A Day on Bright Angel Trail, GC

How fun! When it's your blog, you can write about your vacation as long as you want!  Yeay me!

Today we head out ont the Bright Angel Trail, which is really well known. Probably the most hiked trail in the park, likely because it is right in GC village.  It is also a mule trail and takes you down to Bright Angel Campground at the bottom of the canyon. And Bright Angel Lodge is right on the rim beside it.  After this post...you'll never forget that name.  When we set out....we planned to hike just past 1 1/2 Mile Rest House.

Operative word....planned....

On our way down a man with a heavy pack and a big tent on top was heading up. We quietly scoffed at his giant army issue pack and monster sized Coleman tent when he was out of earshot.  We continued on our way down.  When we were on our way up we saw that he had stopped at the 911 call box.  We waited until he was finished on the phone to see if we could do anything to help.  "Ted" had been camping with a family group and his daughter sprained her ankle as they were heading back out to the rim.   Help was on its way and we offered to carry his pack and tent up. Ted went back down. We combined our day-packs and my beloved carried the big pack and I carried the tent. And people quietly scoffed at our load!  I remember saying "It's not mine!!" to a group of young fellows all decked out in ultra-lite gear.  In the end, it was nice to be able to help a little with what was a big ordeal for someone else. Kind of makes for a good kind of exhausting. Sometimes I wonder if we realize how easy it is to help someone?

There is a neat time lapse video on the Grand Canyon Facebook page today of Bright Angel Trail, of clouds passing over the canyon, and teeny tiny people hiking in and out.

We also saw a California Condor...a fairly rare sighting...yes, it's the blue photo with the speck on it :)

One of my favourite pieces of gear is my camera bag. "I got my holsters around my side", (a line from needtobreathe's "The Outsiders").  It's on my hip and is so much easier than having to take my backpack off every-time I wanted the camera.  I simply unclip, reach in, take the lens cap off, flick the camera on, click! With one hand!

Still... the phrase most often out of my mouth was, "Argh wrong lens!!!"  My standard lens 18-55mm and my telephoto 55-250mm. I love them both!

Next stop, our last day at the Grand Canyon, Grandview and Desertview.

 
PS -Note to potential visitors: The Grand Canyon Village is across the road the Bright Angel Trailhead.  WE stayed 10 minutes outside the Grand Canyon, in Tusayan, which is basically a strip of hotels and restaurants, but not nearly as congested as the Village.  The shuttle service inside the park is fantastic. Bring a day pack, park at the visitor's centre and just ride the shuttle all day.  Visiting during the first week of March was ideal, since March Break guests had not arrived yet, but all the park facilities were opening up for the season. Bring refillable water containers since there are spring fed water refill stations at the visitor's centre and most main trail heads!