Our Crazy Insane Grand Canyon Adventure, Part 4

Part 1, Part 2, Part 3


Okay, so to recap, we went hiking in the Grand Canyon. The End.

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Just kidding!

Let's rewind a bit. We expected to go on a 14 mile hike *if* Ethan and I even did the whole thing. Our car was acting up in a very concerning way. We hadn't had much time to prepare, but we did bring sunscreen, hats, and sunglasses, diapers and clothes for Ethan, plenty of water, and food. On the hike, we realized it would have been very helpful to have something for electrolyte replacement, more food, a kerchief for Ethan (although my extra shirt worked quite well), and walking sticks. Most of the time I think walking sticks are more of a pain than a help, but on a hike with this much elevation change, it definitely would have been helpful. Oh, and it maybe would have been nice to do some physical conditioning beforehand. You know, more than the occasional walk around the neighborhood and a run every couple of weeks. (Terral was better prepared in this way than I was.)

Okay. Now that we've established that, let's fast forward back to the top of the North Rim.

We had hiked seventeen miles (yes, that's 3 miles more than expected) that went down 4,521 feet in elevation and back up again. We were exhausted. Drained. Every step brought pain. The slightest incline nearly set me to whimpering. And we still had to deal with our dead car.

Ethan and I got inside the car out of the cold. Ethan played with the steering wheel while Terral fiddled under the hood. After a few minutes, he asked me to try starting the car. And you know what? It started! What a miracle!

Our plan had been to drive home that night, but there was no way we could make the 4+ hour drive home. Luckily for us, one of my sisters lives in Kanab. As soon as we had service we called. . . and got their voice mail. I left a message that said something like, "I sure hope you're okay with us spending the night, because we're coming!"

Ethan fell asleep pretty quickly. Terral and I struggled not to follow suit. When we got to Jacob's Lake, we stopped and bought some insanely expensive potato chips. Grease and salt had never sounded so good! Those chips helped us make the rest of the drive to Kanab. While we were still at Jacob's Lake, we were able to get in contact with my sister and her husband, who said they'd be happy to put us up for the night. What a blessing!

When we reached Kanab, we put Ethan back to sleep and then visited a bit with Diane and Mike while we sipped on some orange juice that Mike had kindly mixed up for us. I can't tell you how grateful we were for their help! After that we crawled back down the stairs to the guest room, and we each took glorious hot baths. It felt sooooo good!

In the morning, the cousins had fun playing together before we left for home. I seriously can't say how awesome it was that we had family nearby that welcomed us so wonderfully.

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On our hike, Terral and Rick talked about maybe doing a rim to rim someday. It's not recommended to do it in one day, but lots of people do anyway. In fact, it's become somewhat popular among runners to go from rim to rim and back again in one day. We actually met several people doing that. Incredibly, one of them said to us, "You guys brought a baby down here? I'm impressed! That's incredible!" Um, thanks! Pretty awesome when someone doing something so impressive is impressed by what you're dong.


Anyway, as Terral and Rick talked about coming back, I was thinking something along the lines of, "I'll be pretty happy if I never see the Grand Canyon again, or at least not for a long time." And when we reached the top, I just couldn't fathom having the willpower to immediately turn around and do it all again. . . But a few days after our adventure, I started thinking that doing a rim to rim really would be cool. 


Our little adventure taught me again that I can do hard things. Really hard things. There is some serious empowerment that comes from doing something that pushes you well beyond your known limits. I had a similar feeling after giving birth. I started out thinking that we were pretty crazy for doing what we did. But now I'm glad we did it. We made some awesome memories, we discovered strengths within, and we grew closer to each other and God.