Saturday i got up and drove from Cottonwood up to the Grand Canyon. I got there about 11 am and checked out the ranger's station so i could get a map and find out where i wanted to hike that day. I found a hike i thought would be cool, Bright Angel Point, and decided to try that one out. The rangers don't recommend you hike into the canyon from 10am until 4pm because it gets so hot down there and it's monsoon season so unexpected storms can pop up, but i saw a lot of people down there already so i decided to give it a shot anyway. I prepared myself pretty well and planned on only hiking down for an hour because i knew it would take longer on the hike back up and i didn't want to get dehydrated and too tired. When i got to the rim of the grand canyon i kind of just had to stare for a minute because it's one of those things you can't quite get your head around at first. It's so vast and beautiful that it looks fake and it really is hard to grasp the fact that it is real. I'm pretty scared of heights, but i was hiking down into the canyon with no railings on the trail and it didn't freak me out at all. I honestly think it was because in my mind it seemed like what i was looking at was a painting or a picture so it didn't seem so scary. On the way down it seems relatively easy and you see all these people coming back up who are red faced and tired and you can't really imagine it being that bad, lol. But since i've been hiking a lot on my trip i knew the hike back up was going to be pretty challenging and tiring. I made it to the 1 1/2 mile rest station and then went a little further down the trail before i turned around. I saw that some storm clouds were heading my way and was hoping i would be able to make it back up to the top before it started raining. I will say that it definitely does get hotter the farther down into the canyon and i'm glad i didn't try to go any further because i'm not sure if i would've had enough water in my camelbak to have adequately hydrated me. My legs got kind of shaky a couple of times so i made sure i ate some peanuts and had a energy bar to help me out. I started my hike back up and hadn't gotten very far when i heard thunder and it started sprinkling. At first it wasn't raining too hard and the rain actually felt really good because it was probably 90+ degrees down there, but that thought quickly left my mind when the skies opened up and it started pouring down rain. I hiked up the canyon as fast as i could but i was soaking wet by the time i got to the top. I went into the gift shop to get a break from the rain and get some postcards and wait out the storm. It got crowded in there pretty quick so i made a run for it to my car and figured i would just sit in there and plan out what i was going to do the rest of the day. I was going to take off and maybe drive around and catch some views that way, but i ended up hiking on the rim trail they have going all along the canyon, and i am so glad that i did. As cool as the views were when i was hiking in the canyon, walking along the rim and seeing it from different angles was even more amazing. Just when i thought i had seen a great view i would walk another half mile and it would look completely different and would amaze me again. I loved all the different colors that were in the canyon, and being able to see the colorado river raging down below. I met some pretty cool people while hiking along the rim and got to take some great pictures because of it and it made my day even better. The rain storm had kind of ruined my excitement of the day, but i'm glad i stuck around and hiked the rest of the day because i saw some amazing and breathtaking views. I ended up hiking at the grand canyon for about 6 hrs that day and then drove down to flagstaff to camp for the night. By the time i got there it had started storming pretty bad so i just slept in my car again that night, but i figured it was better than getting soaking wet in my tent. I absolutely loved the grand canyon and will definitely be going back there because as much as i saw, it was barely a fraction of it and i didn't even get to the north rim at all. I had heard about the skywalk they have now, but the rangers told me that it actually wasn't in the park. They said it was on an indian reservation and that you have to pay $75 for only a short period of time and you can't take pictures so i'm glad i didn't try to do that first because that would have made me pretty mad. So if any of you had wanted to try that out i would say it's probably not really worth it. You can see amazing views and hike into the canyon for a lot less money and stay for as long as you want. Definitely a must see sometime in your life =)
