Grand Canyon February 2018

I was sad to realize that, while I had good intentions in 2017 of hiking more and spending time outdoors, aside from one camping trip for the 4th of July which didn't include much in the way of hikes, 2017 was spent busy with various other things.  As I work hard to complete my master's degree, I am stuck oscillating between demanding obligations, my life getting turned upside down to accommodate what is required for the final phase of this program, and daydreaming over what I want to experience.  My hiking boots came out minimally in 2017, my blog collecting dust at my lack of outdoor engagement all year.  I hope this changes in 2018.

Sitting in my living room one night earlier this year, I realized that I was feeling irritated all the time, unsettled and uneasy. I hadn't been sleeping much, felt a lot of stress regularly, and without tolerance or capacity for much outside of my small bubble.  I was feeling disconnected.  I looked at my fiance, a wave of sadness coming over me that I am feeling disconnected even from the person I share my life with!  I knew something was needed, and he started talking about how we needed to get out of town.  So began the Groupon and Google searching for getaway deals that could get us out of town and in nature for a bit.  As I searched, the Grand Canyon came to mind.  The drive can be done in a day, my fiance has never been and the only time I have gone was a short stop to take a couple pictures and leave.  Because February is still the off season, I was able to find some cheap deals including the Maswik Lodge for only $70 a night that sits in close proximity to the South Rim of the Canyon (the North Rim still being closed this time of year).  I booked it for three nights, not really giving Chris the opportunity to voice his opinion on it, I basically just told him we're going! 

I knew we had only really one opportunity on the calendar where we had room enough in our schedules to make it work, the last weekend in February was it.  My academia getting more intense with my capstone paper and presentation prep and gearing up for licensing exams.  It will be May before I can really have space in my schedule again to accommodate much for getaways.  We started the drive on Friday February 23rd, leaving Denver early morning in effort to arrive to the lodge in time for dinner.  During the drive we enjoyed music and conversation, the connection time being good for us.  I made big efforts to avoid talking too much about grad school, final assignments, the studying I still have to get to.  We kept wedding discussions limited.  This was time for just us.

I drove the first leg, driving through the very snowy Wolf Creek Pass since I-70 westbound was closed for getting out of Denver that weekend.  Initially in our drive I had done well to shave some time, but this pass caused us to add time because of the need to take it slower.  I was surprised how well my little Toyota Corolla did.  We knew we would be passing through winter weather at some point during the trek, but boy I was glad to get to the other side of it.  We swapped places when we needed to gas up.  We had loaded up a cooler with snacks and lunch options before leaving, the idea being to limit how much we ate out during the four day trip, which resulted in me making deli sandwiches for us while he drove which was a humorous feat - as the car bounced and pickle juice, crumbs and mayo got all over me, it was hard not to laugh, but we were determined to make as few stops as we could.  As we grew closer to the lodge, some winter weather greeting us again, we followed the GPS instructions, unaware of road closures ahead as we were heading toward the North Rim area of the Canyon.  We got flagged down by a caravan of other drivers heading in the other direction who told us that the road ahead was closed, a sense of defeat coming over us as we sat 45 minutes from where a bed awaited us, tired from 10 hours of driving.  We called the lodge and they confirmed that getting into the Canyon from the north was impossible and that we would have to drive to Flagstaff, 60 miles away from where we were, and then connect with a different route that would cause us to overshoot the Canyon and come up from the south to get there.  This excursion would add 3 more hours to our drive.  With no other choice, we made our way to Flagstaff, making note that any future road trips will also come with us checking road closures more deliberately before leaving.  We stopped for dinner in Flagstaff at Lumberyard Brewing Co, the taste of beer and fried mac-n-cheese bites being a welcomed treat to fortify us for the final leg.  It was 11pm before we were checking into the lodge.  (A quick warning to anyone looking to stay at one of these lodges down near the Canyon, signage is pretty poor throughout this little "Village Loop" so it was a bit difficult to find where we needed to go especially when it was so dark out.)

The next morning we took the morning slow, going to the cafeteria at the Maswik for breakfast.  Chris had read reviews that the food at the lodge was awful, but honestly it was about what I'd expect from cafeteria food.  It certainly wasn't fine dining, but it was edible and that was about what we needed.  We determined the plan for the day to walk along the South Rim Trail and see if we were up for hiking down into the Canyon since the Bright Angel trailhead was close by.  It was a lovely surprise to discover that our lodge was literally just a couple minutes walk up from the canyon.

