Kuan Yee Han’s Blog

One of the trails that I feel is worth the hike is Bright Angel Trail (of course, this is the trail that I took which is near my lodge). Bright Angel Trail is actually a steep but well-maintained trail. It begins near Kolb Studio and Lookout Studio and follows switchbacks through several rock layers to the Indian Garden Campground. A detour will bring you to Plateau Point Trail which allows a dramatic overlook of the canyon. Yes, it’s really a wonderful view of the gorge and Colorado River.

There are a few stop points along the trail.
First stop: 1 1/2-Mile Resthouse (you know how far it is from the start of the trail)
Elevation Change: 1,131 ft (345 m)

Second stop: 3-Mile Resthouse (yup, you also know how far you are from the trailhead)
Elevation Change: 2,112 ft (644 m)

Third stop: Indian Garden
Distance: 4.6 mile
Elevation Change: 3,060 ft (933 m)

Fourth stop: Plateau Point
Distance: 6.1 mile
Elevation Change: 3,195 ft (974m)

Total distance hiked: 12.2 mile

For the first 3 mile, the trail was exceptionally tough. Snow and ice was everywhere. Every step that you take must be extra careful. I slid quite a couple of times. My hiking boots were not suitable for icy trails. I need crampons/spikes which I didn’t have. (I didn’t expect the trails to be icy. That’s why I didn’t prepare for it). And yup, if a 70 year old lady with backpack can hike, so do I! But anyway, upon reaching 3 mile mark, the icy trails disappear and slowly transition into the dry trail. It was an interesting site, given that for the past one hour, I had been hiking in a white surrounding.

This picture showed my way down to Indian Garden. It was the third rest-point after 2 ½ hours or so of hike. At this point, it was getting quite hot and I had to start removing my outer jacket. When you go hiking in the cold, I think it’s wise to wear several layers that can be taken off easily. As you hike, you’ll most likely get warmer which means you will start removing layers of clothings.

Finally, after hiking for 3 hours (which is almost 1 ½ hours faster than typical hike), I reached Plateau Point. This place offers a spectacular vista point of Colorado River. There were few people there and it’s a bit hard to imagine that I managed to hike down into one of the best natural landscape in the world.

I have always wanted to visit Grand Canyon (after my dream location-Egypt), given the spectacular view of the million of years of rock formation. And yup, I finally made it to the place, although not to the core of the Canyon. You can continue to hike down to the river but it’ll be crazier and I will need to backpack for two days.

Here’s the view of the Colorado River. Isn’t the place beautiful? That’s also the place where I had my “Granola Bars and Gatorade” lunch. Getting in touch with nature. That’s the satisfaction that I get.

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I shall now go back in time to Saturday night, February 16, 2008. After driving 5 hours from Zion, I entered Grand Canyon National Park from the East Entrance. There were not many cars which would enter from this entrance at night, and as such, I ended up not paying the entrance fee because there was no one at the gantry.

In any case, I should have bought the $80 National Park Annual Pass, given that I already planned to go to quite a number of parks. Instead, I ended up paying the single entrance fee ($25) for every park that I visited.

Money aside. I spent the night staying in Bright Angel Lodge, designed in 1935 which has a natural, rustic character, and is a Registered National Historic Landmark. I stayed in the Standard Lodge Room with shared bathroom. You can find out more about Bright Angel Lodge here. I paid for about $70.45 (incl taxes) for the room. Good that I did not pay more for the attached bathroom because I only use it for less than 30 mins. The room is relatively smaller than the King Size bedroom that I had in Zion.

Knowing that I plan to do a hike in Grand Canyon the next day, I decided to sleep early and wake up earlier to catch the sunrise. I caught one when I was in Lake Tahoe. That one was a wrong move. We were at a ridge so the wind was very very strong. The face was numb and can hardly talk also.

This time, the atmosphere was calm. Just a bit chilly in the morning. Although you can see the sun rising, but you can witness how the lighting of the whole scenery changed. How the shadow of the canyon changes. It was just a spectacular view.

Nearby Bright Angel Lodge, there’s this Studio Lookout tower. “Nestled into the canyon’s edge at Bright Angel Lodge, this facility blends into the landscape, as it provides panoramic views and endless photo opportunities.”

“It opened around 1914, and was a place where early visitors could warm themselves by the fireplace, shop for postcards and use a telescope to view the surrounding area. Today it continues to offer visitors a bird’s eye view of the majestic landscape and a place to shop for rock and fossil specimens, souvenirs, photography artwork and books.” Me just outside the Lookout Studio

Not sure if you can see from the picture below, just about slightly right off the center, on top of the shadow from the bottom of the picture, there’s this faint trail. That’s the trail I would be heading towards which will lead me to Plateau Point. I will be able to see Colorado River from there. It’ll be about 1km elevation drop which is quite a drastic difference.

I was getting ready to hike down Bright Angel Trail which will be a total distance of about 12 miles to Plateau Point and back. What’s tough about Grand Canyon trail is that you started off by hiking downwards (which is supposedly be easier). Once you reach the bottom, you’ll have to hike all the way up again. But in this time, it was a bit different for me. Hiking down is much tougher for me. You’ll know why in the next blog post.

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