The Keyes!: Grand Canyon, Cross Country, Apples, and Finishing Up Soccer

Mason made this Halloween diorama for his room

Enjoying some fall weather

If you haven't noticed, Kim has been doing a lot of hiking lately. That is because she was preparing to hike the Grand Canyon from rim (North) to rim (South), a mere 24 miles!

Well the day finally came a couple weeks ago. She flew to Las Vegas with JamiSue, then they took a shuttle to St. George

Quick stop in Las Vegas, found a few games to play while we waited for our shuttle ;)

3 hour shuttle ride with a bunch of strangers, unfortunately we didn't get to sit together.

Then they met up with the others in St. George, drove to the North Rim, stayed the night, then got to hiking the next morning.

They of course had to get some Grand Canyon hats. I am going to make Kim narrate her trip from here. Take it away Kim:

This is the cabin we stayed in. It had 2 bedrooms and a bathroom.

Getting our packs ready to go for the next morning.

This is the view of the Grand Canyon from the north rim lodge where we stayed.

Early Monday morning. One last picture by the lodge before heading to the North Kaibab Trailhead that was a couple of miles away.

Trail head at the North Rim

This is our crew at the trail head ready to begin! From left to right: Jami Sue, Kim, Bessie, Beckie, Heather.

Let's do this!

A tunnel about a mile into the trail. Once you passed through the tunnel the trail opened up to some impressive red cliffs.

View of coming out the other side of the tunnel

It was sometimes hard to hike because you wanted to just stop and admire the beautiful scenery.

Sun was rising and was starting to peak over the top and shine on the side of the canyon.

The first of about a dozen bridges we would cross.

Hiked along the edge of this ledge for quite a while.

Lots of cacti along the trail.

The views coming down into the canyon from the north rim were so impressive.

We were getting closer to the bottom of the canyon and were starting to run into some water. We hiked along a river for the majority of the time spent down in the bottom of the canyon. You can also see another one of the bridge we would cross.

This was our first break area about 5 miles in.

Taking a turn in front, setting the pace.

It was much greener that I expected it to be and the river/stream was so beautiful.

Every section of the trail was so beautiful in its own way.

The canyon got pretty narrow through this part of the trail which was fun.

Every bridge was a little different.

The sun was shining bright but we managed to have a lot of time hiking in the shade and the canyon only got up to 89F. We talked to someone who had hiked R2R a few days before and it was 104F. We were very blessed with the weather we had.

While Kim was in the middle of the Grand Canyon we had another tree removed from our front yard

The destruction during the removal

Back to the Grand Canyon...

We made it to Phantom Ranch which was 14 miles in, over half way! Phantom Ranch has a campground you can stay at and a few dry cabins you can rent if you are lucky enough to get one. They also have a small restaurant you can eat at. Supplies are brought into the ranch via mule train.

We stopped at the ranch for lunch and to have a bit longer of a break. I was starting to get a few small blisters at this point and tended to them the best I could. There were lots of hikers that had stopped there and were doing the same thing. Some were headed to the south rim like us, some were going towards the north rim and others were camping there.

Lots of lizards along the trail as we were hiking. I managed to snap a picture of this one while we were stopped at the ranch.

These are the little cabins you can stay at. Next time I come I'm bringing Daniel and we are staying in one of these so we can enjoy some more time down in the canyon. I could have used a little more time to enjoy all of the beauty.

Here are a few people that came down from the south rim on mules. It would be a very long bumpy ride.

Another beautiful bridge.

It was the hottest part of the day which meant time to take a break and soak our swollen feet in the nice cold river.

As we were soaking our feet we noticed this fairly large fish about a foot away from us just hanging out. It didn't move the whole time we were there.

The water felt so good and gave us our second wind to finish out the final 9 miles.

Crossing the Colorado River!

This was the biggest bridge of the day and was quite impressive.

Starting to ascend the other side of the canyon.

Everyone was still happy and enjoying this epic day.

The VIEW!

What's that saying? What goes up must come down? When you are hiking the Grand Canyon the opposite is true. Time to go back UP!

It was fun to stop and look back at the trail wind and switch back all the way up.

There were several small stream crossings.

We walked up this shallow creek for a portion of the trail which was a fun change.

Replenishing electrolytes with pickles! Great snack for hiking on a hot day. We also had our cooling towels around our necks we would dip in the water at each stream crossing to help cool us down.

Mason lost a tooth while Kim was in the canyon (Nixon also lost one the day before while Kim was gone. The Tooth Fairy was busy!)

Another snack break. My honey mustard pretzels were a hit, luckily I packed enough to share. Needed to fuel up to get us through the final stretch. 20 miles in at this point and 4 to go.

More cacti. some of them even had cacti fruit on them. A few of my friends tried the fruit on them. My stomach wasn't up for trying anything new while hiking.

The furthest peak in this picture right in the middle is where we started at the North Rim

I think we were all starting to feel a little tired at this point. We still had a lot of elevation to climb but were up for the challenge. Hiking isn't so bad when you are somewhere so beautiful.

More switchbacks

The sun setting on the north rim and section of the trail we had just come up.

You can see part of the trail winding through the bottom of the canyon.

up up up

We didn't quite finish before dark. We had to pull our headlamps out for the last 30 minutes. Here we are on the south rim at the Bright Angel Trail head. We did it! Feeling Happy, proud, exhausted, hungry and grateful. What an amazing day.

One of the ladies in our group secretly bought rim to rim pins for each of us at the north rim and then gave them to each of us when we finished at the south rim to celebrate. So thoughtful of her!

We had to wait at the south rim for a bit for everyone to finish and then another 20 minutes for a shuttle bus to come. We were COLD! Good thing we packed emergency blankets. They worked much better than I thought they would.

I think that is a new record of steps in a day for me.

We saw lots of elk on the south rim as we walked around the town the next morning.

Had to go check out the south rim the next morning so we could see what it looked like in the day.

From the south rim we could see the final tunnel that we hiked through. It was hard to see it very well the night before in the dark.

Here is a video I (Daniel) made of the Rim to Rim adventure

Tuesday morning Jami Sue and I caught a shuttle to Flagstaff and then another one to Phoenix where we stayed with her cousin. Our other 3 friends caught a different shuttle that took them back to the North Rim where they got their car and drove home from there.

That night while were in Phoenix we were introduced to scorpion hunting. I had no idea that scorpions would glow under a black light.

On our way to breakfast the next morning we just happened to pass the temple so we stopped to walk around the temple grounds for a bit.

So many different kinds of cacti.

The temple was actually closed because they were working on the grounds that week. This is a fountain that would normally be running. Such a beautiful temple.

Nixon had his final cross country race of the year and got 4th place!

Mason also had his final race. He took it very seriously.

He did not get 4th place

But he was happy with how it went

Here is a great picture of him from his race the week before

Kim checked out the sporting goods store Scheels which had a ferris wheel in it.

And a large toy section with a robotic dinosaur. The kids would have loved it.

Kim and the kids harvested the apples from our two apple trees

They got 225 pounds of edible apples

What a haul

The process in a timelapse

And enjoying the fruits of his labors

Playing some Pac Man at the store

Soccer last week was a little chilly but Mason was ready to dominate

Last Saturday after soccer games I took Lyza, Nixon, and Henry (Mason had a friend over) on a hike to Mineral Ridge. Kim sat this one out to let her feet heal.