Grand Canyon, Part 3

On the second day we passed Vasey's paradise, this beautiful waterfall that gushes out of the canyon straight into the Colorado. The only reason we didn't get out to walk around is that a lot of that lush green is poison ivy.

Then we stopped at Redwall Cavern. Apparently one of the first American's to run the Colorado in the 1800s, John Wesley Powell, said you could fit 50,000 men in Redwall Cavern. This is, um, not true at all, but it is a really cool place :) I might have to borrow a picture from a previous trip

for a view from the river.

Mom and I in the Cavern,

Kathy telling something funny to our guide Mark.

We ate lunch at and then hiked Saddle Canyon. This is one I hadn't hiked since the first trip in 2004. It was nice and cloudy so we didn't die of heat exhaustion.

The first picture is the view from the river, you can see part of the trail on the left. Then me at the end at the little waterfall we hiked to; a better picture of the end is the bottom left. On our way back I took a picture of Jan so she could have a record of how high and far she hiked, she made it all the way!

At the top there was a ledge to sort of be pulled over, which was even more exciting on the way down, aka try not to free fall backwards. Jan decided not to climb the ledge, but was still very proud to have made the whole hike :D

We camped at Nankoweap (not to be confused with little nankoweap like we did in 2007) and hiked the Granaries that evening. This is the view from the river, and then looking up the very steep trail. I went with mom and Jan and we were about 75% of the way when Parke, another one of the guides, started telling people to hike down because a huge thunderstorm was rolling in. Actually, it had been threatening for a while and raining slightly, but then it really got close.This is the view from near the top, I scampered up a little as people were coming down and snapped a few pictures. I'm not posting the one with me in it because I look like, well, like I ran up a mountain :P

At camp we were debating whether to tent or not to tent, or whether to pitch 1-2 tents for 5 people as a back-up. Then Mark said, I would pitch tents if you haven't already. So we pitched 3 2-person tents, which turned out to be a very good idea since it rained on and off all night long. Luckily Karma 4 is an expert at pitching tents, because although I can, I was so exhausted from our 2 long hikes that it was nice to not have to use my brain at that point. :D