The Grand Canyon - Party in the U.S.A

Last March I was fortunate enough to be able to take part on a mighty adventure to the bottom of the Grand Canyon. The eight miles from the rim to our camp ground was strenuous enough but most of the adventure took place just getting to Arizona.



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Christreau Aumer

 A total of about a 25 hour drive took us first from Iowa City, Iowa to Moab, Utah. There we were greeted with canyons and arches like nothing we had ever seen in the cornfields of back home. From there we road on to Gooseneck State Park (right) to only get a taste of what we came for. Along the way many gas stations were visited, new friends formed, and a lot of music bumped through the stereo.

It was a great time though, and by the time we made it to the Grand Canyon we were ready to tackle that beast. The first day and subsequent hike into the canyon was about 8 miles and it took us 8 hours. Pretty slow but we had heavy backpacks and the excitement of our destination lent to a lot of play-time. Needless to say though, we were bush-whacked when we strolled into camp just after dark, but to my own joy I woke up the next morning exactly one year older and at the bottom of the Grand Canyon. It was a day full of activities including a hike to the Colorado River, some lounging on rock slabs, and of course a little cliff jumping (some may call it boulder jumping.)

Base-Camp

Wise advice had told us it was an option to hike down into the canyon, but there is no choice about having to go back up. So the morning of our departure we rose before the sun and began hiking in the early morning light. We were a precision drum-line for hours at a time, stopping only to munch on some trail mix. We made it to the top in around 6 hours, and then the true hard-work was upon us once more; the open road.

The Grand Canyon lives past its title and is truly an amazing part of the American landscape. The might arm of Mother Nature formed these canyons and it is truly astonishing to see the magnitude of such a dynamic landscape. I urge all to make at least one trip in their life and my best advice would be to do it as soon as possible.

Somehow my video-camera sneaked onto the trip and I covertly caught everyone busting their dance moves along the way:

My last piece of advice; don't have the last song on the radio be Miley Cyrus before backpacking into the Grand Canyon.