So a couple weeks ago, Jesse and I headed west into the forest.. around 3 in the morning. Passed Crazy Jug and stopped at Monument point- head of the Bill Hall trail. Got our packs together and headed off.
Super Excited about to leave the truck and do some hikin (left).
As quite possibly the worst amateur photographer ever, I brought my camera sans battery soo all the pictures I'm using for this post were taken by Jesse with Jesse's camera... meanwhile mine was stashed in a bush just before we started the real descent.
View from the top with our packs on right. Pretty inspiring start to a rather grueling downhill hike.
Had my first experience with hiking on the esplanade- layer of the Supai Group that plateaus out in the western part of the canyon. Looks awesome from the rim and really a treat to walk across... Nice and flat and a pretty unique-looking landscape.
Picture on left is me walking along the esplanade- looks somewhat bleak and barren in the photograph but it really is beautiful.
Around 11am we made it to Thunder River; the shortest river in the world and the only water source in Grand canyon that you don't have to filter or purify. It was warming up pretty nice down there, so it was definitely a treat stumbling up to the water (where it was about 15-20 degrees cooler) and just sticking out your water bottle and gulping down that frigid fresh water. Lovely.
Hung out a little further down in a nice shady oasis (saw a condor on the way!). When it was later and not so scorchy, we walked down to Tapeats Creek and then up a ways to make camp... Water dinner and bed.. we were pooped.
The plan the next day was to explore Tapeats Amphitheater and to get up to the huge cave where the creek starts... Unfortunately the water was a little too swift and cold for us to be walking through so we just hung out for the day.
Me and Jesse goofing off on our lunch break.. shortly after Jesse cut his toenail off.. delicious
We decided to hike up that evening so as not to do the entire 9.5 mile uphill trek in the heat.
View from Thunder River as the sun was setting. Made it up to Surprise Valley right after the sun had gone down which was beautiful! We didn't get to appreciate it on the way down while we were rushing to get out of the heat.
Camped on the esplanade that night. The moon lit most of our journey through the redwall (pretty steep uphill climb)... and our dinner around 10 pm. Nothing quite like standing over a precipice with the canyon before you and the moon lighting it all up.
Our campsite on left the next morning with the sun coming up and us trying to beat it before we were hiking in full sunlight. Nice spot yeah?
Me with Surprise Valley behind me just before we headed out. Wonderful view. Altogether a great hike. Now no more hiking in the canyon til september or so (Its hot down there!)
