The Grand Canyon

This post has a lot of pictures, because what we did last Friday was so crazy and so fun and so hard I couldn't just post a couple of shots I had to do a lot!

Russell and I went with our friends Roger and Jennefer, Jim and Janell and Tom and did a 19 mile, 10 hour hike to Ribbon Falls in the Grand Canyon. Here we are at a lookout point fresh and ready to hike.

 This cool tunnel was carved out of the rock on the trail.

Here I am on the steep path down the canyon. The path kept going down, down, down. That meant we had to go up, up, up on the way back.

 Here I am with Jennefer and Janell. This is one of three bridges we crossed.

 Another cool part of our adventure.

Here is Russell by Roaring Springs. That huge amount of water just comes out of the mountain right there and it furnishes the water along the trail and up on the rim of the canyon.

 Our destination! Ribbon Falls, four hours and about 9.5 miles down. It was a welcome rest stop.

 Here is Russell cooling off his feet. We all took our shoes off and dipped our little piggies in that nice cool water and it felt awesome.

Our fearless leader Roger and Jennefer. Roger put this fun adventure together for all of us and we had a great time!

Russell and I by the water fall. That green moss was so soft and spongy. It was very cool to see in the middle of the desert.

 Russell underneath the waterfall talking a picture out.

 Russ took this picture behind the water fall and I think it is so pretty.

Another shot of the falls.

Jim and Janell. We had awesome hiking companions that told great stories and kept us laughing all day... and night.

Russell and I. That is the last picture of that hat. I stuck it in the strap of my backpack and while later I looked down and it was gone. I didn't even walk back to look for it, my steps were too precious. The Grand Canyon got a new hat.

 Me and my big apple I carried down to the bottom. It tasted so good! This was a water station that we took a break at on the way back up. They had running water and outhouses to use. The outhouses were so clean it was awesome. Way better than having to find a spot on the trail to go.

 On the way back up it started to rain. We hid out under this rock out cropping for a minute and decided we better just hike on. So we put ponchos on and kept moving. The rain felt soo good, because it was really hot at this point and it really cooled us down and gave us a burst of energy that we all needed.

 Here we are walking in the rain. The waterfall to the left was not there on the way down, but because of the rain it started flowing and it was beautiful. The whole canyon was beautiful during the rain storm. It took us about six hours to climb out of the canyon. We started the hike around 12:30pm and got out around 10:15pm. So it was a good 10 hour hike and boy were my legs feeling it.

We stayed in a cute little cabin about 15 minutes from the North Rim. Here from left to right is me, Jennefer, Roger, Tom, Jim and Janell.

 And then Tom took this picture of the rest of us.

Saturday morning we woke up and Roger was ready for another hike. But the rest of us protested and we ended up going to the visitor center and overlooks to see where we had been the day before.

Janell, Russell and I soaking up the sun.

 Oh these got out of order a little bit, here we are at the beginning of the hike ready to take on the canyon.

Another sweet shot of the trail.

Russell and I in the water fall cooling off.

One last picture of the Grand Canyon. It was hard to describe how beautiful it was as the sun was setting. Everything was glowing and brilliant. It was so fun to be in such a amazing place. But I do have to say it was the hardest hike I have ever been on, and it was probably the hardest thing I have ever done. Like all hard things you can look back at it and say, " I am glad I did that".