Grand Canyon

After driving two hours to Grand Canyon (partly) on a beautiful road at the canyon, we finally reached the rim. We went to a view point (with a gift shop of course, there is no touristic place without gift shops) before we started our descend.
We just red an article that the Kaibab Trail is easier than the others, so we were like let's go for it, as every other activity at the canyon was incredibly expensive. The signs at the trailhead were quite alarming, about taking enough water, and about under no circumstances one should try to ascend and descend on the same day. We walked through the Ooh-Aah Point, down to the Skeleton Point, but the name didn't scare us off, so we continued down to the canyon. It was all downhill, crazy zik-zak roads, rocks, and sand changing colors from yellow, gray to red. Mesmerizing views on the cliffs, at some point we even saw Colorado River at the bottom of the canyon. At the end we walked 1000 m downhill in 7 km (which was still super high, as the rim is at 2200 m), and we decided to turn around. Only 500 meters were missing, but it was getting cloudy, and dark, and it was hard to estimate how much time we would need all the way up.
The road up was hard, it also started to rain, and we had a horrible wind, so it was a lovely combination of sweating and being cold. At the end we made the way up in 2,5 hours, before sunset and we went to another viewpoint and a visitor center. At the bookstore the most advertised book was Death in Grand Canyon, which is about the more than 750 people who died in the canyon, super marketing for the hike! We then googled, this year 16 people have met their death while hiking there, but most in the summer.
It was an amazing hike, every drop of sweat worth the view, and we saved 350 dollars as we didn't need a helicopter to see the bottom of the canyon.Read more