between 2 and 10 people, but during the hike out the South Kaibab we must have passed over 500 people. Even seeing one person per day I called a zoo. I guess the hike out was a carnival.On the drive back we spent one night on Cedar Mesa and a half day hiking in Road Canyon. Those photos are in a different scrapbook.
20051123113423-bryan
This photo appeared in the following ideotrope albums:
Grand Canyon November 2005 - Julie and I rented a car in Boulder and picked up Heidi and Jason in Carbondale. We spent Friday night at Heidi's house, the four of us drove to the Grand Canyon on Saturday, and we started hiking on Sunday.It was a fantastic backpack trip. We were fortunate enough to have stellar weather for the entire 6 days we were in the canyon. We hiked in shorts each day and had cool, but not too cold, evenings.We camped outside the park near the Desert View entrance on Saturday night. We didn't get an early start on Sunday morning due to the cold (~20F), the long drive the day before, and the general laziness of the first day of vacation. Once we got moving we wanted to check the 5-day forecast with a ranger, we had our photographs taken with Japanese tourists at Desert View, and we checked out the Tusayan Museum and the adjacent ruins. It was noon by the time we started hiking.The first day was a long one: 4500 feet down the New Hance Trail to Hance Rapids. About 1/2 way down Heidi fell and messed up her ankle. The injury turned out to be fairly serious but not quite bad enough that Heidi couldn't continue the trip. She survived the next two days by being tough and consuming 1200 mg of ibuprofen daily. We hiked for an hour or so in the dark with headlamps that night. The last couple miles of the New Hance Trail follows the wash in Red Canyon which was thankfully easy to follow in the dark.Hance Rapids is only about 2600 ft altitude, our lowest night of the trip. It ended up being the only night we slept without tents. The warmth that the tent provided was welcome (or would have been) even down that low. That night also turned out to be our only camp with water. We had dry camps the rest of the nights, usually by choice.The schist of Granite Gorge is first exposed (travelling down the river) just downstream from Hance Rapids. The Tonto Group (or at least the lower layers of the Tonto Group) is also first exposed there. We got on the Tonto just after leaving camp and climbed 1400 feet before the Tonto leveled out at 4000 feet. The unexpected climb (I could have paid more attention to the map before starting), another late start, and the decision to camp above the Colorado River rather than in a side canyon found us finsihing the hike in the dark again.We camped each day on the Tonto plateau above the Colorado River as opposed to in the side canyons where water was available because the side canyons were cold and shady. Out above the Colorado River there was more sunshine and beautiful views.We cruised the Tonto for four days around Hance Creek, Cottonwood, Grapevine, Lonetree, Boulder, and Cremation and walked out the South Kaibab Trail. We saw people every day, usually between 2 and 10 people, but during the hike out the South Kaibab we must have passed over 500 people. Even seeing one person per day I called a zoo. I guess the hike out was a carnival.On the drive back we spent one night on Cedar Mesa and a half day hiking in Road Canyon. Those photos are in a different scrapbook.