The Greyhound Diaries #709 – The Grand Canyon Blew Me Away!

Anthony Cota

Sep 30

Hello again!

Over the years during my road trips between Illinois to California, I had passed the exit to the Grand Canyon well over 40 times. That was on my list of things to see with another person. Well, the opportunity finally came this past week. My Chihuahua Galan Siki Cota and I were visiting my son Brian and his wife Nikki in Phoenix. In a fantastic example of father and son bonding, we hopped in his Porsche Boxster and drove to the Grand Canyon.

While I was well-versed in American geography and geology, I was way off when it came to the Grand Canyon. I thought that it was smack in the middle of the Sonoran Desert somewhere, with not much going on around it. Boy was I totally, and gratefully wrong in my assessment. For those who have being through Flagstaff, AZ at nearly 7,000 feet above sea level, the Grand Canyon was only about an hour away. This served notice that this majestic canyon was smack dab in the middle of gorgeous scenery!

For about the first half hour after we arrived, my son and I took a lot of pictures of the canyon. Then he suggested that we walk down one of the trails. While I didn't see that one coming, I was game to give it a try. Since I saw the mule apples at different points, I figured that people on these sure-footed animals also rode them down to the bottom. This wiped out another misconception that I had. I thought that the width of the trails was so narrow that one wrong step led to a devastating fall to the bottom. In all probability, at least two burros, if not three, could walk abreast all the way down without any problem. However, the path could be slippery at times because of loose gravel. While I walked down about 1 ½ miles, I waited on my son as he added another half mile.

I knew from all the returning hikers that I'd seen huffing and puffing that the return trip was going to be a challenge. I did however make some adjustments before we started back up. I had walked down holding a very expensive camera in one hand so I could take a ton of pics. My cell phone, which also had a total of 5 cameras, was in my back pocket. From the few times that I started to slip on the gravel, I was mindful that I could have lost both if I fell the wrong way. So, before I started back up, I strapped my camera to my belt and placed my cell phone in a front pocket.

Even though I walk every day, it is at sea level in Ensenada, Mexico. The incline at the 7,000 foot Grand Canyon was pretty much nonstop. Back in the day when I worked out on a treadmill, the incline portions were about 30 seconds in a 20 minute workout, lol. My rule of thumb walking back up the trail to the top was that if I could hear my heart wanting to leave my chest, it was time to stop for a bit. I think that I did that around every quarter mile or thereabouts. The only thing that I wished we had taken down with us was a bottle of water. But, we had drank well before we started down.

After taking a few more pics, we returned to the Porsche and zipped back down the mountain to Phoenix.

While this was a great bonding session with my son, I hope to return to the Grand Canyon at least a few more times in the future!

Until next time!

Tony