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Our latest adventures, as recounted by a client journalist:
Dear Families,
This week we did another set of split groups. Our group (the A team) hiked from the North Rim to the South Rim over four days and three nights. The first day we hiked down the North Kaibab to Cottonwood campground. The hike was 7 miles past Roaring Springs and all downhill so everyone had a pretty easy time and a good time.
The second day started pretty late after we got a long night of sleep. Upon waking up, Kelly headed back up the North Kaibab trail so that she could shuttle the van to the South Rim and would meet up with us later that night at Phantom Ranch. We stopped by Ribbon Falls along the way to the Colorado River, a spectacular sight. We eventually left the campsite and kept on going down the North Kaibab to Phantom Ranch, 6.7 miles long, where we got to watch a presentation by a Park Ranger on Floods within the Grand Canyon.
The third day brought us to Indian Gardens which was the first of our hike with some up hill so we got to get a little taste of what the last day was going to be like. We spent some time at Pipe Creek which runs into the Colorado River. Later in the day when we reached Indian Gardens we spent some time playing cards and resting from the days hike.
The fourth day started slightly earlier than the other days because we had a pretty substantial hike up the South Rim in store for us. We set out on the Bright Angel trail and had a sustained uphill hike for 4.8 miles. With the big backpacks, the hike proved to be pretty tough but everyone ended up crushing the hike and we made it up quickly. Upon reaching the rim, we headed out to our campground a little past Grandview Trail in the Kaibab National Forest (East of Bright Angel trailhead). After setting up camp we went back by the Bright Angel trailhead and we went to an AA meeting that is held on the South Rim. After the meeting we immediately went back to camp and everyone fell right asleep.
On the fifth day, we got to sleep in for a while and then we went to go see a movie at the National Geographic in Tusayan. The movie we saw was about the history of the Grand Canyon and everyone enjoyed learning about the early explorations of the canyon. After the movie, we went on a drive down the rim stopping at a lot of spectacular viewpoints and eventually seeing an old tower built in the 1930’s meant for viewing the canyon. Everybody had a good time and by the time we got back to camp we were all pretty exhausted.
On the sixth day we rented bicycles to ride along the rim. Early into the ride there was an injury free accident which required us to swap out one of the bikes. After heading back to the shop people started crumbling because the biking turned out to not be as easy as everyone thought it was going to be. After some snickers and twix bars everyone regained confidence and we embarked for our second time to go see Hermits Rest which was a 21-mile round-trip bike ride. After making it to a number of viewpoints on the way to Hermits Rest, there was another mechanical breakdown with a rental bike so we made our final return to the shop. After returning the bikes we went and feasted at McDonalds, the choice amongst the group, which had everyone full and tired afterwards. After eating, we went back to the AA meeting on the South Rim. Though everyone was extremely tired after the long day, we stayed up for a little making s’mores.
On the last day, we woke up and packed the vans and headed back to the house where everyone was able to shower and change into clean clothes after having a great trip.
Love,
The clients at B2B