Well this is the beginning of our journey. It’s about 5:00 AM and around 45 degrees outside. That’s the thing about the desert around here, cold nights and hot days. We’re right at the trailhead of the South Kaibab trail on the South Rim of the Grand Canyon, it’s the shortest trail to the bottom of the canyon (7 miles) but its also the steepest.

As you can see there were 6 of us altogether. I’m the guy in the white shirt and white bandana, you can’t tell but I was freezing my but off in this pic.



This is going down South Kaibab Trail. The gentleman in front is one of the local bishops in my church congregation. He is 72 years old, that’s right 72!! I hope I can hike 24 miles rim to rim at that age. He was slower than the rest of us but steady and he made the hike no problem.



I thought this pic was cool. The sun is just rising so it really highlights the tree in this pic. Ravens are everywhere in the canyon.




The canyon being lit up by the morning sun, what a beautiful view that was.



This was the first view we had of the River. It was a really muddy brown color that day. Historically the river has always been a very muddy brown color (John Wesley Powell said it was “too thin to plow but too thick to drink”) but since the Glen canyon Dam went up in 1963 most of the silt is trapped behind the Dam and never reaches the river going through the Canyon. So usually the river is a solid greenish-blue color, however, if we get a good rain and some flash flooding takes place it will wash a lot of silt from the side canyons into the Colorado. There’s one canyon called Waterholes canyon that was the sole source of a river color change once, this one little canyon pushed enough debris into the river to change it brown for a whole week, that’s the power of natures flash flood out here, simply amazing!!



This is a shot of the Silver Suspension bridge. I don’t know the exact history behind it but I believe it was built sometime in the 1920’s, it services hikers only.



This is the Black Suspension bridge, it services both Mules and hikers across the River. I believe it was built after the Silver Suspension Bridge. It is located about 400 yard upriver from the Silver bridge.



The buildings you see here are mostly the sewage treatment plant that services Phantom Ranch and Bright Angel Campgrounds. Some of the others are private residences for rangers and employees and some old Mule Barns.



This is the tunnel you have to go through before you get onto the Black Suspension Bridge to cross the River. Once you cross the river and go into Phantom Ranch you are now on the North Kaibab Trail which takes you up to the North Rim

[img]http://i131.photobucket.com/albums/p289/TradBowBoy/103_0150.jpg[/img]

This one is for DMelone, these are the remnant of some old Anasazi dwellings. The round structure to the back of the pic is the kiva (ceremonial/council room) and the others are living quarters.

[img]http://i131.photobucket.com/albums/p289/TradBowBoy/103_0151.jpg[/img]

This is Bishop Wimmer (the 72 year old gentleman) and his Grand daughter Anna. Anna is a quarter Hopi Indian so these ruins are remnants from her ancestors so we thought it a fitting picture to take. She is a real neat girl, she was born deaf but despite all of that she has overcome and excelled in life. She was the head cheerleader in High School, she was on the Honors Society in High School and she has a full ride scholarship to BYU. This is her first time hiking the canyon and its rim to rim in one day!!! She did an awesome job. Oh yeah, her Dad is a member of the Delta Force too, he was way excited for her to do this hike.

[img]http://i131.photobucket.com/albums/p289/TradBowBoy/103_0152.jpg[/img]

This is the Cantina at Phantom Ranch, its basically the hikers oasis. They serve meals, drinks and have lots of different sundries.

[img]http://i131.photobucket.com/albums/p289/TradBowBoy/103_0153.jpg[/img]

Here’s the menu board at Phantom Ranch. Everything in the canyon, including Phantom Ranch, is supplied by mule train, everything; food, furniture, cleaning supplies, EVERYTHING!! So really the prices are pretty fair considering the labor to get the stuff down there. As you can see there is even a “Post Office” of sorts down there. Mail comes to and from Phantom Ranch daily by mule. Just buy a postcard, a stamp, and put it in the leather bag you see there on the bottom right of the pic.

[img]http://i131.photobucket.com/albums/p289/TradBowBoy/103_0154.jpg[/img]

These little guys (rock squirrels) are everywhere down there, and man are they bold. I didn’t have any run-ins this time but on a rim to rim last year I set my trail mix down right next to me and a crazy squirrel came and grabbed the whole bag and tried to run off with it. These squirrels are way too tame, stupid tourists feed em like crazy during the summer months then in winter when no one is around they starve because they don’t know how to get their own food; but stupid people still do it all the time, big fines if you get caught.

[img]http://i131.photobucket.com/albums/p289/TradBowBoy/103_0155.jpg[/img]
[img]http://i131.photobucket.com/albums/p289/TradBowBoy/103_0156.jpg[/img]
[img]http://i131.photobucket.com/albums/p289/TradBowBoy/103_0157.jpg[/img]
[img]http://i131.photobucket.com/albums/p289/TradBowBoy/103_0158.jpg[/img]
[img]http://i131.photobucket.com/albums/p289/TradBowBoy/103_0161.jpg[/img]
[img]http://i131.photobucket.com/albums/p289/TradBowBoy/103_0160.jpg[/img]

This is the coolest place on the North Kaibab Trail, Ribbon Falls, a truly unexpected surprise in this desert land. This is one of the reasons I do this hike.

