Western Excursions - Summer 2010

Is it bad that when I awoke this morning, the first rush of excitement I felt was not from the upcoming explorations of the day but from the anticipation of a new episode of Covert Affairs being released tonight? Hmmm, I need to get my priorities straightened out. Natural Wonder of the World vs. a television show. Yeah, I know.

Oh and by the way, that plan I made to wake up and see the sunrise? Yeahhhh, about that…. Oops. Well, from what I could see from inside my cabin and through closed eyelids, it was very pretty.

The morning plan was to do a brief hike before we checked out of our cabins. Over breakfast, Mom regaled us all with lovely stories of past marathon runners, all healthy and in their prime, who prematurely and horrifically perished while hiking in the Grand Canyon. Their shriveled up bodies were only discovered days later by search teams. Lovely. Thanks Mom.

Personally, I wasn’t too worried. All these victims were experienced hikers and in great shape. As I am neither, I figure I’m pretty much good to go, right? Hey, don’t destroy my delusions.

Our first hike was Bright Angel Hike, a long winding trail that eventually leads the 7-8 miles down to the floor of the canyon. No, don’t worry, we didn’t make it. We hiked about 30 minutes, picked an arbitrary rock as our destination, touched it and turned around. It provides a more immediate feeling of accomplishment. PLUS, the tricky thing about canyon hiking is that you start off going down. Meaning, after you are tired and sweaty, you still have to turn around and climb back up.

The coolest thing about this hike was how many foreigners we bumped into. Let’s see, I heard Spanish, German, British English, lots of French, Italian, I think some Dutch, and lots of Japanese. And plus a few more languages I didn’t recognize. Kind of cool to think about all the tourists coming to our country.

Another cool thing was seeing the giant pack mules, scaling the cliffs. I knew they were beasts of burden, but I didn’t realize how big they were.

The second hike we did, after we navigated the perilous parking lots and ran over old ladies to get the one open parking space, was to Ooh Ahh Point, apparently named after the noises human make upon arriving there. John Alex and I immediately reenacted the George of the Jungle scene in which the hikers reach Ape Mountain.

That dialogue either brought back great childhood memories or left you completely bewildered.

The hike down was very steep and zig-zaggy. Mom kept shouting out things like “Peligroso!” and “Crocodilios!” Because, you know, there are a lot of crocodiles climbing along the path at 7,000 feet above sea level in the middle of a desert. (Yeah, I have no idea why either…)

The funny thing was that everyone walking down the canyon path still had big goofy grins on their faces. No one had them coming back up the canyon path. Hmmm, this did not forebode well.

Now, we were told that Ooh Ahh point wasn’t actually labeled. So we weren’t entirely sure when we would get there, since the path actually continued on past it. Knowing this, Dad stopped at every bend in the path and said “Is this it? I think this is it. Let’s turn back”. I can’t believe that *I*, Ellen Porter, was NOT the person complaining the most on this hike. Because you guys know how I feel about hiking.

Eventually, we made it to Ooh Ahh Point. Or at least we made it to an outcropping that we were now going to call Ooh Ahh Point, regardless of whether it actually was Ooh Ahh Point. Together, we did our customary oohing and ahhing the location required and then turned around and went back up. A buzzard began circling above us on the hike back up. No joke.

 Panting and trying to entertain ourselves, we began making comments like “Wow, I can’t believe we just hiked across the entire canyon!” or “That was quite a hike from the Northern Rim”, every time a family passed us going back down the canyon. They didn’t look convinced. It might’ve been because they didn’t speak English. Or maybe it was because I kept tripping over every upturned rock. Ah well.

Well that concludes our hiking experience in the Grand Canyon National Park. I figure that hiking expedition will last me for at least another 5 years or so until I am once again dragged to do more hiking despite the fact it violates my principles as a lazy person.

I thought I would put a few little facts that I learned about the Grand Canyon in this section:

·         277 miles long, 8,000 feet deep, and very, very wide

·         If you raft along the Colorado river it will take you 14 to 21 days (7 to 10 days by motorized boat)

·         Only 2% of visitors ever venture below the rim of the canyon. Only 1% make it to the bottom.

·         Over 250 people need to be rescued by helicopter each year. A helicopter rescue costs $25,000. (insane!)

·         Japanese tourists always arrive by the busload. (Ok this isn’t a Grand Canyon fact, but just something I’ve observed everywhere).

Oh yeah, two last things. One, we saw an elk only 5 feet from our shuttle! It had cool furry antlers. Two, rumor has it that our vice president, Mr. Joe Biden, was also at the Grand Canyon the same time we were! I went on a celebrity hunt, but the roads were blocked off and there were intimidating unmarked white vehicles near the entrance to where he was staying. Normally, this wouldn’t stop me, but my family didn’t want to wait for me.

We drive the six hours or so back to Vegas, after we finished hiking to our hearts’ content. Along the way, we stopped for dinner at a pizzeria that apparently 3 Presidents have eaten at (both Bushes and Clinton, allegedly). Kinda cool :)

Once back in Vegas, we check into a new hotel by the name of Monte Carlo. The only problem is, they were apparently booked to the full (and this is a huge hotel, just like all the Vegas ones)   This meant that they didn’t have to honor our non-smoking reservation and put us instead in smoking rooms. Ugh, my clothes still smell funnily. Ah well.

Well that’s all for today folks! Lots more awesome pictures at http://picasaweb.google.com/115787829715255758995/WestCoastSummer2010#