Day 1 (March 8)
We spent some time in the Mesa Temple and enjoyed reminiscing about our wedding day. After the Temple, we drove a few hours to Montezuma Castle to see the cliff dwellings.
After our stop at Montezuma Castle, we finished the drive to the Grand Canyon. Just past the entrance, we saw a bunch of "wild mules" (a.k.a. elk) eating their evening meal. We eventually found the Bright Angel lodge where we were weighed and received our instructions for our morning mule ride.
Day 2 (March 9)
We got up early for our mule ride. After some basic instructions on how to "drive" a mule, we set out on our journey. We rode through the forest and along the railroad tracks, then to the Abyss Overlook.
It was a bit of a disappointment when we got to the overlook to see a National Park shuttle parked there! We enjoyed our mule ride, despite my mule being quite ornery and wanting to nibble on every tree along the way.
At the Abyss Overlook
After our mule ride, we walked along the Rim Trail, saw elk under the trees eating lunch, listened to a Ranger presentation about theories of how the Grand Canyon formed (one man said it was formed by an out-of-control UFO a few years ago), and watched the sunset over the Grand Canyon. It was a wonderful day!
Day 3 (March 10)
Today was our planned hiking day. Our plan was to hike to the 3-mile house on the Bright Angel Trail. We quickly realized we wouldn't make it that far because the trail was quite steep and icy, and we didn't have the right equipment for hiking in ice. We slid quite a few times on the ice and decided to turn around at a nice viewpoint.
The trail was icy like this the majority of the way down.
One of the non-icy spots in the trail.
Our turn around point.
Once we started back up the trail, we saw a man and his partner riding horses, heading right toward us. The first horse fell on the ice and the man fell off. Luckily they didn't fall off the cliff! After a few more falls of the horse, I told Charles I was worried the horse would fall and roll down into us.
So - I went back down the ice and around the corner so I wouldn't see the horses fall. After some time, the "cowboy" (as everyone on the trail called him) asked Charles about the trail conditions further down and Charles told him he wouldn't make it with his horses. The "cowboy" agreed and turned around. Eventually the horses and humans made it out of the canyon safely.
This is the point where we saw the horses fall. This picture doesn't show the drop-off, but a slip here would have been a disaster.
I didn't leave my rock in the sunshine until Charles told me the horses were OK. We spent about 45 minutes waiting for the horses to get turned around on the ice and safely on better ground.
After the horse experience, we ate lunch, then went on a hike on the South Kaibab Trail to the Ooh Aah Point. There were some icy parts on that trail, but nothing like the ice on the Bright Angel Trail. We really enjoyed hiking to the Ooh Aah Point and are glad we were able to hike in the Grand Canyon!
Here are some pictures from our hike to the Ooh Aah Point.
The switchbacks in the cliff that we hiked down/up.
We're looking forward to our next trip to the Grand Canyon!
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