Nature is Neat

By the time we got even close to the Grand Canyon on Tuesday it was snowing and dark and the people at the resort we stopped at to use the bathroom looked at us hopelessly and told us we were crazy.  We had planned on camping in the park that day but with the late start that we got we decided to just find a place on public land to stay the night and go to the park in the morning.  After an amazingly huge grey owl almost flew into my windshield followed by me almost running it over as it sat in the middle of the road looking for mice, we finally found a dirt road that looked promising.  I drove down it for a few miles and found an outhouse and a little area that looked campable.  At this point there was actually snow accumulating on the ground so we made a fire, drank our coldness away and Lindsay, Matt and I slept in the back of my car while Sung slept outside in just his sleeping bag (his choice).

Snow at the top of the North Rim.

The next morning we were just planning on winging it so we went to the back-country office to see what someone could tell us.  The guy working was super helpful and due to the government shutdown and lack of visitors on the North Rim side of the Grand Canyon at this time of year we were able to get a back-country camping permit for 2 nights at the sites we wanted without having to wait.  That day we hiked 14.2 miles down to the bottom where the Colorado river ran through.  It was so beautiful and much of it literally took my breath away.  It was amazing to see the drastic changes in rock color/texture and flora and fauna as the elevation decreased.  We hiked down 6,000 feet total!  It took longer than expected however, and the last 2 or 3 miles we ended up walking in the dark with headlamps.  At the time it felt torturous; we had been hiking all day and had no idea how much longer until we reached the site.  Looking back it was kind of fun hiking in the dark, and even more exciting is waking up and seeing your surroundings for the first time in daylight.

I woke up on a patch of sand next to a creek, and my first sight upon waking up was a mule deer across from me and endless cliffs going up to the sky.  We were only hiking 7 miles back up to the other camp ground this day so we spend a few hours exploring and walked to the Colorado River.  It was beautifully relaxing and almost felt like an exotic ocean.  Apparently only 1% of people who visit the Grand Canyon actually go to the bottom and it was cool that everyone around was just as excited as us and intrigued enough to experience it from the inside. 

     
Before we left to hike back up we weighed our packs on the scales at the bottom that are meant for the people who pay mules to carry their belongings.  My pack was 35 pounds, Lindsay's was 32, and Matt's was 50.  (To have a mule carry your bag it had to be under 30 pounds.)  We had divided Sungs gear up so that he wouldn't have to carry as much with a bad knee.  It was nice to have a heavy excuse for being so ridiculously sore that morning.  One of the best parts of the hike was just talking to everyone that we passed and hearing about their backpacking experiences.  The whole hike was serene and beautiful, being surrounded by so few people and so much wildlife.  It made me want to go on more harder and longer backpacking trips and just meet people and explore the rest of my life.  Who needs money or a job.