Day 5 - That's Where We Want to Go - Way Down in Coconino

Today started with a quick side trip to the Lake Powell Dam.  My only comment upon seeing the dam was a long extended “Daaaamn to which Damon gave me an exasperated sigh.  

As is typical, my sense of humor generally only exists to make me happy.  

One downside to not camping and eating most of our meals out is that a lot of the food we brought was, let’s say, at the end of its useful life and was starting to get a little stinky (imagine broccoli in a hot car for a few days).  So, we dumped all of our meat and most of our veges, made a quick stop at Safeway to re-stock.  I think I’m running out of Hyatts and will eventually have to rough it.

It took about 2 ½ hours to get to the North Rim.  We crossed the Colorado River at the eastern most side of the Grand Canon at the Indian Bridge.

We chose the North Rim versus the more popular South Rim for two reasons – first, we wanted to avoid crowds as much as possible.  Based on my last experience at the South Rim (27 years ago), it was crowded and given the fact that everyone is hitting the road this summer, the South Rim was a potential Covid petri dish we wanted to avoid.  Second reason was that the North Rim was just closer to the rest of our road trip route.  The road to the North Rim was empty (good sign) and we passed through some really interesting scenery from pine forests to a 5-10 mile stretch that was recovering from a fire in 2006 to huge grassy plains – not what we were expecting.  

The North Rim does not have any of the fanfare of the South Rim – there is a little visitor center and a bunch of cabins and not a whole lot more. 

The first trail we found was the Bright Angel Rim trail which gave us our first stunning overlook of the Grand Canyon. 

Since it was the main scenic trail closest to the visitor center and because the trail was super short, it is the one everyone went to.  We got our view and went to go find a more challenging hike that would have fewer people.  Enter the North Kaibab Trail.  This trail is the one that leads to the bottom of the Canyon and then the South Kaibab Trail leads back up to the top of the South Rim.  There are various “turnaround” points on the North Kaibab.  Obviously, you can turn around anywhere, but there are a few notable viewpoints and some that have water or toilets, so those have mile markers attached.

Before heading onto the Kaibab trail, there are warnings EVERYWHERE – at the trail head, the visitor’s center, the maps, etc.  Every warning shows the difficulty level of getting to each turnaround point, estimated round trip times, heat warnings (it gets MUCH hotter as you go down), water warnings, etc.  Basically, don’t be a dumb-ass.  We decided to go to the 2-mile turnaround point called the Supai Tunnel which had water access and pit toilets.  It was the first option in the “difficult” range but still fine for a half-day hike.  Above all, the warnings state that you should, under no circumstances, attempt to go to the bottom and back in one day (this is important later).  Oh, also, the start of the trail is at about 8,000 feet – so awesome for us flatlanders.

We loaded up on water and sunscreen and headed out around 1:30pm.  Every step we took was  downhill and at a decent downward grade – which is great until you start thinking about what it will take to get back up.  The trail was mostly sand and rocks and the color of the sand changed the farther down we went, matching the different layers of rock.  There was no level ground, just straight down.  We hit the first overlook at the ¾ mile mark called Coconino (or as I referred to it, “Kokomo”, because that is a happy place.)  

 

We had been sheltered by trees as we wound down into the canyon so didn’t get much of a view, but that changed when we hit Coconino, which not only opened up for a great view of the canyon, but also created a perfect wind tunnel for cooling down.  

Airing out in nature's AC

After a short visit, we soldiered on to find the Tunnel.  The Kaibab trail is also a mule trail, and as we closed in on the Tunnel overlook, we got passed by two groups of mule riders heading back up.  As you can imagine, Mules need to relieve themselves, so we had the pleasure of side-stepping mule poop and pee on a regular basis.  To say that the smell of fresh mule pee is blinding is an understatement.  We spent a few minutes at the Tunnel area, obviously I had to check out the toilet and then figure out how many people and how long it must have taken to build it and who hauls all the junk out, etc.  Anything to delay the inevitable walk back up.

Bottom part storage; top part pit toilets

The infamous Tunnel

We had only seen a handful of people on the way down (more on them later), so we were pretty sure that we were the last ones on the trail unless people had gone down farther and were on their way up behind us.  The way up sucked huge.  Hard to say if it was my fitness level or the altitude, but that hike back up kicked my butt.  Luckily, the weather gods were on our side and while hot, it was not crazy hot and the canyon shaded us most of the way back up.  Unluckily, following behind 20 mules while heavily sucking wind was not great.  By the time we were in the last half mile, I was counting 100 steps and stopping.  Damon says he never felt bad.  Jerk.

