Back to Canada VIII

We entered into the States through El Paso on Sunday evening and the first thing we noticed was that the streets were empty. Nobody was out walking in the downtown and there were only a few cars. In Mexico the streets would be packed, especially on a Sunday. We stayed in a hostel in an historic building in downtown. The guy who worked there was very enthusiastic about El Paso and took some of us up to a lookout over the nighttime lights of the city for free. The next morning Greg took off for Phoenix where he was going to meet up with a friend and then fly back to Canada because he had ran out of money. Now I would be traveling by myself for the rest of the trip back to Canada. I decided to check out the Franklin Mountain State Park. It protects the mountains that loom over the city. I took the city bus as far as I could and then hiked about 2 miles into the park where I set up camp.

The next morning I got up at sunrise and headed up the mountains. I climbed up the side of the ridge and then followed the ridgeline north. El Paso is in the Chihuahuan Desert and the mountains were covered in many different types of cactii and prickly bushes. At the tops the mountains were very rocky and it is apparently a popular place for rock climbing. I passed a gap in the rocks called "The Window" before arriving at the top of the South Franklin Mountain at about 7000ft. There was a big air traffic control station on the top but the views in all directions of El Paso were amazingly clear. I tried to descend a different route but the trail soon petered out and I was left clambering over rocky ledges and stabbing myself with many types of cactii. I finally managed to get back to the ridge trail and I followed the ridge south for a while. Unfortunately the rough terrain managed to destroy both my shoes and I had to carefully make my way down the mountains. At one point I reached a cave and heard a bunch of rustling inside. I looked in and there were two nearly full grown vulture babies still partially covered with down feathers. I looked around carefully for any angry swooping parents and then finished the descent. I hiked back out to El Paso and wandered around the city finding the cheapest bus to Phoenix. El Paso had plenty of bus companies headed to different major US cities, mostly catering to Mexican visitors. The one I chose was used to dealing with Spanish speaking customers and the ticket sellers and bus drivers all spoke Spanish. I sat beside a man from Cuidad Juarez who was traveling to California to visit his brother and we had a long conversation in Spanish. Nobody in the bus was speaking English and it felt like I was back in Mexico. The overnight bus crossed New Mexico into Arizona and went through Tuscon before arriving in Phoenix.

I arrived in Phoenix early in the morning and wandered through the downtown as the sun rose, watching the empty streets slowly come to life. The downtown was very clean and seemed to be growing because there were a lot of new construction projects going on. The Arizona Diamondbacks baseball stadium and the Phoenix Suns basketball arena were both right in downtown. After the morning wore on I found the Phoenix hostel near downtown and caught up on some of the sleep I missed in the bus. In the evening I took a city bus to the town of Glendale. Phoenix is very spread out and is basically a group of towns that merged together as they grew to form Phoenix. Glendale was about an hour and a half on the bus but it is still considered part of Phoenix. The Arizona Cardinals football stadium and the Phoenix Coyotes hockey arena were located here and I was headed to the football stadium to watch an exhibition soccer game between Chivas from Guadalajara Mexico and the Red Bulls from New York. The stadium is a huge dome and was the site of the Super Bowl in February. The game drew mostly fans of Chivas and it seemed like a number of them had come up from Guadalajara to watch the game. Although the fans in attendance were few in number they made up for it in enthusiasm. They were disappointed when the Red Bulls won 1-0. It was an intense match, including a number of fights, which was surprising for an exhibition match.

The next morning I decided to explore around Phoenix and first headed to the town of Tempe. Tempe is the center for the University of Arizona State and I looked around some of the university buildings, including even more stadiums, such as the Sun Devil's football stadium. I then headed north to Scottsdale. This town holds on to the wild west theme with a downtown full of wood buildings straight out of a western as well as many art studios and restaurants from around the world. A large wildfire burning outside of Phoenix had filled the sky with smoke giving the sun a deep red colour which made me feel like I was on the set of a movie. I returned that night to the same hostel and had a new interesting roommate. He had joined the Marines just before September 11th and was sucked into the Iraq War. His body survived the war but his mind could not get over his experiences in Iraq. He had been diagnosed with Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome as well as paranoid schizophrenia. He was very friendly and chatty and told me stories of driving across the States but he always seemed on edge and during the night he would scream out while he slept. It always surprises me how deep an effect the war has had on so many people in the States.

