What It's Like: Negotiating the Bright Angel Trail @ the Grand Canyon
Going down is easy. But going back up made me realize just how much of a couch potato I am. __________________________
My sister visited me during the Fourth of July weekend. She wanted to see the Grand Canyon so I tagged along.
Before this trip, I thought the Grand Canyon was an overrated hole on the ground. Well, not really. It is an awe-inspiring hole in the ground...
The area around the Canyon is dotted with lodges where visitors can stay. If you have an RV, you can live in that. Camping is allowed too. For those who plan to stay for a long period of time, there are supermarkets, banks, and a post office.
My favorite part of the trip was the drive to the Canyon. Driving from Phoenix to the Canyon was like driving thru different regions of the United States. We drove thru a desert, a biome that looked like the African savannah, small and rocky hills, and pine forests.
Even though we just drove thru Flagstaff, I fell in love with the town. The town felt like Boulder, Colorado in terms of weather and people. It is a small town, but it did not feel redneck.
My least favorite part of the trip was driving thru the Navajo Indian Reservation on the way home at night. Navajo country was eerily empty. For a couple of hours, our Yaris was the only vehicle on a two-lane road. There were no trees. No dwellings. No people. No lampposts... Other than the paved road and our car, THERE WAS NO SIGN OF CIVILIZATION.
My sister and I got scared. Navajo country was beautiful in a raw and undisturbed way, but as New Yorkers we got agoraphobic. We weren't used to so much empty space. We weren't used to so much silence. Driving thru the reservation was like driving thru land that has been ravaged by a nuclear holocaust or a planet void of intelligent life. Something straight out of the movies. So surreal!
Hiking in the Grand Canyon on the Bright Angel Trail
Hiking along the Grand Canyon on the Bright Angel Trail.