Hiking in the Grand Canyon

Chris and I left Tennessee on the 4th of January. After five days of driving and playing tourist, we arrived at the Grand Canyon. We were lucky enough to reserve a cabin at Phantom Ranch for the night of the 10th. We left early saturday morning and began hiking down the South Kaibab trail. It is 7.5 miles long. The first 2 miles had snow and ice. For those of you who know about my fear of heights, hiking this trail was a feat in itself. After five hours of hiking down, down, down, we arrived at Phantom Ranch. It is a neat little oasis in a huge canyon. The ranch sits back in its own little canyon. The cabins are made out of stone and lumber. Chris and I stayed at the ranch for one night and then set up a tent for the second night. We enjoyed our stay at the ranch, however, we really enjoyed camping in our tent next to the little creek that runs thru the canyon. We stayed down in the canyon for two days. We left the third day and hiked 5 miles to Indian Garden campground. This campground sits on the plateau. It was beautiful. We hiked an extra 3 miles so we could sit at the edge of the canyon and watch the sunset. After a restless night of sleep, we awoke the next day and prepared for our hike out. It was only 5 miles, but it was a long, long, slippery hike out. The sites were beautiful and the experience was remarkable. I would do this again in heart beat.