We walked along the South Rim Trail starting at the Bright Angel trailhead and walked a total of 14 miles that day, looking out over the Canyon in wonderment, enjoying conversation as we walked.  We saw blue birds and ravens, the further away from the bus stops we ended up passing some deer and more wildlife that was willing to come out in the lesser populated areas.  It was amusing when we would come up on one of the stops along the bus route where tourists were grouped together getting their selfies and groupies and jumping photos to throw up on social medias.  Not dissimilar to my first time at the Canyon almost ten years ago, they weren't necessarily there to hike or experience the Canyon but to get the photos saying they were there and then go hang out in the lodge and collect souvenirs from the little gift shops.  I've always loved people watching, unique attire including bejeweled heels and pajama pants with wooden clogs made their appearance at the Canyon.  Despite it being the off-season and still winter there were a surprising amount of people there, though we were among the few actually determined to hike.  After our long day of walking this lovely, accessible, mostly paved trail, we ended with dinner at one of the restaurants in one of the lodges in the "Village Loop" that was at the Bright Angel Lodge, grateful to be sitting with the promise of food on the way.  Chris looked at me with a smile, noting that since we had 30,000 steps behind us, we could truly eat whatever we wanted and not have to feel guilty about it.  He ordered a beer and I got a glass of wine and we ordered soup to help us warm up, two pasta dishes to share, and bread pudding for dessert.  The quality of the food at this lodge restaurant far excelled in comparison to the cafeteria at our lodge, and the server was a sweet woman with a southern drawl who was very supportive in our food and beverage selections.  It was delightful.

We went back to the room and I think I got the best nights sleep I've had in a long time, my legs and abs sore, my camera full of shots from the Canyon, my future husband next to me.  We set the alarm for early enough to catch the sunrise over the Canyon that, while a very brisk morning, was stunning.

We got a little breakfast at the cafeteria again and brought books with us for a little reading and relaxation, no pressure to really get moving that morning since we had accomplished a lot of site seeing on Saturday.  We did agree that it would be great to try hiking down into the Canyon some, Chris having been eyeballing the trail while we were walking the South Rim, trying to discern about how long it would take and if there would be a way to get far enough to see the river.  With the Bright Angel Trailhead being so close we decided it was worth it to hike even if just a couple miles down.

 It was a great hike, not too intense when compared to some of the trails we've been on in Colorado.  There were switchbacks but they didn't seem too steep.  There was some snow and mud so I was glad to have trekking poles with us, though we quickly recognized the need for upgrading our trekking poles in the future, one of them actually breaking in half during the hike.  It was clear that folks had thought through when toilets might be needed along this trail since there really isn't a good private place to stop off when one might need to, because sure enough there are rest houses going down, and they managed to appear right around when they were needed.  So we stopped at the First House which is about 1.5 miles down, took care of business, snapped a couple photos, then continued the hike down stopping at the 3 Mile House for a lunch of deli sandwiches and trailmix, then hiked back up.  The switchbacks heading back up seemed a little more aggressive than when we had gone down, but were still not too bad overall.  Chris' pedometer logged that we went an equivalent of almost 80 flights of stairs according to the steepness of our hike, totaling a little over 6 miles roundtrip.  We stopped again at the lodge restaurant we had gone to the day before, this time hitting them near the end of their lunch hours.  The turkey burger (definitely a frozen patty reheated and thrown on a bun) wasn't nearly as fulfilling as the pasta dish from the night before, but we were still grateful for the meal.  I couldn't help but again feeling a bit amused looking around the room at those who were dining, many of which didn't look like they had even been outside that day.  I couldn't help but being proud of myself for the hiking we had done over two days. 

The next day we drove back, I-70 being opened again so we went up through Moab, discussing future roadtrips, ideas of camping down in the Grand Canyon the next trip down, how a jaunt back to Moab has been well overdue and how great it would be to explore more that is relatively close to us.  Getting the break away was a breath of fresh air, opened new and deeper conversations than we had been sharing recently, allowing stresses to take a breather.  I'm so grateful for the time away.