Grand Canyon South Rim

June 11 - 12, 2012 - We arrived at the Best Western Squire Inn just outside of the Park Entrance just after midnight.  While temperatures are 80 - 95 during the day, it was just 39 when we had to hurry our luggage inside.  The hotel includes a free breakfast buffet and it was well stocked with plenty of selections.

Before going to the Grand Canyon, we recommend you purchase a National Park Annual Pass for $80.  With the pass, you can skip the lines of cars paying the daily entrance fee, and just show your pass and a valid ID.

The Best Western is just 7 miles from the Visitor's Center.  At the Visitor's Center, you can view maps of trails and which bus takes you where.  There are water refill stations in many areas above the rim.

On our first day, we stayed at the rim, taking pictures from different locations.  We ate at the Bright Angel Lodge (Blue bus route).  The food was good and a reasonable price. Just a short walk from there is a Condor Viewing Center.  There were five Condors circling the area when we were there.  There was also this squirrel who must get food from visitors because he will get to about 1' from you and look you in the eye kind of begging.

On the second day, we planned a hike on the South Kiabab Trail.  Our goal was to stop at Ooh-Aah Point (0.9 miles) and then lunch at Cedar Ridge (1.5 total miles).  Cedar Ridge has restrooms.  The descent from the rim to Cedar Ridge is about 1100 feet, and as you descent, the temperature gets hotter.  There is a great difference between sun and shade temps, but very little shade at mid-day.

We began our trip with 8 bottles of water for the four of us, plus our Boy Scout son has a water bladder for his backpack.  (We packed lunch, and a bunch of salty snacks as well.)  We did not realize our 9-year old stopped to look at something before the hike, and left a bottle of water behind.  The kids were told about the dangers of leaving the trail, as it seems someone dies in the Grand Canyon every few weeks from either not enough supplies or falling.

Descending to Ooh-Aah Point was easy.  We passed some mules that were ascending.  They go right to the edge.  The trail is steeper and narrower to Cedar Ridge, but not difficult.  This location has plenty of room to roam and take pictures.  We ate lunch, and then began the return trip.

Up hill is more difficult, especially at mid-day.  More frequent stops to catch your breath and drink water.  We reached Ooh-Aah Point and surveyed our supplies.  We were down to 1/2 bottle of water, with a mile to go.  Not good.

Ian, the Boy Scout, gathered the empty bottles, and set out on his own, hiking back to the top, and returned with 6 full bottles of water, plus his water bladder was refilled.  (So he did 5 miles on a 3 mile hike.)  Wonder if there's a merit badge for what he did?

When we got to the top, we saw what delayed Ian a little on his "rescue" hike.  The water refilling station had a few elk drinking the water that was spilled.  After we took these photos, we read the sign "Stay 100 feet away from Elk".

At this time, we noticed smoke from a nearby fire.  Afterwards, we drove 35 minutes east to the "Watch Tower" for some additional panoramic views.  About 1/2 way to the Watch Tower, we saw some emergency vehicles at a hiking trail entrance.  We're hoping that there was not another fall into the Canyon.  We then saw additional emergency vehicles blocking a small southbound road.  This is where the fire was.  We later found that this was called "The Grand Fire" and it burned 480 acres and they had considered closing the Park and evacuating all visitors and employees but were able to contain the advancement before that decision had to be made.

Leaving the Canyon and heading for Flagstaff, we stopped for one last view, and a Native American road side stand selling some items.  We purchased a few.  Then I took this picture of the sunset, with the smoke from The Grand Fire.

Next Entry: Flagstaff area