The next morning I headed north to Flagstaff, Arizona. Phoenix is boiling hot in July with temperatures going to 45 degrees daily but Flagstaff is much higher and cooler and even has good skiing in the winter. I was planning on spending the night in Flagstaff figuring out how to get to the Grand Canyon but I found a shuttle bus headed there so I left immediately for the South Rim of the canyon. The drive there passed through pine forests and flat plains and there wasn't a single hint of the canyon until the bus reached the rim. The awesome view over the canyon was intense. The Copper Canyon was as vast but the reds, oranges and yellows of Grand Canyon made the view that much more impressive. I headed straight to the Backcountry office to try and get a permit but it had just closed. I then went back to the rim and settled down to watch the sun set over the canyon. That night I camped in the nearby Kaibab Forest and was unprepared for the frigid nighttime temperatures and spent the night huddled and shivering in my shorts.

I got to the backcountry office when it opened in the morning and they had no trouble finding a permit for me to hike down to the bottom of the canyon. Normally you have to reserve a year in advance but there are enough cancellations that it was easy for a solo traveler like me to find a spot. The ranger advised me to wait until 3 in the afternoon to avoid the heat of the day. It is advised to stay out of the sun from 10 to 2 to avoid heat stroke as the temperature reaches 45 degrees daily at the bottom of the canyon. I explored some of the lookouts on the South Rim and gathered enough water and food for my hike. I headed down the canyon on the South Kaibab Trail, a steep, exposed trail with no water that follows a ridge line down the canyon. At times the trail was carved right out of a cliff face and others it balanced on top of the ridge. I had brought over a gallon of water with me but the cooler afternoon temperatures and the less challenging downhill trek meant that I hardly needed to touch my water. I was beginning to regret taking so much heavy water until I ran into two hikers about 3 miles into the hike. They had both hiked all the way down to the bottom of the canyon and were trying to make it back up in the same day. However they had run out of water and one of them was suffering from heat exhaustion and they asked if I had any water to spare. I gave them as much as they wanted and they filled up their bottles to the brim. They thanked me profusely and one mentioned to me that he was the owner of a large international company based in Phoenix and if I ever wanted a place to stay in Phoenix he would let me stay as long as I wanted in a guest room in his huge house. It seemed that the gallon of extra water was not such a mistake after all. The trail continued descending and entered the last and most recent dark canyon that the Colorado River flows through. The river rushed by with a deep green and the trail went through a short tunnel and emerged onto a big suspension bridge that spanned the Colorado. After the bridge the Bright Angel Creek flows into the Colorado and this is the location of the Bright Angel campground as well as the more comfortable Phantom Ranch. After setting up my hammock tent, which drew a few comments from the other campers, I attended a ranger talk in the evening. The ranger had spent the last 6 years in the Grand Canyon and he had a bunch of animal stories that he told in an entertaining fashion. At the end of the talk he took out a UV flashlight and we went on a scorpion hunt. The scorpions are bright blue under the light and we found about 10 all over the rocks after only 5 minutes of looking. I had bare feet at the time so I made my way carefully back to my campsite, making sure to avoid stepping on any rocks.

