On a Grand Scale

 Last weekend we went with John's work to their annual clean up at the Grand Canyon.  This is our families third trip to the Grand Canyon so it is nice to be able to go up there for just a few days and take our time seeing what we want to see and not feel like we have to hurry to see everything.  Every time I go I come to appreciate it's beauty even more.

I went to the Grand Canyon when I was 16.  My best friend had a family reunion there and they planned to hike rim to rim.  Being 16 (meaning young and stupid) I was thrilled to go along.  It is a completely different experience being in the canyon rather than looking from the rim.  I thought I was ready for the canyon.  The year before I had gone on a 15 mile backpacking trip.  That was easy.  Never mind that it was 15 miles spread over 3 days, all down hill.  The Grand Canyon was 14 miles down the North Rim and then a very steep 9 miles up the south.  The hike down was long and exhausting but not too bad over all.  I wasn't prepared for the rest of the trip however.  At the bottom of the canyon the low temperature was 80 degrees (now that I live in Phoenix that is such a common occurrence I don't even think about it but to a California girl that was insane).  The one truly smart thing we did was making our packs as light as possible.  That meant no tent for us.  Everyone else in our group was worried that it would rain on us but we ended up being the only ones that were able to stay cool and sleep well that night.  Everyone else was too hot in their tents.

The heat however completely wiped out my appetite.  I did remember to keep drinking but I hardly ate at all.  Combine that with the very steep 9 mile hike the next day, it was a miracle I made it out at all. I felt exhausted and sick.  I don't think I ate for a week after that.  That being said, it was an amazing experience that I'm glad I had.  Also, and experience that I don't want to have again.

Just a couple of picture of my cute little boys while we were there.  I tried to post a picture of me at the bottom of the canyon from when I was 16 but my scanner is being cranky.  Oh well.