The Grand Canyon

When we got to the Grand Canyon, we were so excited. Not only had we committed a whole week to stay in one place, but Husband had never been there and I wanted to see if my memory served me or was it just creating the mystical beauty in my mind since my last visit over 20 years ago. When we arrived, we wanted to go straight for the view. So we parked with what seemed like 1000 other cars and ran over to Yavapai Point to take a look. Yep, there it was, eye popping, mind blowing, breathtaking, overwhelming beauty. We stayed in Mather Campground at the south rim. As we arrived in the campground we realized how tired we were. We thought, 'Let's rest today, and see the Canyon later.' The weather was windy and it felt cold to us as we had come from the desert and 80 degree weather. There were kids camping across the way and the boys were playing with them and having a ball. Mather Campground was a huge place, compared to where we had stayed so far, and we were kind of glad. The weekend was coming and with Spring Break still in progress we knew the place would be packed. We would probably meet some interesting people, make some friends and have a short lived community. Boy, were we wrong!

The people we met at the beginning were all leaving, and before the new weekend people came, they closed our 2 closest restrooms for painting. That's right, they closed down restrooms at the Grand Canyon during spring break season just to paint! Great planning. So after only a couple of days of being settled, we had to stand in line and get a new site, with restrooms functioning. They had a surprising number of options. I wondered why. We found out that day as we shuttled around the park. Snow was expected, of course, only a small chance, though. It was cold outside, but I thought, 'No way.' I countered their prediction, with my own. No Snow.

The next day, we soon realized, I am not a psychic or a good weather person. It was really cold, however, so before we went out for the day just in case, we closed everything up and got ready for possible heavy snow or rain and dressed in our northwest winter gear, gloves, hats, scarves, long johns, and fleece jackets. The snow began mid-day and it was so light, I laughed to myself, "Sure, it is snowing, but hardly anything to worry about." We decided to continue to tour and hike. If you haven't been to the canyon before, it is almost like a small town. They have shuttle buses, restaurants, lots of shopping, a post office and a grocery store. It is a huge area, so you learn to take the shuttles quickly and get where you want to hike and explore. That day we had planned on going to Hermit's Rest. Click here for the map and you will see it is a one way 14 mile, but 75 minute round trip on an old eroding rode along the edges of the canyon. It has great trails and views, and at the end, you can go to one of the famous structures that Mary Jane Colter designed. So off we went, laughing at the small insignificant flakes that fell. We started our hike at one of the first few stops and realized, snow or not, the clouds had made visibility into the canyon, terrible. We could barely see down. That is when we noticed the flakes getting bigger and bigger. Within minutes, they were growing in size from a pea to a half dollar coin. "It won't stick", Husband and I said to each other. But it was sticking and growing. It was so big, that after hiking in it for 20 minutes, we decided to catch the bus at the next stop and shuttle up to Hermit's Rest. On the bus up, there wasn't enough seats for all 4 of us, but with the kids in our laps, we were able to squeeze on. The lines to catch a bus from Hermit's Rest were so long, we were afraid to get off the bus, lose our spots and have to eventually stand in the snow waiting and shivering for the next shuttle out. My youngest was falling asleep on my lap and we were all freezing. The snow was so thick on the ground and visibility was not good, my mind was nervous of the small windy road, remembering that the bus driver had jokingly told us on the way in, that it was eroding and narrow and scheduled for repairs and repaving the following summer. I closed my eyes and hoped we wouldn't slip.

After safely making it back to the main lodge, we realized, there was no reason to go back to camp. At least at Bright Angel Lodge, there was warmth, room to walk, electricity and hot food, that I didn't have to cook. Even though it was 4:30pm we decided to eat dinner at the lodge. We were soaking wet with freezing melted snow and by unlayering our clothes, we slowly began to dry out and thaw. We decided we would sit around the restaurant as long as we could to stay out of the snow, which was at this point, a flurry. After a long gratifying hot meal, we were shocked to see what had happened outside. While we were eating, the storm had passed us by leaving the snow, blue skies with giant puffy white clouds and lower clouds that had gone into the canyon. It was gorgeous. We couldn't take enough pictures. We weren't alone either, people everywhere were setting up professional looking cameras on tripods taking pictures of the unusual event. Better than that was when the sun began to set, sending out the most heavenly warm glow through the snowy tipped tree branches to the eastern side of the canyon walls. Even my digital pictures look like I had some kind of special camera with filters.
A moment of wonder at the amazing beauty of this phenomenal planet.

It was dark and time to face the campsite. Luckily our bus stop is very close to our campsite, and also close to a heated, lit laundry and shower building. Husband bravely told us to wait there, to stay warm and dry, while giving him time to reset up camp. We were mostly worried about the top of the camper. We had put the pop-top down and 3 inches of snow had fallen on it. With the weight of the snow, the top would not stay popped. After about 15 minutes, we headed back to camp in the dark (next time we would remember our flashlights) to find him still working feverishly to get all of the snow off. Not an easy job when you only have a short step ladder, but not a long handled broom. He finally finished and was freezing. We decided to turn on the heater in the van. It didn't work at first, which was normal, so we kept trying and trying and trying. I felt asleep shivering with my arm reaching towards the lever. It never turned on. I woke up many times in the night worried about our children up above staying warm enough. Everytime, I would listen for whimpers which never came and shivered back to sleep again. We gave the children our old sleeping bags which are high quality with a 20 degree ranking. Our double sleeping bag was a lot cheaper and only had a claim to 30 degrees, which I don't believe because it sure didn't feel like it. The next morning, the sun was out and the snow was melting. The children told me they were plenty warm in the night. The temperature had raised considerably and being stubborn, I tried the heater again, this time it turned on immediately. 'Great,' I thought, 'the heater works when we don't really need it, but it doesn't work when it is necessary to stay alive.' Not a great van to snow camp in. We survived, however, our first night camping in the snow.

The rest of our time at the Grand Canyon was really fun and a whole lot warmer. Because of the bad weather, many folks didn't come up for the weekend and the we felt like we had the place to ourselves. We spent a lot of time on ranger walks, the children worked on earning their Junior Ranger Badges, watching an amazing variety of wildlife (including the fantastic recovery of the California Condor) and the rest of the time we stood, with our mouths hanging open, as we tried to embrace the amazing view of the canyon.

On the way out, we left the canyon, with a sense of sadness, so we decided to see the IMAX movie on the canyon, in the town of Tusayan, where the visitor center is located. A must see! It left us with a great history of the Grand Canyon to go along with our fantastic memories.