The next morning I got up as soon as it was light and headed up the Bright Angel Creek to the Cottonwood campground. The path was uphill the whole way but the trail was not steep at all as it followed closely to the rushing creek. The canyon walls are so steep that the original trail was forced to cross the creek over 80 times but now the new trail is chipped out of the cliffs and it only crosses the creek a handful of times on well constructed bridges. At one point after crossing the creek I heard a rattle in the bush next to me. I backtracked to take a closer look and found a pinkish colored rattlesnake curled up inside. It rattled at me for a few seconds and I left it in peace. The narrow canyon eventually spread out a bit and I took a side trail to Ribbon Falls. The falls were hidden inside a shaded valley and created a cool refreshing area to get away from the heat of the canyon. There was a trail that went up behind the falls and from there the mist was very cooling. I was going to descend back to the bottom when I noticed a steep eroded trail continuing on with a sign post facing the opposite direction at the end. I figured the sign had some interesting historical information so I carefully made my way along the steep cliff. When I reached the sign I saw that it said 'Dangerous Eroded Trail - Do not walk'. They really need to put a matching sign under the waterfall. I arrived at the campground before 10 in the morning so I had the rest of the day to enjoy the stifling heat of the canyon. I found a campsite with plenty of shade so I napped for most of heat. I also went down to the creek to cool off and was shocked by the chill of the water. Despite the 45 degree weather I could not keep my feet in the water for more than a minute before they became completely numb from the cold. The creek emerges from underground only a few miles above the campsite and there is not enough time for it to be heated by the air. It was certainly a quick way to cool down in the heat.

The next day I woke at dawn again and headed up the steep part of the North Kaibab Trail to the North Rim. I passed the waterfall known as Roaring Springs where the Bright Angel Creek pours out of the side of the canyon and cascades down to the canyon floor. This crystal clean water source provides the drinking water for all the thousands of visitors to the Grand Canyon. The trail soon grew very steep and started to ascend the canyon wall in endless switchbacks. As the morning progressed I started meeting hikers descending and later I encountered my first mule train. I stood to the side and waved hello as the riders passed. There were quite a few more as I ascended and I wondered what it would feel like to sit on a mule as it walked along a sheer cliff, knowing that your life depends on the mule. Apparently the Grand Canyon has never had a person on a mule fall off a cliff so the mules must have pretty good footing. The last part of the ascent was very sandy and I sweated profusely as I trudged slowly up the dusty sand but I made it to the top before 10 in the morning. At the top I went to the Backcountry office to get a permit to return. Again it was no problem and I decided to head back down later that afternoon. I stocked up my supplies in the park store and I walked out to the Bright Angel Point, the main lookout for the North Rim. The North Rim is at over 8200 feet, 1000 feet higher than the South Rim, and the climate allows for a cooler pine forest that reminded me of Canadian forests. The view was spectacular of the Bright Angel Canyon and the South Rim in the distance. After a good rest I headed back to the trail head and started the climb down. I ran into many of same mule trains coming back up the trail and many of them remembered me from the morning. The path down was a lot easier, however I unfortunately forgot to air out my feet and sweat-softened skin was no match for the pounding descent and my new shoes. My feet became covered with blisters and I was relieved to get back to the campsite. Luckily I met a couple from Bermuda and talking with them helped keep my mind off my feet.

The next morning I got up at headed out for my easiest hike yet, three hours of a pleasant downhill back to the main Bright Angel campground. I kept my mind off my feet by chatting with the Bermuda couple again and arrived in camp at around 10. The temperature was about 45 degrees in the shade and I went to walk around the area. I went down to the Colorado River for the first time and dipped my feet into the ice cold fast running river. The Bright Angel creek at this point had warmed up enough on its 8 mile trip from Cottonwood that it was very pleasant to go for a dip in. I relaxed in the rushing spring for about an hour, staying cool in the blistering heat and letting my blistered feet relax. I headed up the canyon the next morning on the Bright Angel Trail which is slightly less steep than the South Kaibab Trail but a couple of miles longer. The trail had plenty of water, was shaded in a valley through part of it, and did not bother my feet because it was uphill so I was feeling pretty good when I got to the green oasis of Indian Gardens. I decided to take a 3 mile side trip to the plateau overlook where I got a great look at the Colorado River and a close-up of a fairly tame California Condor calmly sitting on a rock. I made it back to the South Rim in time to head to the campgrounds and get a good shower and use the laundry facilities. I caught one more look at the great canyon before I headed out into the Kaibab forest to spend another chilly night before heading back to Flagstaff.