As we drove up to the Grand Canyon, [we knew it would be a unique experience]
Before this trip, I had never been in Arizona during the winter. My last trip to the Grand Canyon had been with my family in July. It was one of the hottest experiences that I can remember. With that as my only context of this wonderful park, I traveled to the Grand Canyon in January. As we drove up to Grand Canyon Village, it was immediately evident that this was about to be a much different experience.
Before our journey into the canyon begun, the snow started to fall on the Grand Canyon Village. We decided to check in at the Bright Angel Lodge to inform some of the staff of our plans. We intended to hike down into the canyon as far as we felt reasonable and to turn around with enough time to make it back to the lodge by sunset. We had headlamps with us; however, we felt with the snow, it would be best to be out of the canyon by sundown.
We hiked from the Bright Angel Trailhead down into the canyon. At the start of our journey, it was lightly snowing. It had accumulated only an inch or two, but the snow was continuing. We made great time on the way into the canyon. As one would expect, it's quite fast when you're going down hill for miles upon miles. My expectation was that we would need about twice as much time to return back up as we needed going down. We hit the one third mark when we were about a mile past the Three Mile Resthouse.
It was at that point that I stopped to take this photo. We had descended deep enough into the canyon that it was no longer snowing. It turns out that in the winter, the interior of that canyon can be warmer than the rim. The apparent clouds in the photo is actually the snow coming down a few thousand feet above us! This was a unique view of the Grand Canyon that I never expected to find. We also got to experience it in solitude. No one else had decided to brave the trail that day.
We had descended deep enough into the canyon that it was no longer snowing
I had my friends grab onto my waist as I leaned over the canyon's edge
Before we headed back up the canyon, I made a mistake. I dropped the glasses that I had just recently purchased at the gift shop. They fell over the cliff of the canyon and out of sight. I thought to myself, "that's the last I'll see of those." I decided to peek over the edge to see how far they had dropped. To my luck and excitement, there they were just a few feet down. They were hanging on to a rock above a 1,000 foot drop! I of course decided to reach over to grab them. I had my friends grab onto my waist as I leaned over the canyon's edge. I grabbed my glasses, caught my breath from the adrenaline rush, and we started up the canyon.
On the way back up the canyon, we realized that the snow had really started coming down. By the time we reached the rim--just as the sun was setting--, there was over a foot of snow down on the ground. It was an absolutely amazing and unique experience. Being alone in the Grand Canyon is a rare event. Compound that with the fact that a foot of snow fell while we were hiking, and you have a once-in-a-lifetime experience. I hope you've enjoyed this trip to the Grand Canyon.
Interested in another trip to the Grand Canyon? Check out last month's waterfall story when the Wild Boyz explored Havsu Falls in the Grand Canyon.
Ya’ll let me know next time you’re in AZ, and I’ll take you to some whyld places!
Ya’ll let me know next time you’re in AZ. I’ll take you to some whyld places!
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