Skip to main content

The Largest Drainage Ditch - Part 2A

Wednesday, May 18th – Grand Canyon National Park – South Rim to Vermillion Cliffs, Arizona – Day 97 

We woke up in our roadside paradise. The old man in his tent next door had woken up and was actively moving things around. To maximize the day, I had set an alarm for the kids to go to school and got up to make breakfast. Arizona is weird in that as soon as you enter Grand Canyon National Park, the time zone turns to Mountain Standard Time (MST) which is three hours behind Toronto. We have been getting up at 7am to get the kids into class. I use the phrase “into class” liberally since they really don’t want to wake up at 7am for class but class was put in front of them, and they gradually woke up to it. In the future, setting an alarm for 6am seems too early when we are on the West Coast. Today, Aisling’s teacher wanted to talk to her so I had to shake her awake so she would be marked present. 

As a special surprise, I showed the kids a decomposed dead horse that was dumped off the side of the road a ways down from our campsite. I had noticed all the Vultures around and when I investigated there was a coyote having a snack. Unfortunately none of the animals were there when I brought the kids back. Great surprise Dad!

The kids participated in class, we ate, cleaned, and packed up and drove 15 minutes to the Grand Canyon South Rim visitor centre for stamps, junior ranger activities and some educational displays. We had options for what to do and we decided to do the most intense hike while the kids were fresh. The south rim has buses that will transport you around the rim to various hikes and viewpoints. We went on the yellow bus to the South Kaibab Trailhead. 

The South Kaibab trail goes into the canyon and all the way to the north rim. Our destination was the first viewpoint, Ooh Aah Point, a 2.8 km out and back trail with 230m of elevation change. The trail starts with eight or nine switchbacks to get you well into the canyon. When hiking down with walking sticks in hand, a group of horseback riders were leading mules out of the canyon, we were pressed to the side of the trail. The trail was wide enough for two-way traffic but there were a lot of sheer drops off one side. John required constant supervision to keep him on the wall side of the trail. After the switchbacks, the trail varied between mild downhill grades and steeper steps. The kids needed a few breaks in shade to power up with Gatorade and gummies. The downhill was easy although we did get some pushback from John. We admired the lookout and then started walking back up. The kids were surprisingly great, several short breaks were required for water, but we made it back up in no time. The views of the canyon were amazing. We could see the trail continue down into the canyon and it looked like a lot of fun. Maybe next time. 

To be continued...


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A Desert Forest

Saturday, May 28th – Joshua Tree National Park - North to Joshua Tree National Park - South, California– Day 107 Our campsite was a large open dirt area with some scrub around the outside. In the dark we had managed to park beside the pile of horse poo and shaving. Horses were allowed in this site. Gen stepped in the middle of a pile.   The Joshua Tree National Park visitor centre was a five-minute drive away. The town of Joshua Tree was packed with college age millennials communing with nature. There was a market with kombucha, organic greens and a few small tortoises. It was all very pleasant but very busy. The laundromat was at the edge of the market, I charged the devices and did the laundry. Gen bought some produce from a guy loading a truck. I even snuck in to buy some watermelon kombucha.   The drive into the park was ten minutes followed by a ten-minute line to show our pass. A quick stop to fill up our water bottles and we were into the park. Th...
Post a Comment
Read more

Meow Wolf and O

Wednesday, May 25th –Lake Mead National Recreation Area to Las Vegas, Nevada – Day 104  We woke up in our roadside turn out and got ready for the day. Our plan was to go for a swim at Lake Mead, see the Hoover Dam and head back into Vegas. The morning was stifling hot, we were looking forward to the swim.   We drove to the visitor centre at Lake Mead Recreation Centre. We could see Lake Mead on the way. The water was well below the high-water line on the rocks. At the visitor centre we got our passport stamped, filled our water bottles, and received junior ranger booklets. The air conditioning was so nice we set up the kids to work on their booklets and hung around. The kids finished up enough activities that they were sworn in by a very nice ranger before we left.   We decided to go see the Hoover Dam first. We dropped the trailer in the parking lot. We heard it might need to be opened at the security checkpoint and we couldn’t be bothered. The H...
Post a Comment
Read more

Canyonlands is Another Planet - Pt 1

Thursday, May 12th – Moab, Utah – Day 91  Utah is another planet. I cannot do justice to the sights that I have seen in Canyonlands National Park. They are beyond compare. I would encourage everyone to visit. The pictures we have taken do not convey the beauty of the scenery we witnessed.   We woke up in the morning after a late night. The kids did some schoolwork. We ate our oatmeal. We tried to clean up the dust that was all over the trailer. The wind had subsided in the night and the morning was pleasant and warm. Aisling had made us promise that we would climb the rock that they had all been climbing on. We strapped on our hiking boots and started towards the rock. A quick climb later we were at the top; on the way down, we were looking for pretty rocks.  The road to Canyonlands sits between two buttes with their cliffs rising on either side. The drive was thirty minutes to the entrance. The visitor centre had displays that detailed what each layer of the canyo...
Post a Comment
Read more