Hiking: The Grand Canyon Hike

We trained with family hikes for a good part of the year before to prepare. But I was talking to another hiker in the women’s dorm at Phantom Ranch and she said she’d done it every year for the last 15 years and she didn’t think anything could truly prepare you for hiking the Grand Canyon since it is simply in a category all to itself. The training we did was enough for the husband and older boy to do it more easily. But the younger boy and I needed more endurance. All the hill training did mean that the climbing wasn’t a strain for my lungs and breathing which was especially awesome since I have asthma!!! The older boy and husband are already talking about a Rim to Rim hike next time. I’m thinking once was enough for me. The younger boy hasn’t decided yet.

It am so grateful that we hiked it as a family and made those memories. Our boys are 14 and 12 years old and they did amazing! What better proof do they need that they can accomplish just about anything they set their minds to and work towards? They’ve just done the almost impossible and that makes them mighty. Somewhere near 600,000 people visit the Grand Canyon each year and only about 1% of them make the trek to the river at the bottom. Fewer still do it on the power of their own feet. What an amazing life lesson to learn!!! I’m super proud we made it to the top (me especially since the last 3ish miles up were basically pure will power for me).

We made sure we had lots of food and water and ibuprofen for the hike out. We also lightened our loads at Phantom Ranch by filling one Mule Duffel between us. We thought we had lightened our loads of everything we didn’t need before hiking down in. But once we reach the bottom and knew how very far we needed to climb back out, we each found more weight we could lose from our packs. We only put 16 pounds of the allowed 30 in our Mule Duffel since we were already traveling light. But it was definitely worth the $74.83 not to carry it out ourselves. Experience hikers carry almost nothing back up with them but we weren’t sure what we might need since this was our first hike out and kept a good chunk of our gear.

It was beautiful and awesome and hard and amazing. I’m glad we went and did it. And now I’m also glad to be done!!

If we were to do it again, I think camping and stopping at a more leisurely pace would be very enjoyable.  My ideal itinerary would look something like: Day 1 hike down to Indian Gardens (4.7 miles down from the South Rim) and camp. Day 2 hike down to Phantom Ranch (4.6 to the end of the trail and then another 2ish miles along and across the Colorado River to Phantom Ranch). The meals at Phantom Ranch were wonderful and served family style with the other hikers and campers so I would be sure to reserve at least one dinner and breakfast.  Day 3 stay at Phantom Ranch and explore the area. Day 4 hike back up to Indian Garden and camp. Day 5 hike back out the last 4.7 miles and 3500 vertical feet. I think the added weight of camping equipment would be worth it to have more time to explore and rest between hikes. We would train more too.