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Down, Down, Down

How a Springfieldian found herself in the bottom of the Grand Canyon. Plus, read tips for planning your own hike down our country’s biggest and most beautiful hole.

Photo Laura Ward

This trip has been a year in the making. Literally. I called Phantom Ranch, a lodge located at the bottom of the Grand Canyon, in on March 10, 2007 to book the last 2 reservations they had for the month of March in 2008. So when my mom called to tell me they were flooding the canyon the week before I was supposed to hike to the bottom, I was a little concerned. Every day for an entire week someone would phone and inform me of the Great Flood of 2008. Talk about making a girl nervous! But I just told myself the people with our Phantom Ranch contact, Xanterra, surely would call to reschedule my reservation if the ranch would be under water, because in my head I pictured a flood that filled the canyon to the brim. Luckily, it was nothing like that! So began my first trip to the Grand Canyon—and my first major hike.

Booking this trip could not have been easier. I called to make sure I was booking everything I needed in order to make the trip as smooth as possible, but you can also do all of your booking online. Everyone was delightful! They reminded me to book all of my meals, which I did first thing; I didn’t want to get to the end of my eight-mile hike down the Grand Canyon and not have a snack! You also have to book the mule that will carry 30 pounds of your junk to the bottom for you. My tip for you: Don’t be ambitious and think you will just carry your stuff. Why not spend that extra money and let an experienced pack mule haul down your toiletries, books and other necessities? You won’t need any of it for the hike. You will thank me, I promise.

It Begins

In the months leading up to the trip, my travel partner, Amy, and I would talk about once a week and inevitably one of us would ask if the other was nervous. The answer usually included something about how much we worked out that week and words of encouragement about how we knew we could do it. Worst-case scenario: They could always rescue us, right? Now that will cost you, but at least there was a “Plan B.”

When we arrived at the Grand Canyon to check into our accommodations for the night before the big hike, we were both pretty jazzed, excited and nervous for the next day. Then I got my first glimpse of the canyon. I took a picture, looked over the ledge and asked myself exactly why I had put this on my list of things to do in life. Then I took another look at the canyon and realized exactly why. It is the most breathtaking view I have ever seen, and I’ve traveled the world. I thought, “By this time tomorrow, I am going to be at the bottom!” Amy and I stayed at the Bright Angel Lodge on the South Rim because it was right where we needed to be for our hike down and the hike out. The rooms are very simple. The one we were in the first night had no television or radio, and the walls were paper-thin. I don’t think people realize exactly how far their voices will carry when there is no white noise (i.e., Dateline and Grey’s Anatomy) to cover up their fighting. But we had a good laugh. Amy and I enjoyed a couple of beers after dinner and tried to get to bed early. I kept thinking how thankful I was to be hiking down with someone who was so nice and wasn’t bickering with me about how hard I shut the door or the noises in the bathroom or how loud I was breathing. I just hoped that Carol and Roy next door weren’t spending the entire day hiking down the South Kai Bab Trail. 

We began around 8:30 a.m. with a ride on the Hiker’s Shuttle to the trailhead, and then we started our descent. We didn’t have a map; we just followed the trail which is very clear and well-marked. As I looked at the hike ahead of us, I could feel my stomach turn at the drop in elevation and wondered if I would fall off the side or hit a part of the trail that I couldn’t navigate. First lesson learned: Keep putting one foot in front of the other, and you will make it.

There are parts of the trail that are more difficult, but we took several breaks throughout the hike, kept drinking water, and tried to eat as much as possible. For the first time in my life someone was telling me I was not eating enough. Seriously, this is my dream come true. At the halfway point in my hike, if I could have ordered some cheese fries (sans guilt), I would have paid any price. Our ranger friend told us that we should eat 4,000 calories on hiking days to compensate for what we were burning. Yes, I said 4,000. Dreams really do come true.

