This past week Emily and I packed up the car and took off up north to the Grand Canyon for a few days. Our initial plan was to hike in the first day, then spend the middle day trail running on the Tonto Trail and hike back out the way we came the last day. Emily even got us a great campsite right on the Colorado River for two nights to use as a “basecamp.” While what actually happened differed quite a bit from this plan, we ended up having a really great time.
For those of you who know Emily and I, it will not be shocking to hear that Day 1 we arrived to the park a bit behind schedule. We had a 10.2mile hike in to the campsite on the Hermit Trail, which is a bit older and less defined than some of the other park trails. After some quick packing in the parking lot we hit the trail at 4:45pm. With sunset looming at 7:15pm we made haste down the Hermit Trail, trying to do our best to soak in our gorgeous surroundings while hiking fast. The steepness of the trail slowed us down a bit, but we were able to knock out almost 9 miles before we were forced to don our headlamps. At this point we had made it to the last section of trail to the campsite and thought we were in the clear. No such luck. Continue reading