Grand Canyon Adventure

Hello everyone! I'm back in the Fort all in one piece and very very sore. I don't think any amount of running could have gotten me prepared for my little jaunt to the Grand Canyon! I went with my dad and my brother and we had such a great time, even though none of us were nearly in shape enough for all the hiking we did.

As I mentioned last week, I absolutely LOVE hiking. I rarely get to do it, but these past few days all we did was hike! My dad, brother, and I were lucky enough to get a spot down in Phantom Ranch last minute (normally people have to call a year in advance to save a spot!), so our first day we headed down the canyon around 3:00 p.m. with lots of sunscreen, water and snacks to keep us going all the way down. It was a pretty steep hike down, but we never fell and the views just kept on getting better and better.

At this point I could not stop exclaiming how it looked like we were in Narnia! It was BEAUTIFUL. 

We were worried about making it to Phantom Ranch before the sun went down, so we tried to make it down the Canyon as fast as we could! Sure enough we made it in time and our meal of bread, honey and peanut butter could not have tasted any better. We were so exhausted I'm pretty sure we were all dead asleep by nine o'clock!

We got an early start the next morning and we were ready to tackle the nine mile beast all the way back up. We saw many familiar faces on the hike up because we would rest and they would pass, then they'd rest and we'd pass, etc. etc. We eventually made it to the top (huffing and puffing and sore beyond belief) and looked all the way back down to the bottom, shocked at what we had accomplished. We hurried off to replace all of the salt we had lost from sweating so much and then got to shower...showering has never felt better ohmygosh it was glorious! 

The next day was filled with a couple other hikes, nothing as beastly as the two we did before, but still challenging. My urge to go hiking has been filled (for now hehe), but this trip definitely reaffirmed how much I enjoy it!

Every corner we turned and every hill we climbed provided us with a new view to the Grand Canyon that I never grew tired of seeing. It is absolutely stunning and I don't think any picture can really capture how beautiful it truly is! 

I would definitely recommend traveling to the Grand Canyon if possible! Have you ever been before, and did you hike down into it or just look at it from the top?