We slept well (getting better at this no tent thing!) and were up at 4:30am. We ate a simple breakfast of granola and coconut milk with a dried fruit plate. It was our favorite breakfast of the trip. We were on the trail around 6:00, before sunrise, but it was light enough to see. Melinda wore my water shoes, which are fairly wide at the ball of the foot. She also popped and re-popped her blisters. Ouch!

The uphills seemed endless. We were mostly in the shade, except for the last couple of hours (the hardest.) All of us except Bob and Melinda took an optional side trip to Lookout Point. (We were still feeling strong at that point.)

We ate lunch at Santa Maria Springs, but it was quite crowded. We finally reached the top at 1:00, after passing all of our group except for Susan. She was the energizer bunny! Soon the rest of the group joined us, and Tom had fresh watermelon, cold drinks, and brownies to restore us. We said farewell to the others and drove with Rebecca to our campground. We dropped her at her site and went to set up our own campsite. The campground had dozens of elk. It was elk mating season, so there was lots of bugling. Showers felt wonderful! I managed to get a reservation for 3 at El Tovar, so we picked up Rebecca and had a lovely meal. During dinner we previewed all our photos for the trip. Fortunately we hadn’t taken too many. After dinner we ran into Toni and Bernadette. They had been at the hospital until 2am the previous night, but Toni was well and taking antibiotics against any possible infection.

Again we had an early night.

I slept a bit better with the continuous sound of the river. Dan was out cold. After breakfast, we hiked up to a waterfall on Hermit Creek to soak our clothes and ourselves and to refill our water bottles. Marci, Toni, and Bernadette headed to the rim to get to the clinic, while the rest of us headed out to Monument Creek. On the way, we visited a 1920’s era resort which has since turned into ruins. It even had a tram for supplies. There were some scary ledges with steep drop offs. Spot the trail:

We set up camp on a rock ledge with a precarious overhang. Melinda removed her socks, and we were shocked at the state of her toes. She had 5 huge blisters, mostly on the tops of her toes. They were obviously hurting her now. She passed on the day’s optional hike, but before the hike, we napped, waiting for the sun to go down a bit.

For our day hike, we went down Monument Creek through a slot canyon to the Colorado River. Tom challenged us to do it without getting our feet wet, and we were all more or less successful. At the river, we saw a rafting party stop for the night, as well as some hikers. It looked like a crowded campsite. We swam in the cold water. Tom said it was 56F (as the water comes from the bottom of Lake Powell), but I think it was more like 65. (I’m not a fan of cold water.)

We returned to camp for a burrito dinner and an early bedtime (7:30, a new record)! Tom spotted an elusive ring tailed cat, climbing up a crack in the rocks over our sleeping spot. It was pretty exciting.

We slept fitfully without the tent. Mostly, it was too hot, but there were annoying non-biting bugs that sounded like mosquitoes, and the moon was really bright. I tied my bandanna around my head to try to block both noise and light.

We awoke at 6:15 as the sky brightened. The guides made heaps of food for breakfast, as if we were a group of teenage boys and not 7 women and 2 old men. The guides had to pack out the excess.

We broke camp and set aside most of our stuff for a day hike. Three of the women opted out, but everyone else was game. The hike was a 6 hour round trip up Hermit Creek to its source. There was lots of wading through the creek and some scary rock climbing. We were completely out of our comfort zone: stepping in vegetation without being able to see potential rattlesnakes, slipping on rocks, wading in deep murky water, and rock climbing. The guides seemed unconcerned about any hazards and kept up a fast pace. Almost all of us took at least one nasty spill.

In spite of the challenges, it was a great hike. We saw dozens of waterfalls, one of which we bathed under on the return trip. We also learned a new acronym, PUD, which means pointless up and down. I made up my own, PFD, for pointless foot dunking.

After we returned to the first campsite, we donned our full packs and hiked down to the Colorado River to reach our campsite for the night: the sandy riverbank at Hermit Creek rapids.

We endured several injuries today:

1. Toni dislodged a large rock that fell on her leg and made a big gash on her shin. She needed a visit to the ER and an early exit from the canyon.

2. Melinda found blisters on her toes, but they didn’t hurt.

3. Susan slipped and scraped her thigh, which bled down into her socks. She was happy to have a battle scar. When I grow up, I want to be more like her.

4. Rebecca cut her leg, but it was okay, because then we could follow the blood path to climb up the cliff.

5. I slipped on a rock and scraped my inner arm and banged my knee. With drugs and soaking in the cold river, it was better in the morning.

We got up at 6:15 for breakfast, packed the car, and drove to the meeting place, where we met our guides and fellow hikers (See below for names.)

