Grand Canyon.... or Hot Microwave Oven of Death????

After finally arriving at the Grand Canyon, I was very excited to embark upon the 7 mile hike through the canyon. I thought I was well prepared with enough water. Taking the shuttle to the trail head I was looking at all the other hikers thinking how unprepared they were with their little water bottles while I was carrying 4 L on me. As we began the steep decent, I realized that most of these hikers were turning around after half a mile or so. We were going 3.5 miles into the canyon to a location called Dripping Springs. Everyone said it was beautiful, so I eagerly hiked down. Apparently I forgot to drink enough water because about 1/2 a mile from the spring Hollis noticed that I was about to pass out. I had only drank a liter of water compared to his 2 L. I force my way the last half mile thinking that this was going to be a lovely desert oasis with water and shade. We turn the final corner and see this:

Literally a puddle formed by a rock dripping water. Not nearly as exciting as I was hoping and definitely not worth the intense effort we both had to put forth. We stay there a while in shade while I recover and chug water. I feel better by the time we leave this location. Both Hollis and I have 2 L left. I wanted to stay longer, but I knew it was just going to get even more hot and miserable the longer I waited around in the shade. We leave this point at around noon.

During the accent I'm still sucking down water like there's no tomorrow trying to make up for the severe dehydration I incurred by not drinking enough on the way down into this hot hell hole. The temperature rises the further you go in the canyon and by this time of day there is no shade. I run out of water about half way through the accent and I start to get worried. Hollis only had about a L left. Basically, to sum up the last half of the accent: misery. The sun was unrelenting, it was dry, I had stopped sweating, and it was very steep. For a few moments I thought I was going to have to just lay down on the trail while Hollis went and got a ranger or something with water. Literally it was Hollis' constant prodding that got me to the rim. He was also miserable and almost out of water. While we were resting and sitting under a pathetic excuse for a shrub, we saw 2 hikers coming our way armed with 4 gatorade bottles full of water. We asked where they were headed, and they said Dripping Springs. We told them not to do it because we had far more water than they did and were incredibly miserable. They didn't head our advice and I really wish I knew if they had made it or not. It was an all around grueling 3 hours, and I have never been so happy in all of my life to be off of a trail. We beat the canyon that day... but barely.


We got a picture at the trail head utterly happy that we defeated that monster of a microwave. Notice how the sweat lines follow where our camelback straps were.

After that we were completely wiped out and rode the shuttle back to our camp. We made freeze dried beef stroganoff and potatoes and scarfed that down so fast. It tasted so good and I'm not even a fan of stroganoff. I was just so happy to be eating something other than a Cliff bar and water. We then made a second dinner of beans and rice. That is how hungry we were.

By the time we finished gorging ourselves on food and water, we got back on the shuttle where they took us to a point on the canyon to watch the sun set. This required no physical work but was the most beautiful scene we had seen so far.

So hiking several hours yielded a tiny dripping spring, but riding on the shuttle rewarded us with this view. It was beautiful.

We went to bed immediately once the sun went down; we were so tired. We were just very thankful we didn't end up like the guy on this poster they have plastered everywhere.


We definitely earned some respect for anything that actually lives in the Grand Canyon because it's a particularly miserable place to be stuck in.