Grand Canyon National Park: Rim Trail Hermit's Rest to Bright Angel Trailhead

Yesterday afternoon, Noelle and I drove our tired bodies north from the Arizona Snow Bowl and into Grand Canyon National Park. It was the first visit to this American icon for the both of us. Unfortunately, our first experience of the canyon was not a pleasant one. We visited a packed visitor center and strolled over to an over-crowded Mather Point Overlook with a large, sweaty, loud mass of humanity. Then we checked into our campsite and readied ourselves for today's adventure.

This morning we awoke and headed over to the campground bus stop to ride the bus out to the transfer point at the Bright Angel Trailhead. We were practically alone on the bus and when we got off we were treated to a view of three California condors!

While we wanted to watch the condors for a bit, the bus to Hermit's Rest arrived almost instantly and so we got on and headed west, just us and the driver.

We were completely alone when we arrived at Hermit's Rest about 30 minutes later.

Quite a difference from our experience yesterday evening at Mather Point. After a photo at the arch there we got our own private view of the canyon.

Then we headed east on the Rim Trail. We stopped at lots of great overlooks and even caught a few views of the Colorado River thousands of feet below. We also saw some more wildlife in the form of a horned lizard and lots of pinyon jays.

As we headed further east and the day got later, we started to see more people out and about. Still the crowds were much smaller than what we had seen yesterday and the views were impressive.

As we approached the Bright Angel Trailhead we were starting to get tired. Still, we stopped to admire the many beautiful views.   We walked on a portion of the Trail of Time and soon found ourselves at the end of our hike.

It was a nice, leisurely 7.8 mile hike!          

Later in the day we would head over to the Grand Canyon Pioneer Cemetery to check things out.

The most interesting grave that we found was that of artist Gunnar Widforss.

The Highpoint of Arizona: Humphrey's Peak

Last night Noelle and I had a quiet night camping at the Freidlein Prairie dispersed camping area in the Coconino National Forest. We got a nice view of Agassiz Peak, part of the San Francisco Peaks we would hike in today, before the sun set.

This morning we woke up early, packed up our campsite and headed over to Arizona Snow Bowl to begin our hike up Humphreys Peak. The hike started out relatively easy.

The trail slowly ascended through the woods. There were some pretty pink wildflowers in bloom.

Up and up we went, into the wilderness area.

Treeline seemed to never come.

Eventually, we came to some stunted spruces and pines and shortly after came to "The Saddle" where we found ourselves above the trees.

There were lots of great views from the ridge above treeline.

It was a steep ascent up there.

Eventually we found ourselves on the summit, but because of the thick insect population we didn't spend much time up there.

We had just enough time to take summit photos.

Unfortunately, the photo of me on the summit that Noelle took didn't turn out. We quickly headed down from the summit.

We were soon back into the trees. The hike up Humphreys Peak was unusual in that, despite the fact that we climbed so high and hiked about 9 miles round-trip, we did not cross a single stream.

Soon we found ourselves in the meadow under the chairlifts and then back at the trailhead.  

 I'm so proud of Noelle, my pregnant wife who is headed into her 7th month of pregnancy and was still tough enough to hike up to the summit of a 12,000+ foot mountain!          

The Flagstaff National Monuments

Sunset Crater National Monument
After spending the night in the Bonito Campground, Noelle and I awoke early, ready to explore the three Flagstaff monuments. our first stop was Sunset Crater.

Wupatki National Monument
After leaving Sunset Crater we headed into Wupatki National Monument. Our first stop was the ruins at Wukoki. From Wukoki we headed over to the Wupatki ruins. After leaving Wupatki ruins we toured the Citadel and Box Canyon ruins.

Walnut Canyon National Monument
Our last monument stop was Walnut Canyon. We walked the Island Loop Trail and the Rim Trail and enjoyed exploring the small, interesting cliff dwellings.