So for a relatively fit middle aged woman still sporting a few extra Covid pounds, I thought it was a moderately difficult, but doable, hike.  I would have been very proud but for 2 groups we passed on the hike.  Number one – 2 men who we had first seen at the top of the canyon when we began our hike and then bumped into later when they stopped for water – they must have passed us when we were at Coconino.  These two were on their way BACK DOWN having started at the SOUTH freaking rim at 5am.  They had already RUN down the south rim, crossed the river, run up the North Rim and were on their way back down.  Roughly 40 miles round trip and they barely seemed winded.  Remember, you are not supposed to do one rim and back in one day and these guys were doing both.  Insane.

The second group we passed was shortly before we hit the Tunnel and they were on their way back up.  This was a family of 7 Hasidic Jews – parents and five kids ranging in age between roughly 8-15, Three boys and two girls.  The boys and dad were wearing long black slacks and long-sleeve white button down shirts.  The mom and girls were all wearing skirts and while most of them had gym shoes or hiking shoes on, one of the girls had on silver puffy “vans” slip-ons.  We said hi the first time we passed them and then caught up again when we were on our way back up.  Supposedly they had gone a bit further down than the Tunnel.  We ended up in the same vicinity as them for a lot of the way back up and had a longer chat with them when we all rested at Coconino.  The family was from New York, and they needed an escape like everyone else.  Their community had been hit hard by Covid but hadn’t seen a new case in weeks - they knew people who had it and they knew people who died from it.  The dad had been an experienced hiker in his youth (he was only late 30’s by my guess, and maybe a little heavier than during his prime hiking days).  The kids looked completely unphased by the hike and often would walk quickly ahead and then wait on their parents.  The kids finished just ahead of us and hung out in their Tahoe waiting at least 20 minutes for their parents.  Damon had to help the kids turn on the car so they could have air conditioning!

For our last Grand Canyon stop, we went to Imperial Point – one of the accessible lookout points in the park.  Views, as expected, were impressive.  We know pictures will never do it justice given the level of haze covering the canyon, but overall, well worth the visit.  We read that the haze is caused by pollution, which is sad.

For our evening camp spot, I was out of reasons to get a hotel.  The temps were totally comfortable, we did not have a long drive ahead of us, and it was still daylight.   We ventured into the Kaibab National Forest where there are dirt/gravel roads that you can drive on and basically camp anywhere you want with no services for free.  While rustic, there are obvious campsites that other people have used with fire pits.  We found one that was completely private (we only saw one other vehicle anywhere on the road), pulled over and had our first official camping night.  After a luxurious wet-nap shower, I started on dinner while Damon got the tent and gargantuan awning ready.  

The awning is a new addition to our camping paraphernalia.  We didn’t leave Chicago with the it; about 5 minutes before we hit Amarillo a few days ago, Damon told me we had to stop at a FedEx to pick the thing up.  And then, like the classy people we are, we sat in the FedEx parking lot while he attached it to the car.  It is hard to fully appreciate the size of the awning as it is enormous.  I think of it like a huge expanding  wing – it sort of unfolds and wraps around the passenger side and around the back of the car and thus I have dubbed it "The Pterodactyl.  Damon is giddy playing with this new toy.  I’m like – it’s 8pm, why do we need an awning?  The sun is going down… I lost that one. 

I prepped dinner – tacos!  We are on a weird taco kick on this trip.  Things were going great until the f*ing bee showed up.  One stupid bee buzzing around my head and face nonstop for the next two hours while I flailed around swearing at the stupid bee.  It buzzed in my ears, it landed on the food.  I was on a quest to kill the sucker.  I tried to swat it with no luck.  I tried to capture it under a pot lid, no luck.  We tried chasing it with OFF and spraying it.  You can imagine how well that worked out.  The little focker finally went to hibernate when the food was gone.  I did not know bees liked tacos that much.

By 9:30, we had a full moon, tons of stars, and not much else to do, so we climbed into the tent and had an awesome sleep.  Damon has now created a full on princess perch for me – in addition to the 3” memory foam pad, I also have a Thermarest and a sleeping bag underneath me with a sheet and my security Sherpa fleece blanket.  Temps were expected to get into 50’s but we were completely comfortable.