GRAND CANYON / LAS VEGAS

PART TWO:  ROCK BOTTOM

Phantom Ranch is a collection of small lodges and campgrounds with a fully-functional canteen, shower house, and even a phone. I don't know how many people it supports on any given day, but it's a lot considering all the supplies have to be brought in by mule every day, and the trash and mail taken back out likewise (I believe they said that this was the only place in the US that still carries mail by mule). We brought the mules into the corral and dismounted. Yes, I was in quite a bit of pain. Not so much my ass, as you would expect, but rather my thighs, back, and particularly my knees. My butt was a bit sore, but I only really felt it when I sat down. Fortunately, the acute discomforture subsided after a little bit of moving and walking around.

We had a couple hours or so before dinner, so we got our shit put into our room and went for a walk back the way we came. Mark had dropped his riding crop at the tunnel entrance to the bridge, so we went back to see if we could retrieve it. Unfortunately, it was nowhere to be found. There was a pretty steady stream of hikers passing through the area at that particular time of day. One of them must've grabbed it. So we hung out a bit on a ledge on the south side overlooking the bridge, relaxed, had a smoke, and watched the day transition into evening. The weather was perfect: sunny, warm and calm. It was so peaceful and beautiful and very pleasant after the somewhat greuling 5-hour ride down.

It began to get close to dinner time, so we headed back. I wanted to do a little more exploring, though, in the little bit of time we did have left, so I went on down to the Silver Bridge further down river while Mark went back to the ranch. Apparently the Silver Bridge isn't fit for mule passage so that's why we bypassed it and crossed further upstream over the Black Bridge.

I made it back just in time for dinner. Mealtime at the ranch is a very precision affair. Breakfast is served promptly at 7:00, steak & vegetarian dinners at 17:00, and stew dinner at 18:30. A bell is rung at these times and those who have reservations assemble outside. Names are checked upon entering and seats assigned. The supply-and-return-by-mule system doesn't allow much room for extras and non-essentials, so people can't just saunter in and order a meal like a regular restaurant. The food was plentiful and delicious...steak, corn, peas, carrots, cornbread, baked potato, and chocolate cake for desert. Mark had pretty much the same thing except lentil loaf instead of steak and eschewed the cake. We had to eat quickly so they could get ready for the stew dinner at 18:30. The way it works is that those there for two nights get steak the first night and stew the second night. However, since I was with Mark, who was having the vegetarian meal, they let me have steak both nights so we could eat together. The steak was great so I was perfectly fine with that.

We got to bed pretty early and got up pretty early in order to do some hiking. I was advised that a good day hike was to Ribbon Falls, up Bright Angel Canyon about halfway to the north rim. I was told it was 6 miles and took about two hours to reach. Sounded perfect. We set out about 8:00 with great weather. Shortly out of the ranch, the trail enters an area called the Box, which is a narrow section that winds between towering canyon walls. It was unbelievable. I took tons of photos as everything looked so incredible.

After maybe an hour-and-a-half or so, the landscape began to open up. You're still within the high canyon walls but it's just a lot more opened up and less imposing. We felt we had walked close to 6 miles by then and didn't see any sign of the falls yet. We hadn't seen a single soul so far, but soon we came upon Ed & Deborah, two people in our party, who were also attempting to hike to Ribbon Falls. They had the same feeling, that they should've reached it by then. They had been up ahead and had turned back. They warned us of a swampy section of the trail that passes through quite a bit of standing water. We soon reached it ourselves and balked. We really didn't want to get our feet soaked and were in serious doubt as to what this destination was and if we hadn't even, in fact, somehow unknowingly passed it.

After a little debate we started to head back, only to encounter another couple of hikers with the same destination. They weren't part of our group, but were hikers staying at the campgrounds just downstream. Their names were Jason & Linda, as we were to find out later that night over a game of cards in the canteen. They breezed right through this marshy section, which made us reconsider. All of us ended up going on eventually. The water wasn't that hard to get past using the stones, reeds, and sticks in the area.

A large valley spread out before us. No sign of the falls in sight. Still we pressed on. After like 3+ hours we were wondering what the heck was going on. I can normally walk 3 miles in about an hour or so. That made the 6 miles in 2 hours claim sound right, but after this long and still no sign of it, something just wasn't right. We began to wonder if it was 6 miles as the crow flies, not accounting for all the twists and turns the actual trail took through the canyons. Still, the claim of 2 hours was irreconcilable. We soon came upon Ed & Deborah again, who were really giving up this time. They wished us luck and we bid them fond adieu.

Not but five minutes later we saw a sign indicating that Ribbon Falls was, indeed, up ahead, via a bridge. After about 4 hours total, we could finally see it, just on the other side of the river. We were still a ways away from it, though, and were beginning to get anxious. It took us almost 4 hours to get here, and we had every reason to believe it would take us equally as long to get back. Knowing their strict policy about meals we were worried that by the time we got to the falls, had a look around, and headed back, that we might miss our mealtime, something Mark was extremely adamant not happen. I assured him that we could do it if we quickened our pace from here on. We were taking our time on the way up and I was taking a lot of pictures. I was sure if we didn't doddle we could get back in time to eat at our prescribed time. Mark begrudgingly went along.

We ended up reaching the falls in about 15 more minutes and we were absolutely blown away. It was incredible. Like Mark said, it was like something out of Fantasy Island or something. I can't do it justice with words, so I hope the pictures can begin to. Jason & Linda had reached it shortly before us and were there admiring it alongside us. We got right up to it, and even went behind it. It was fucking incredible.

We lingered there as long as we felt we could get away with and then hurriedly set off on our way back. I kept the pictures to a minimum in order to make as good time as possible. We were shocked by the fact that we were able to get back in about two hours' time!! I really don't think our pace and my picture-taking could account for that much of a time difference. It must have been the additional factor of the incline of the trail hampering us on the way there and the decline speeding us on the way back. The incline was nearly imperceptable, but it must've made a difference all the same.

So, much to our relief, we made it back in plenty of time to eat. I even had a cigar outside our room in the meantime. Chuck & Kathleen, another couple in our party, soon joined us and we all shot the shit. We found everybody to be alarmingly friendly on this trip. Dinner was, again, fabulous. We walked around a bit after and hung out outside, enjoying the clear, nippy air and bright moon. At 20:00 they reopened the canteen and we ended our final night at the ranch with Jason & Linda over some beers and a game of cards. Another great day.