Labor Day Weekend: The Grand Canyon

We finally experienced The Grand Canyon. James had been once before, but this was my first time. We arrived at the park entrance on the south rim between 8:30 & 9:00 AM before it got too crazy. SO glad we did that. We found a parking spot, no problem.

We took a free shuttle bus to South Kaibab trail to start our morning hike. If you ever go to the Grand Canyon, you NEED to do this hike. We did a 3 mile hike down the canyon. On the way down we were mostly in the shade & the weather was cool, perfect temperature. When we got to the bottom of the trail, we were amazed at where we came from (SOOO high up), and were baffled by the view of how far down the canyon still reached. The Grand Canyon is about 9 miles deep, or 3 Empire State Buildings stacked on top of each other. To hike down to the ranch at the bottom of the canyon takes 1 day, and the park cautions hikers to rest there overnight to refuel to hike back up the next morning because hikers have actually died trying to hike all the way down and back up in just one day. The views are just incredible. The hike back up to the top was definitely exhausting. If you've ever hiked Y mountain in Utah, it's a bit more challenging than that in my opinion. The sun was beating down on us, our water bottles were heavy, the trail is so narrow & steep so you have to share it with hikers going down the mountain, and there is mule manure everywhere. We were pretty exhausted when we reached the top. But we were oh so proud of ourselves. We both feel like we actually experienced the Grand Canyon because we were IN it. 

 Before we started the hike down South Kaibab Trail. 

Here's the trail we hiked.

 At the top.

 One view from the top.

 Going down...

 Pride rock...just kidding.

 Gorgeous view.

 At the bottom of our hike.

 Don't fall off!

 Love him.

 The pictures need to be panoramic.

 James at the Grand Canyon 2013.

 Chelsea at the Grand Canyon 2013.

 Here I am!

 Unfathomably Grand.

 This rock formation.

 Breathtaking.

 Even more breathtaking....haha.

So many different colors. 

 That is where we came from...you can see the trails.

 Just looking.

 We made it 1/3 of the way down the canyon!

Favorite picture.

After our hike we had a little picnic with healthy veggies. 

 Laughing at something James said.

Healthy!

We then went to the visitor's center & to several different lookout points. We are glad we went to the lookout tower where we saw a polarized reflection of the canyon. SO beautiful. 

 Mr. Squirrel is enjoying the same view that we are. 

 The lookout tower. The guy taking the picture of us made a joke to make us laugh. He said we could always trust a fat guy to take the picture because he wouldn't take off & steal our camera haha.

 The pictures just don't do it justice.

 Awesome adventure.

Here's the red rock. 

While driving to the different lookout points, James spotted a bull-elk on the side of the road. He.Was.Stoked! I know this totally made his day. I will admit, it was pretty cool to see this creature so close to our car. It was like being at Bearizona all over again! Definitely cool. 

He got his antlers stuck in the tree!

We left the park just after 2:00pm. On our drive we spotted the home of the Flintstones! We also appreciated the purple skies of Arizona monsoon sunsets. 

On to our next adventure...VEGAS!