Grand Canyon - Rd trip(P1)

So for along long time I wanted to do a road trip, and finally with my sister and Sashin we planned a road trip, I knew even though we had a luxury of taking a car with a big boot we had to take only whats nessery so I packed my clothes into the smallest bag possible! Yea it wasn’t a lot of clothes, may be a dozen pieces(undies included :P), my sister had a big list of food to take, it was tough trying to convince her to not take so much, which ended up me giving up and letting her stock up whatever she wants! However I must say all the meals throughout the trip were excellent!

I am not the very patient of guys, however I kind of liked the packing up part, where we had to take every inch of space available to the maximize, helping hands from akki and sashin were great! And they both managed to pack their belongings into one bag each, and yea plus a couple of small bags ;). But let me tell you over all our packing was just fantastic, we managed to putt everything we needed, from sleeping bags, tents, cooking utensils, charcoal and food to one boot and yea the extra passenger seat ;). We were all set to go!

So with turning on the GPS which sashin brought we started off on our long journey up ahead! The GPS was a great gadget to have as it substituted the need to have a co-driver, this meant that I had the luxury to chill through out almost the entire road trip! The two drivers for the trip were my sister and sashin! They both showed great expertise in driving!

Soon we were driving towards the Grand Canyon, the GPS read 400 odd miles for the next turn, so it was a long drive! We passed miles and miles with no civilization, however we did pass strange types of mountains they were strange because the rocks which sat on them were pitch black! Sometimes we could see glimpse of what Grand Canyon could look along the way, but I expected more of it, I mean I expected the geography to start looking like the Grand Canyon! But No! that wasn’t the case.

As we climbed higher in elevation, things started to become green J it was a nice to see greenery after so long! It was only once before this trip that I saw, nice green forests here in the U.S, this was so preety, as we could see plains of greenery, ranchers scattered around, and the forests were mostly consisted of pine I think.

We finally reached the grand canyon village, sometimes I have the knack to sense the surroundings but this time my gut never even told me how close I am, even though in my mind I knew we were only a few miles away, at least that’s what the GPS told us! So with excitement we went to Mather parking lot! We saw so many cars parked!  Let me say we saw at least  20 + vehicle plates from different states (no exaggeration), Sashin who has a weird but cool hobby of collecting vehicle plates was ecstatic, he almost unbolted them right of the car, (jkg) , the vehicle plates did distract us a little but I had no clue as to where is grand canyon!

The Joy of being surprised by nature is tough for a guy of this nature to put into words! Its simply overwhelming, nature has surprised me from the early childhood, I must say both ends of the stick, remember how the pretty little caterpillar turned into an even more prettier butterfly? The feeling is like that! Even though I have seen hundreds of pictures of the Grand Canyon, Man! When I saw it to my own eyes it was simply marvellous. I believe in God and I believe that he created the universe with his own hands, and when I look at the grandeur of his creation, I just fall back in awe of his creation!

So we kept wandering along the south rim of the Grand Canyon for a while, and like my father says it is “Grand indeed”. Any way after sometime we decided it’s time to hit back to the campsite, there we pitched tent for the night, since there were fire restrictions on, we had to settle for a tasty sandwich prepared by my sister, one main requirement of sashin was to have a shower everyday :P , so we went to the showers, sashin took a shower while I opted not to have one! It wasn’t all because it was $2, ok I wasn’t being stingy Its kind of going  against my camping principals :P any way after washing my face and feet we all got snuggled up in our sleeping bags for a good night sleep!

so early the next morning I woke every one up for our hike down the grand canyon, we took the south kibab trail, we were not planning to go down right to the bottom, so even I took it lightly and didn’t wake up early as we were told to by the rangers, any way the delay, later thought us that “yea it gets hot down in the canyon during day time!”. So with few water bottles and snacks we set off down the canyon! Not every where you get to hike down first!

it was a lovely trail down the canyon! The canyons on the other side were simply amazing! I spotted a row of canyons like a profile of sharp teeth on a wolf’s jaw; they were so alike, it amazed me! Each canyon jutting out just like the one next to it! We continued down the trail we were all taking lots of pictures! I try my very best to not take lots of pictures, but sometimes the beauty makes me capture pictures right and left! We took many brakes along the way down, In fact one sign read “going down is optional going up is mandatory” any way I rested the option of turning back with sashin and akki, Trust me they were both really good!

One of the last resting points for us before heading back up was a nice flat stone jutting out of the canyon with a nice little shade! The break was far too much so I decided to take a small nap, however soon a fellow hiker who was hiking from the bottom of the canyon met with us and decided to share the shade with us! He was fatigued and my sister was nice enough to offer some water to him! Trust me he deserved it, since I had the bag with water I got up to give my ¾ of full bottle, but my sister decided to give a whole bottle, in that moment I wished she didn’t do that but in the meantime was proud for her nice act, however I believe a hiker doesn’t mind drinking water of a  fellow hiker’s bottle! Anyway he had great stories! He even suggested that we go down a little further ahead and we did! It was nice but as we went down I realized that I left the camera where we last rested, so I sprinted back up tasting how tough the hike up is going to be! However leaving the camera gave me a great opportunity to take a great picture with the other two as tiny as ants,

And soon I caught up with the other two where we took a group picture, and then off we started our long hike back! It was tough, the hot sun beating on us and the elevation didn’t help us either, stops became more frequent and the water started to become scares, I was in a tug a war where deciding am I to hike up at my own pace or go with the other two! We were definitely running out of water akki had half a bottle and I had another half a bottle, sashin wanted a sip of water, and then I decided to leave the bottle with him and hike up as fast as I could as I knew that running water is available at the top of the trail head. After only a few minutes I realized I see none of them tailgating me, and that’s when I decided may be I should go up to the top fill some bottles and come back for them, so I accelerated myself and with no stoppage I soon reached the top, right when the other hiker too finished his long hike! I had three empty bottles which I filled up and with no time to waste I started running down the hill! Every one coming up were surprised to see me dashing down! I’m sure they were thinking “is he out of his mind to run back in this hot sun” any way not far away from the trailhead, I met with sashin and my sister!  Who were in need of some water! I’m sure they wouldn’t have died without the water I brought back, but they truly appreciated the fact that they have plenty of water! I guess all three of us will appreciate water more, especially my sister! With that wonderful experience, we head back to camp, and it was warmer than the previous day so I was glad that sashin had the screen door openJ , It was a great a night!

Grand Canyon – road trip part one 8^th-9^th july 2012