Grand Canyon

When we originally participated in Team in Training, there were two choices of events: Yosemite and the Grand Canyon. Because we were aiming for Half Dome, we chose Yosemite. We had little time to spare for a week long trip, and didn't have backpacks at that time either. But many people in our group did the Grand Canyon event. There were fewer choices of hikes, but at least two of them were the South Rim walk and the overnight backpack into the Grand Canyon. That last was a three day affair where you hiked in one day, did a day hike on your day in the canyon, and then hiked out on the third day.

Two years later, armed with our day packs, poles and hiking boots, we decided to see how far we could get on the Bright Angel trail. We drove up from Williams, where we had stayed the previous night, and arrived at the South Rim at about 11:30 am. This was well past our normal start time, but fortunately, it was early in the season and there was high overcast. The weather was cool and breezy - almost windy, in fact.

We filled our water containers and headed down the trail. Since there was a rest area at the 1.5 mile mark, aptly named the Mile and a Half Rest Stop, we decided to make that our destination for the day. We figured it would take us about 45 minutes to hike down to the first rest stop (with many stops for our son to look at rocks and bugs) and twice the amount of time to hike back up.

When hiking the Grand Canyon, everything you think you know is wrong. It's all backwards. When hiking most trails, you wear synthetics to keep yourself dry and warm. Special synthetics wick the moisture away from your skin. But the Grand Canyon is basically a giant solar cooker, which focuses the suns rays. It gets hotter as you descend into the canyon. Because of this, you wear cotton fibers that don't wick the water away from your body, and which keeps you cool. Always, always take enough water with you. Indeed, if you don't know what you're doing, take extra!

Margaret Bradley, who was extremely fit and who had recently run the Boston Marathon finishing 31st, decided to go for a 15 mile run into the Canyon. She wasn't from the Southwest and wasn't familiar with the area or the high temperatures. The 15 miles that she thought she was going to run, was actually 27 miles. She carried only 1.5 litres of water, an apple, and two trail bars into the canyon. She had no map. She left about four hours after sunrise. She died of dehydration in 105 degree heat and her body was found a day later. Her photo is now plastered on many trailheads and her story serves as a warning to hikers.

One of the most interesting things about hiking the Grand Canyon is being able to see all the different geological strata. One not only loses elevation, one descends backwards in time. Most of the geological formations in the Southwest have a limestone cap on their top. The softer sandstone underneath remains because the limestone is harder for the elements to penetrate. We started at the South Rim (6,782 ft. elev.) and the Kaibab Limestone layer, which is 250 million years old. Fossils such as mollusks and brachiopods can be found in this light gray layer.

We descended a little further and came to the darker, Toroweap Formation, which is also limestone and only just slightly older than the Kaibab Limestone at 255 million years. Soon we come to the very large and very solid Coconino Sandstone layer. The Coconino Sandstone layer is 260 million year old petrified sand dunes! It presents a solid vertical wall. Apparently, no fossils have been found in this layer.

As we completed our 1.5 mile hike to the Mile and a Half Rest Stop, we entered the Hermit Shale. This strata is a rust colored, iron-rich formation, which is 265 million years old. Ferns, conifers and other fossilized plants have been found in this layer.

We had descended 1,062 ft. into the canyon by the time we reached the rest stop. We sat and ate some trail mix and drank some water, refilling our water bottles before heading back up the Bright Angel Trail.

The ascent took us twice as long as the descent, which was just as we expected. We arrived back at the South Rim about about 2:45 pm. We had a wonderful lunch at one of the lodge restaurants, before getting back into the car and heading east along the South Rim towards the Desert View. After that, our next stop is one of our favorite places: Monument Valley.