Our Crazy Insane Grand Canyon Adventure, Part 3

Part 1, Part 2, Part 4

As I had said before, I could definitely feel the miles we had already come. Also, my collar bone was feeling kind of bruised from Ethan's backpack, so we decided this was a good time to switch.

Ah! so much lighter!

Ethan took his first nap during this section. This is when I got a little worried about him getting sunburned, but we all managed to avoid that, thankfully!

I know this isn't a spectacular picture, but I wanted to include it because we saw a number of pretty flowers, birds, and butterflies that I wasn't expecting. The pink cactus blossoms were really stunning, but I never did get a picture.

Another bridge! I think this is about when the trail leveled of a little. It was still mostly downhill, but it didn't have as much of a grade. We were grateful for the change!

I could not get enough of the yucca plants. They just were so cool!

A little less than a mile after the springs, we reached the pumphouse. Someone actually lives here, and there is a helicopter pad on one of the buildings. We saw one take off when we were higher up on the trail, and we didn't envy them. It looked a little freaky because it had gotten pretty windy. But by the time we actually reached the house, we were just glad to find a little shade and refill our bottles with cool water.

Ethan loved drinking from the water bladder.

The trail kept going (forever, it felt like) and our surroundings became even more desert like. It was nice when the river ran beside us.

Finally, we took the last deviation from the main trail toward our destination and crossed one last bridge. Oh, I forgot to say that I had switched to my Pah Tempe sandals at some point for the extra protection and break from the toe strap.

This yucca plant felt like a grand entryway. :)

Almost there! We passed a couple little waterfalls the whet our appetite. It was so nice to know that we were almost there. The trail from the springs had felt like a really long one. Turns out it was a little more than what we thought. Instead of 1-2 miles, it was nearly 4.

But our goal was nearly in sight. We had started hiking about 7:30 in the morning, and it was one in the afternoon now.

When we came around the corner and through the trees, a breathtaking sight met us. This picture does not even come close to doing it justice. It was so beautiful.
I suddenly felt that it was all worth it and maybe we weren't quite so crazy after all. ;)

Because of the wind, Ribbon Falls didn't quite live up to its name, but we didn't mind.

I loved the way the side falls poured through the mossy mounds.

Ethan was so excited to see all of the water. (He sure loves water!) And I'm sure he was really glad for another chance to get out of the backpack.

The water was quite cold, but it felt really nice to cool our hot, tired, dusty, and sore feet. Terral cooled his whole body. :) And of course, he had to got explore the cave.

He expected these rocks inside the cave to be slippery, but they weren't! They were just green.

We ended up staying a whole hour here. It was just so nice to rest, eat a little, and play with Ethan in the stream.

I was a little worried when I found out it was 3 o'clock. (As I'm looking at the time stamp now, I believe it was 3 o'clock Utah time, 2 AZ time. So I was a little more worried than I should have been.)

We loaded up, I tied Ethan's "do-rag" on to provide some more sun protection (Terral doesn't have as much experience with these types of things), And we were off!

I just love this picture.

On our way out, Rick's son showed us these cool silver frogs on the surface of a large silvery boulder.

And that's practically the last picture for the next three miles. We didn't take very many pictures on the ascent because we were so focused on what we were doing. And of course we were seeing everything for the second time. Still, things look different in a different light, and we noticed new things. But we really didn't have time or energy for much picture taking.

On the ascent, my feet really started to bother me. I was starting to get blisters. My Pah Tempe sandals were made during the experimental stage, and the placement of the straps isn't quite right. Finally, I switched back to my Feathers, and that made my feet so much happier.

We met some pretty intense wind gusts on the trail. I can't quite remember if it was on the way down or back, but there were a few moments on a high trail where it almost felt like the wind would take you off the cliff. Thankfully, most of the time the wind blew, it was toward the safe side.


Four miles later, we were back at the pumphouse. Do I look a little tired? Well, I was.

Terral and I had gotten separated from our friends at Cottonwood Campground (between the falls and the pumphouse), and got even farther behind when I switched my sandals. Or so we thought. While we were taking a little break at the pumphouse, they camp up the trail behind us! It was good to meet up with them again. 


We didn't stop nearly as much on the way out. It's too hard to get going again once you stop. Three things played over and over in my mind: Proverbs 3:5-6, the hymn "Praise to the Lord", and "Put One Foot in Front of the Other" from Santa Claus is Comin' to Town. I really just had to focus on each step. Just keep going. Don't stop. Don't think about how tired you are. Just keep the motion going.


If there had been some alternative to hiking out of there, I'm pretty sure I would have taken it. We weren't prepared to camp overnight. I tried not to think of how nice it would be to hitch a ride on a mule or a helicopter, but we didn't even see any. (Although near the top we did see evidence of mules.) But there was no alternative, so we kept going. How I hoped we would make it before dark so we could deal with our car problems! There were some points I seriously doubted we would make it out at all.


Terral's knee had started bothering him a bit on the downhill, but it got really bad on the way out. Luckily, Rick was in much better shape than either of us and he offered to take a turn carrying Ethan. The only downside to this was that Ethan was taking a second nap. But Terral's knee was hurting enough that we decided to make the switch anyway. As a result, Ethan didn't sleep nearly as long as we'd hoped he would.


Ethan really was a trooper. The last part of the hike was hard for him too, though. He was tired of being in the backpack, and he was just plain tired. At one point, he needed a diaper change, but we just couldn't find a section of trail wide enough to get him out. We kept thinking we were close to a certain spot we remembered, but we were disappointed after every bend. Finally, we found a spot that was certainly not ideal, but it worked. That change was certainly a team effort. 


Our next stop was just less than two miles from the top. Here, we didn't have to worry about cliffs, so we let Ethan run around a bit. There were a number of people here, so I found an out of the way place where I could nurse Ethan, but I had to sit very awkwardly on an uncomfortable rock. It's very difficult to sit on an awkward rock when you are so exhausted, especially when you know there are much better places to sit nearby.


It was so hard to put Ethan in the backpack again after this rest. He did not want to go back in, and who could blame him? We felt so bad for our little man.


About an hour before we reached the top, we managed to take some more pictures. I thought the Grand Canyon looked so much more pretty in this light. The colors of the rock were so much more vibrant in the evening light.

Even though it's harder to start again once you stop, I couldn't help taking a number of rests during the last mile. My body had so little left to give. Rick had let Terral and I use his walking sticks on the last section, which helped a lot, but I was just so sore and tired. But we continued on.

And finally, we reached the top. Hallelujah! I couldn't believe what we had just done.

Here we are with our "Yay! We made it!" faces.

And here is a much more accurate representation of how I really felt.