Grand Canyon: Las Vegas to Mather Campground

Well, we made it! After a short night in Las Vegas (the strip is quite the place) we finally were on our way. It took about 4 hours to get to the park. We did a drive by of the Hoover Dam and made an additional stop at the DQ in Williams (which incidentally has an average employee age of ~13 years old).... Although I have been to the South Rim before, I was unprepared for how beautiful this place is!

It seems unreal. The weather was beautiful today, providing clear vistas with minimal haze (although there definitely was some). We could see well beyond the 10 miles to the otherside of the canyon. We could even see Mt. Trimball, 60 miles to the west.

After setting up camp (#296 on Pine Loop in Mather Campground) we went to the store to grab some food and repair my mess-up. It turns out I forgot my stove which we were all counting on. Argh. Luckily the store rents them at $4/day. After fixing my mistake, we went and hiked a little more than 2 miles along the Rim Trail from Bright Angel Lodge to Hopi (?) Point. We arrived just before sunset and joined the throng of other tourists. As expected, the sunset was amazing. We stayed until the last bus came by and we took the free ride back to the lodge. The bus driver was a character named Gary. He has lived at the canyon for 20 years and apparently has a reutation for going off trail just about everywhere in the canyon..... without ropes! I hope I never read about him in any Death in the Canyon books.

I am glad to be here. The view is inspiring. The weather is cool here on the South Rim (high in mid-80s, low around 50) and the trail is calling! As it became dark, I was able to spot the lights of the Grand Canyon Lodge on the North Rim. That is our goal, 3 days from now. Tomorrow our goal is Bright Angel Campground, 6.7 miles down the South Kaibab Trail and just off of the Colorado River at the bottom of the Grand Canyon. Is that cool or what?

Miles hiked - 2 miles
Food - Deluxe breakfast at McDonalds, french fries and a Blizzard at DQ, Cheeze-Its, pretzels with cheese..... yikes! That looks terrible on paper. It tasted good though!