When life is good at the bottom, you face the going out with some hesitancy. Not only because what you’ve experienced below rim is just so entirely refining, but because the 9.3 miles ahead, up 4300 feet, feels completely daunting. Fortunately, we split that challenge over two days, stopping early-afternoon on our first day –...
Relief. It is the feeling that sweeps over you as you step onto the north side of the Colorado River and into the area that is home to both Bright Angel Campground and Phantom Ranch. The place we’d find ourselves calling our own slice of heaven in the middle of… well, not exactly the worst...
September 3, 3:30 AM. Mather Campground. I awake more alert than clearly seems possible. We’d spent the previous evening, our last night “in civilization”, enjoying a small campfire, a couple of Sierra Nevada Tumblers (not much at all, really, because who wants to dehydrate themselves the night before they’re hiking DOWN THE GRAND CANYON?), and...
BNA > LAS > PHX. Our adventure began with our departure from Nashville, a layover in Vegas, and a night in Phoenix. Phoenix, Arizona: this arid, vibrant and beautiful community we just breezed through (but not without partaking in a little In-n-Out and REI breaks) on our way to Grand Canyon. Cacti and palms as...
One knows their smallness in an infinite universe when they’ve stood at the rim of the Grand Canyon. When they’ve trekked to the bottom and back out? Well, their smallness has been taken to an entirely new level. Returning from this trip has required a sort of recovery period; nothing fits, anymore. And the conundrum...
