The Grand Canyon: Part 4

 Hi everyone! I'm back with a few more stories from our canyon trip (finally, I know). On our second day down in the canyon, we rounded up the troops for an early breakfast and hit the trails. 

 

The plan for the day was to do an easy hike up to a waterfall, then back down the same way.  We stared at Bright Angel Campground and made our way north on the Kaibab trail to Ribbon Falls.

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Although it was the longest hike of our trip at 12 miles, it was a fairly moderate hike. The first leg of the hike was a gradual incline. It didn't feel like much as we were doing it, but coming back down, I was thankful for how much easier it was!

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We zigzagged through the canyon along the stream. Thankfully we spend most of our morning in shade.

It was a pretty comfortable hike so we were able to take in the views along the way.

 For those of you who know my dad, you know he has his own way of doing things. And hiking the canyon is no exception. You can see on the sign that it says Ribbon Falls and points to the right. We went to the left.

It turned out to be a pretty good shortcut aside from a few difficult footing issues. For instance, we all changed into sandals to cross the stream. All of us except for my dad. So he was leading the way and able to hop right across on the rocks with no problems wearing his boots.

We, on the other hand, had a little more difficulty.

But at last we finally made it. And the views were worth it all.

Ribbon Falls was amazing! Water poured from the stream above and created a blanket of moss down the cliff side.

At the base of the falls was small cavern that we each took turns venturing in. Needless to say the water was frigid!

 After we all cooled of and relaxed a little we started our 6 mile hike back to camp. 

Towards the end of the hike, Jake had me laughing so hard. The downhill hike was hard on his knees after the previous day's hike so he found it easier to run. He was literally jogging down the trail. That's him way down the trail.

The day was starting to get hot again, so we made it back to camp just in time. We spend the rest of the day relaxing and prepping for our big hike out.

Ribbon Falls, 2012

For the rest of our trip here: Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3.