The Travels of the Agnew Family

What’s a trip to the Grand Canyon without a hike below the rim? “They” say that you need two days to hike down to the river and back and as dogs are not permitted below the rim we opted for a 4 to 6 hour hike. The Bright Angel trail has a rest spot at the 1½-mile mark and another at the 3-mile mark. Hiking to the 3-mile mark is suppose to take 4 to 6 hours --- perfect. Around 9:30 am, Ed and I started down the trail. Shortly after our departure we ran into some mules headed up the trail. Mules are used for taking tourists into the canyon; transporting supplies down and garbage back up; and helping the work crews maintain the trail. This group of mules were transporting dirt to repair the trail. Later we ran into some more mules that were transporting garbage to the top. As we were hiking down the trail we occasionally heard voices from what sounded like a fair size group. When we arrived at the first rest stop we found a group of at least 50 teenagers and a number of chaperons --- between the teenagers chatter and the leader trying to give direction it was noisy. The 2nd rest stop was much quieter. Here we enjoyed the quiet of the canyon occasionally broken by the tweet of a bird. What a beautiful place to enjoy lunch. The hike up was, of course, more work. I told Ed to walk at his own pace, which of course is faster than mine because of his long legs. He is good and stops every now and then waiting for me to catch up. Imagine my surprise when I got to the top and Ed wasn’t there waiting for me. Turned out there was a cut off near the top of the trail, which took you to a slightly different spot. Probably following a group of people Ed took the alternate trail. He did figure out his error and came looking for me. It was 1:30pm when we reached the top ---- 4 hours including a 40-minute lunch break. Not bad.

There is one section of the park that can only be accessed by shuttle bus, bicycle or foot. As we were by the spot where you catch the shuttle bus, we decided to take it Hermits Rest (the end) and check it out.




Parts of the trail were mucky --- between the rain/snow and mules --- on the way down I picked my way past the puddles but didn't care quite so much on the way up


The mules were heading to the top


nice spot for lunch


different perspective when you look up at the walls


the sign says it all


Hermits Rest, another Mary Coulter building.


Gave this little guy a wide berth on the trail