The “equipment check “ involved removing gear from our packs. The guides talked us out of our phones, compass, penknives, fleece jackets, rain jackets, first aid kit, and even our tent. No wallets either, just a drivers license and medical insurance card. I wasn’t sure about leaving the tent behind, but Dan always carries it, so he was enthusiastic. All we had left were water, food, sleeping bags, pads, and cameras. I also brought a clean set of socks and undies. Dan brought a warm hat. We had to weigh our packs, and if you were over 35 lb., you had to take more stuff out! We got down to 31 lb., 9 lb. of which was water. The packs felt very light after all of our training and other hikes.

We drove out to the Hermit Creek trailhead, past the “authorized vehicles only” barrier; our lead guide, Tom, had a passcode. He pointed out the trail from above. It looked pretty unlikely.

Photo above: Marci, Tom, Rosalind, Susan, Dan, Bob, Melinda, Nicole, Bernadette, Toni, and Rebecca Photo: Melinda, Bob, Rebecca, Rosalind, Susan, and Marci

The hike was long and hot, but we were prepared. Some of the others were less accustomed to hiking on rocks, but we are lucky to live near the White Mountains. The guides kept a fast pace, so it was hard to stop for photos without being left behind. Everyone stopped for the beautiful collared lizard, so Dan got a great picture.

We arrived at our campsite, Hermit Creek, in the late afternoon. It was a nice spot, with a nearby creek for fresh water and even a pit toilet. The guides set up the camp kitchen and made dinner, while the rest of us set out our ground cloths, pads, and sleeping bags.

Guides:

Tom, co-owner of Backcountry Found, the company REI contracted to lead the trip

Marci, his sister, although it took us a couple days to figure out the relationship.

Clients:

Dan and Rosalind, need no introduction

Bob and Melinda, athletic newlyweds (round two) from Ohio

Susan, world traveler, marathoner

Toni and Bernadette, two friends from Chicago

Nicole, a quiet young woman who turned out to be a fearless climber

Rebecca, a 23 year old dancer and recent accounting graduate from North Carolina

Dan was the oldest of the group.

Maswik cafeteria breakfast was much better than their dinner. We took the shuttle to the Village Store to buy ice, get cash, and check out the REI group meeting place for tomorrow. I decided that I’d rather jump off the rim than take another park service bus. We returned to our room and packed up our backpacks for the apex event of the road trip: the Grand Canyon backcountry hike starting tomorrow. We agonized over every packed item since we wanted our packs to be as light as possible for the “epic ascent” coming out of the canyon. (Little did we know what would happen at the gear review with our guides tomorrow morning.) I called to get a dinner reservation at the fancy El Tovar Lodge, but they had no tables before 8:45. We ate lunch at the Bright Angel Lodge. It was one of the first Harvey House restaurants, and though inexpensive, the food and service were very good.

We spent the afternoon walking along the (hot and sunny) rim trail to the Geology Museum, and watched the ranger presentation. The talk was okay but not as good as those we saw in Capitol Reef. Then we went to the Arizona Room for dinner, but they wouldn’t give us a table because we were too late (it was 5:30). We went back to the Bright Angel for dinner. I was cranky all day, but I was getting used to some tension before each backpacking trip. I just needed to get on the trail.

We packed up our stuff, said goodbye to our Airbnb host, Cathy, and were out by 10:00. We drove to the Glen Canyon Dam, ate a picnic lunch overlooking Lake Powell, and watched the movie about the construction of the dam. Finally it was time for our dam tour. Our guide took us out on the top of the dam and then down into a viewing room to see the turbines. Everything was on a huge scale, and we took lots of pictures (what else?).

We continued south, stopping at the Cameron Trading Post to buy an ice cream bar and some stickers. We passed on the Indian crafts, as they seemed overpriced. It’s cheaper to buy from the white man!

We took more pictures on our way into the Park. Our hotel is the Maswik Lodge, which has very basic but reasonably priced accommodations. Wi-fi is supposedly available in the lobby, but all the seats were taken. We had a simple dinner in the cafeteria.

The time zones here are confusing. Utah and Arizona are both on mountain time, but Arizona doesn’t observe daylight savings time, except in Indian land, which does. It seemed to get light very early in the morning (6-ish) and dark very early in the evening (6-ish.)

Dan went for a run, and then we drove to Bryce Canyon. On our previous road trip, it was raining when we visited Bryce, so we left early and didn’t really explore the canyon. This time we had beautiful weather, and we were determined to “do” Bryce, since we had heard so much about it. Unfortunately, our hearts weren’t in it, and we felt like we were just checking it off a list. The crowds were the problem. The lady at the visitor center sent us to the most popular spot and recommended that we take the shuttle bus. Even the trail was crowded with tourists ignoring the posted signs. Argh! At least we got some good pictures (and I don’t have to go back.) I’m sure it would have been more fun if we had gone to a less popular spot, but we were spoiled by our last few hikes.

