Grand Canyon

The first weekend in June we headed to the Grand Canyon to meet up with two of Stan's friends from Utah. It was truly a grand adventure, especially for me being the only girl. I learned that camping with boys is WAY different than camping with my girl friends. At one point I asked Stan how guys live without girls. Without almost any hesitation he responded, "They live like men." I guess I should have asked how they survive without them...His friends were surprised at how many things I had thought to bring. I guess I should really attribute the fact that I remembered the things I thought to bring to Stan's effective use of lists and my attempts to adopt his habit of using them. 

Needless to say, it was a wonderful trip and we loved every moment of it. We could not get over the beauty of the North Rim and were wowed at every turn. We stayed at Jacob Lake campground about an hour's drive north of the Canyon and drove in every day. 

A meadow on the way into the Grand Canyon.

Our first stop on Thursday morning was to the visitor's center and what was close to it, Bright Angel lookout. Here are a few pictures from that spot:

Joe, Stan, and Adam

 

We then had a brilliant idea to go on a little hike but figured it wasn't too far from where we had parked the car, so we walked to the trail head. That turned out to be a two and a half mile "walk". And then the hike turned out to be a ten miler...I may or may not have had Stan come pick me up halfway back on the two and half mile part...This trail was called Widforss Trail and we LOVED the views.

We saw a few horned lizards throughout the trip, here is a little guy trying to hide from us.

We were super surprised with the forests on the North Rim. Wasn't quite the desert we had imagined. It was beautiful...and this is my favorite hiking sight.

Seconds before this picture took, the boys caught me before falling into the yucca plant right in front of us. We were laughing. The thing was so sharp, I'm pretty sure I could have died...okay maybe that's an exaggeration. This was at Widforss Point. It was such a beautiful lookout. 

On Friday we headed down the canyon with the destination point of Roaring Springs, about 5 miles down. Hiking down was really depressing because we were going down fast, and I knew that the deeper we climbed, the farther up I would have to climb. Thankfully, the company was distracting enough to keep my spirits up. We had lots of fun, and at times pointless, conversation. :) 

The sun was SUPER bright. This was at The Tunnel. 

If you look way down there, you can see the trail we went to...WAY WAY down.

And if you look WAY WAY up there, that's where we came from. This was almost to the springs. 

And then we met this guy. Not my most favorite part of the trip. He was close the the springs, Stan was in front of me on the trail heard a noise. The snake had moved, but hadn't rattled yet. Stan froze and looked around to see if it was a lizard or something...nope, just a RATTLESNAKE! Thankfully he was able to back up and we took another route. Yikes! It looks sooo mad. 

And here's at the end of the day looking back down the trail. There were moments at the end of the day I wasn't sure we...by "we" I mean "I"... were/was going to make it. Miracles happen still. 

On Saturday morning we drove back to the canyon one last time and drove out to some points on the eastern part of the canyon. Here are some pictures from those points:

It was cold

And there were buffalo!!!! They were there all morning eating. They were huge and I was glad they were eating grass and not looking at us. 

It was all so fun! We got back late Saturday night so exhausted but it was worth the trip!