[img]http://i131.photobucket.com/albums/p289/TradBowBoy/103_0162.jpg[/img]

Taking a well earned break. Man I need some sun on those pasty legs. We’ve gone about 15 miles at this point.

[img]http://i131.photobucket.com/albums/p289/TradBowBoy/103_0164.jpg[/img]
[img]http://i131.photobucket.com/albums/p289/TradBowBoy/103_0165.jpg[/img]

These are desert Spiny Lizards. They are probably my favorite lizard down here. The male, top, kept doing pushups and shaking a lot to try to lure in the female, bottom, its their mating season. It was funny to watch him chase her around.

[img]http://i131.photobucket.com/albums/p289/TradBowBoy/103_0166.jpg[/img]

This is a pic of roaring springs. This is a neat place because it is the sole water source for everything at the Grand Canyon. It is located on the North Rim but it is piped 15 miles across the bottom of the canyon floor and up the canyon wall on the other side to supply the South Rim with all of its water. The cool thing is that they don’t need to pump the water through the pipe to get it over to the South Rim, the natural elevation decline from the North Rim to the South does all the work for them, it’s a pretty neat little phenomenon.

[img]http://i131.photobucket.com/albums/p289/TradBowBoy/103_0167.jpg[/img]

Most of the Trails in the canyon had to be blasted out of the canyon walls. This pic shows one of the many drill marks from the holes that were made in the rock for the dynamite.

[img]http://i131.photobucket.com/albums/p289/TradBowBoy/103_0168.jpg[/img]

This is a good view of Bright Angel Canyon (a side canyon within the Grand Canyon) from the North Kaibab Trail, I’m almost done here, just a little ways more to the top. You can see the trail we’re on ribboning through the green patch on the bottom right of the pic.

[img]http://i131.photobucket.com/albums/p289/TradBowBoy/103_0171.jpg[/img]

I like this pic because you can see the silhouette of the San Francisco Peaks in Flagstaff, AZ about 90 miles south of us as the crow flies.

[img]http://i131.photobucket.com/albums/p289/TradBowBoy/103_0173.jpg[/img]

Here I am at the end of the hike. We hiked from Sunrise to Sunset, about 15 hours. I did the same exact trail before in 10 hours but the party I was with then was pretty hardcore. It was nice taking the leisurely avenue this time, I feel I enjoyed it more. Well I hope you all enjoyed this little venture, if you have any questions feel free to post em.

Those are outstanding pics bro and your narration so good that you should do it as a career !!! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />
Everyone should do a hike as good as that at least once in their lifetime !
That suspension bridge looks spectacular, that must have been one of the highlights eh ? <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/eek.gif" alt="" />
Thanks for sharing !!! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/thumbup.gif" alt="" />

Yeah the bridges are neat, here's a pic of a buddy of mine on the Silver Bridge from last year. The grates that you walk on on the silver bridge are totally see through, kinda freaky. This buddy of mine actually passed away exactly a year ago in a climbing accident in Peru, such a good guy. I totally forgot to get some snapshots from the bridge on this last hike though <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/doh.gif" alt="" />

Wow! I really enjoyed that, <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" /> What a great weekend and hike, looks like you really had a good time, I had a good time just looking at this! Thanks again for sharing bro..

WOW!!!!!!! Ron, that was great! Thank you so much for posting this! And I loved the ruins!

Thank you,

Dan

awesome pics of your trip. i've done south rim to phantom ranch a couple times now, and rim to rim is exactly what i had in mind next. did you have someone pick you up at the north rim?

Yeah we had some friends drop us off at the South Rim early in the morning then they just drove the 4 1/2 hours back to the North Rim and hung out there for the day until we got out. We all through in $25 each to cover gas and troubles.

If you end up doing Rim to Rim let me know. I'd love to join ya and I could always set up the transportation logistics too.

Great pics TBB. I have lived in AZ for darn near 10 years and I have never made it to the Grand Canyon. I was going to go before my knee was shot, coulda shoulda woulda. I still need to go do the tourist thing with the kids anyway.

Thanks for sharing your trip with us .That has to be some of the most breahtaking countryside I have ever seen

J33ps, if you ever want help planning a trip let me know, that's my job. I'm a reservation agent for a company called GrandCanyon.com . I can help you with whatever you want to do in terms of advice. I probably won't be working there much longer (new oportunity came along) but I'll remember pretty much everything so just gimme a hollar.

That was an awsome tour...I mean pics...WOW!!! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cool.gif" alt="" />

What a cool opportunity. I wanna go... <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/thumbup.gif" alt="" />

I hope to get a chance to go back out west in year or two, I love it out there.

Awesome pix! Looks like you had a great time - thanks for sharing. Probably one of the best photo series that I've seen here yet.