Last week my husband and I were in Arizona visiting friends, and part of the trip was going to the Grand Canyon. We are (were?*) both avid hikers; we have hiked up to the Burgess Shale, and through Yoho National Park in the Rockies, in Strathcona National Park on Vancouver Island (saw cougar and bear tracks!!), Bryce and Zion National Parks in southern Utah, Keoneheʻeheʻe Trail into the crater of Haleakalā in Hawaii, and lots of other spectacular places. Hiking into mountains and canyons brings an up close and personal experience, and in some cases, the experience borders on epiphanic. That usually happens when I’m alone, surrounded only by the vastness of the landscape, and a silence broken only by the sound of the wind or the occasional bird call.
However, this was the Grand Canyon, which is on EVERYONE’S bucket list. There is a paved path along the South Rim which makes the majestic views of the canyon accessible to everyone. And at times it seemed that everyone in the US was there, along with peoples of the world. We heard French, Russian, Mandarin, Japanese, Hindi, Tamil and lots of other languages we didn’t recognize. The path was shoulder-to-shoulder people. And that was OK, but we wanted a more “up close and personal” experience (see above). So the next day, we chose one of several hiking trails, called Bright Angel Trail, that would take us down into the canyon (not to the floor, but a fair ways down). We estimated the round trip would take about 3-ish hours; they did say that the way up would take twice as much time as the way down, so we planned to hike down for about an hour.
As for an “up close and personal” experience, we did get that…..with PEOPLE. So many people! There was so much foot traffic on this trail, which really surprised us. And this is where the hiking etiquette comes in. It’s generally (so we thought) known that hikers going uphill get the right of way. So if someone is coming up and you’re going down, you step aside and make way for them. Which is what we did.
But not everyone knew about/paid attention to this rule, so I was observing what kinds of people barrelled past us as we were going back up. Young people travelling in groups. Men hiking alone or with a small group. I forgave them if they were not speaking English, because people from other countries may not know about this etiquette. But many of them were speaking English with American accents. Older people and women almost always gave us the right of way, with encouraging smiles and words. I used my hiking poles to great effect, taking up all the space. And going SLOWLY because it was UP.
Ah well….I hope everyone enjoyed their experiences. We did, and met some nice people along the way. Although for our next hike in spectacular scenery, we may choose something a bit quieter…..
* we have not done overnight backcountry hiking for several years!
Image of the Grand Canyon, showing layers of rock in different colours.