We got up at 6:00 and were out the door before 7:00. It was about an hour’s drive to the trailhead at Wire Pass. After yesterday’s drive, this dirt road was a piece of cake with the Jeep, but still would have been a bit much for the Audi. We met Naomi from British Columbia, Canada in the parking lot. She had arrived the night before and slept in her car, a Mazda 3.

With the nice trail map that had pictures, compass headings, and several waypoint GPS coordinates (NAD 83 datum), plus a few trail markers, we had no trouble navigating the 3+ miles to The Wave. Although small, it was pretty spectacular, and the photos don’t do it justice. Because of the lottery restrictions, only a few people were there, and we had plenty of opportunities to take unobstructed photos. Naomi posed for about ½ hour trying to get the perfect Facebook post. It was pretty entertaining to watch.

We had inadvertently left our packed lunches in the fridge, so we ate our hearty snacks and headed back. The total time was 4 hours, and it never felt too hot. We must be getting acclimated to the dry heat.

Back in Kanab we ate lunch (saving our packed food for tomorrow), returned the Jeep, and spent the afternoon catching up on our blogging and drinking cold adult beverages.

We were up early and out to the office of the Bureau of Land Management (BLM.) I had booked 4 days in Kanab to give us our best chance in the lottery to take a hike called “The Wave.” I learned about this hike months ago when planning for our trip. The BLM runs a two-part lottery to limit the number of hikers, in order to avoid continued damage to the rock formations. The online lottery runs 4 months in advance, so I put it on the calendar and entered at my first opportunity. I failed to get one of the 10 online spots on any of my 3 specified days. So here we were at the BLM office, trying to get 2 of the remaining 10 spots for the next day. I filled out the form and waited as people poured into the office. Eventually there were 110 people vying for those 10 spots. It was getting tense as the ranger started his bingo roller. The first 5 spots went to 2 groups of two and a solitary young woman. Next he called lucky 13, my number! The final group was 3 Japanese women.

The ranger gave us lucky winners an involved briefing of the hike. They were worried about us getting lost, overheated, or dehydrated. They also insisted that we needed a high clearance vehicle to get to the trailhead. After our previous dirt road experiences in our little Audi with low profile Z-rated tires, we decided to stop pressing our luck and rent a Jeep. Of course the sole car rental agency in Kanab would only rent by the calendar day, so we had to pay for 2 days instead of one. What do you do with a Jeep for an extra day? Go see the most inaccessible geologic feature in the area: White Pocket in the Vermillion Cliffs National Monument.

First we took care of a few errands: food at the recommended coffee shop, getting our cameras cleaned professionally (they had both accumulated a lot of sand), and mailing “Death in the Grand Canyon” back to its owner. Then we set off around 2:00. It was a 2.5 hour drive, with at least an hour on dirt and deep sand. We got stuck once, but Dan shifted into 4L and we continued on.

The White Pocket was amazing, with huge swirls of colored rock. Very few people were there, so we had lots of quiet time. We ate an early dinner on the rocks and headed back. On the way back, the road was blocked by a minivan whose clueless driver had ignored the “4WD only” signs. He was stuck in deep sand, and a badass female hiking guide was trying to rescue him despite his efforts to stay stuck. She was successful, and the trapped cars (including us) quickly passed to avoid getting blocked again in case he didn’t have the sense to go home.

On the way back we stopped at an overlook and were approached by a couple who needed to inflate their tires. They had gotten stuck on this same White Pocket road and had deflated their tires to get unstuck. Since our Jeep was equipped with a portable air pump (and we had a karma debt for the camera incident and the lottery), we assisted them and watched the beautiful sunset over the vermillion cliffs.

Back at the Airbnb, we cleaned up and prepared for our hike tomorrow to “The Wave.”

We repacked the car, checked out, and were on the road at 9:45. We stopped at the Cannonville visitor center for hiking information. The hike we selected, Willis Creek, was 6 miles off the main road. We had sworn off dirt roads, but the only paved road in that part of Utah is route 12. Fortunately, this dirt road was fairly drivable.

Over the years, Willis Creek has carved 5 slot canyons. The definition of slot canyon is a canyon which is taller than it is wide. The hike was short (4 mi.) and easy, but our feet got wet again. It was worth it for the sights and the photos.

We arrived in Kanab, UT at 4pm and checked into our Airbnb. Cathy and Doug, our hosts, were very welcoming and gave us lots of information about the area. Kanab is a cute town with good shopping. We stocked up on food, motor oil, glass cleaner, and booze. We even washed the car. I made dinner in our little kitchen, did laundry, and worked on my blog. Unfortunately, the wi-fi was not strong enough to upload photos, but I was able to upload text.