Breathtaking

Every time I looked up from watching the trail I saw something different and amazing. The Grand Canyon truly takes your breath away. Just when I thought I had seen my favorite part of the hike, we would round a corner and spot something new and was even more incredible. We met several people along the way who were hiking in or out of the canyon. Everyone was really nice, some were chatty and others were right down to business. We met up with a large group of hikers that we called the Von Trapps. There were about 20 of them, all very cheerful and happy, singing songs and talking about recent hikes down this canyon and others. The average age of the group was about 70, and they were all on the trip to celebrate one member’s 75th birthday! That was the gift he wanted. They moved at quite a clip, and we let them pass us early in the day. And when I say “let them” pass, I mean they smoked us! They were in incredible shape!

After the Von Trapps passed us, the rest of the hike was quiet. Except for the sound of the wind and our heavy breathing from exertion, all you could hear was silence. It was beautiful. I knew we had to pass the Colorado River in order to get to our destination, Phantom Ranch. It took us three hours to even get a glimpse of the river much less hear it. When we saw the river for the first time I was so excited to think we were at least close, though we still had half the hike remaining. My only complaint about the trail was that there were no mile markers. When I travel I-44, I know where I am every tenth of a mile. At the Grand Canyon there was one sign that said Phantom Ranch was 3.8 miles away. It’s hard to gauge progress when you don’t have milestones. 

At the Bottom of the Canyon

We met so many people from all over the United States, Canada, and Europe. The thing that struck me the most was that no one asked what we did for a living back in reality. All of our conversations started out with asking where we were from and why we hiked to the bottom. It’s the first vacation I can remember that I could actually be away from the office and truly not be accessible, and it was incredible. I didn’t miss my cell phone or my laptop. I didn’t feel the need to use a phone card to call home from the pay phone at the bottom of the canyon. I did, however, enjoy a long day of not having to be anywhere but exactly where I wanted to be. That included sitting by the Bright Angel Creek, eating lunch, taking a nap in the sunshine, and hiking as much as my tired legs would allow me. There are several day hikes from Phantom Ranch of various lengths. We stayed within a few miles of Phantom Ranch on our day off because we were tired. 

There was a park ranger named Pam who had Ranger Talks every day. In the afternoon she talked about California condors, and in the evenings she talked about how the canyon was formed and the first explorers of the canyon. Ranger Pam answered any question you could ask about hiking the canyon, the geography and the history. When I met her, I thought she looked like she was in her mid- to late-30’s. We later found out that she was in her 50’s, and this was her second career. She had been a park ranger for 20 years, and she looks like she was only a few years out of college. That hike, taken more than 200 times by her, must keep you young! Between Ranger Pam and the Von Trapps, I learned lesson number 2: Forget all the anti-aging stuff you read in magazines, and just keep on moving!
 

Accomplishment

After our time at the bottom of the canyon, it was our day to make the hike out. As we reached the end of the Bright Angel Trail and emerged from the Grand Canyon, I did not have words to describe the sense of accomplishment, and relief, that washed over me. Amy and I sang the Rocky theme as we ran up the last 10 feet of icy trail. We high-fived each other and took tons of pictures of where we had just been. When I snapped the last picture of the Grand Canyon on Saturday morning, it was the same angle as the first shot I took just three days earlier, but it looked completely different to me because I finally understood the magnitude of that canyon. I wish I could figure out a way to show that in the pictures, but it is impossible. I was just so thrilled that I managed to conquer the canyon! What the pictures do not reveal is the crazy pain in our legs. It subsided mostly by morning, but there was definitely some hobbling involved in our evening. We cleaned up, went to the restaurant El Tovar, and proceeded to eat the biggest steak dinner I have ever seen! The bathrooms at the restaurant at El Tovar are downstairs. Nice dinner, couple of drinks, but the bathroom is downstairs? Fair warning.

Bottom line: If you want to hike the Grand Canyon, do it! Yes, it is hard. Yes, you will sweat. Yes, there will probably be a point in the hike when you wish a nice, cute ranger will stop and offer to carry you on his shoulders. This will not happen, by the way. Only 2 percent of the visitors to the Grand Canyon actually hike to the bottom of the canyon. Be part of that 2 percent. I promise you will experience the canyon in a way that will stay with you for the rest of your life.