Tuesday, April 6, 2010

4-4-10 **VIDEO INCLUDED**

NEARING SUNSET ON SOUTH RIM

CAMPFIRE

MORNING VISIT FROM DEER

BRIGHT ANGEL LOOKOUT

GRAND CANYON IN THE MORNING

MATCHING VESTS

LONG WAY UP

Warner Brothers cartoons have seriously shaped our understanding of life. We believe rabbits eat carrots, skunks are suave, pigs stutter, red bearded men shoot pistols, mice outsmart cats, and most importantly, we believe the grand canyon is swelteringly hot and is in the desert. Oh, Warner Brothers how you have led us astray!

Believe it or not, the depiction of the Road Runner and the Wile E. Coyote chasing one another around the Grand Canyon is apparently not 100% accurate. The fact is, the Grand Canyon is surround by forest, and because it is over 7000 feet in elevation, it is quite cold. The northern rim is closed during the winter months because of too much snow. The snow continues to follow us.

We explored the southern rim before pitching our tent at Mather Campground, a quarter of a mile from the GC rim. We made some japanese miso noodle soup with sugar snap peas and baby bok choy for dinner over the camp fire. We enjoyed our soup with rum mixed with rum. Since the night's forecast was for a low of 20 degrees, drinking booze and eating soup wasn't going to be enough to keep out the chill. As a result the following were our pajamas...

Jen: t-shirt, long sleeved shirt, long sleeved thermal, 2 fleece sweat shirts, wool hoodie, leggings, fleece pants, ankle socks, and knee high wool socks

Aaron: boxers, socks, fleece pants, t-shit, golf shirt, flannel shirt, fleece pull-up, and hoodie

Our shivering was kept at bay by our PJs and we woke up with deer surrounding our tent. A pleasure compared being surrounded by bears. After a morning campfire to cook oatmeal with strawberries, dried apricots, dried cranberries, cinnamon, honey, and raspberry jam, we hit the hiking trails.

There are presumably hundreds of trails to hike at the Grand Canyon, and we settled on the Bright Angel Lookout Trail. Hiking the grand canyon is like Isaac Newton's law of gravity, only reversed: for every step we took down, we'd have to take a more challenging step back up. As a result, we didn't make it to the depths of the canyon, because that would take more than 2 days. It's a funny thing about normal hiking. You climb and climb so you can see the beautiful view at the peak. But at the Grand Canyon, you start with the most incredible view imaginable. So when you climb into its dark depths, and climb up icy, rocky, treacherous paths, the view the second time around is so much more magnificent.

GRAND CANYON VIDEO

4 comments:

  1. Love the video...this is really nice guys! Keep posting! Love Jacquie

    ReplyDelete
  2. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Lions, and tigers and "BEARS" are for watching and re-watching the Wizard of Oz in your pj's or even the zoo but never-NOT EVER - for your mother(s')reading about...Good thing you didn't have a candy/munchie stash to tempt the critters! Be safe - stay warm and enjoy the upcoming family bonding reunion and pampering.
    XXOO-Love, Aunt Randy

    ReplyDelete
  4. Great post! Trying to figure out this video... I know there's some Eddie Vedder mixed in there, but how about the rest...? Are those your photos? Did you write the poem?

    ReplyDelete