Grand Canyon Rim to Rim to Rim Day 2

We woke early on Day 2 to hikers packing up gear to hike back out, headlamps gleaming in the pre-dawn darkness.  I groaned and pulled my quilt over my head.  Eventually, the need to pee overcame me and I had to get up.

Day 2 was literally like a walk in the park.  The trail meandered along the canyon bottom the whole way.  We had nice shade and a swiftly running creek to walk beside.  The sun glinted off the canyon walls and made for spectacular highlighting on the rock faces.  I walked slow and savored every moment.  I stopped to look at flowers, rocks, lizards, cacti, and anything that grabbed my attention.  The air was delicious and I drank it in.















We took a little side trip to Ribbon Falls and were completely shocked at the lushness of the area.  It was like the Garden of Eden.  We soaked our feet and walked up behind the falls to a little oasis of green moss and pooling water.  Simply unbelieveable.















Behind the water fall.





I would have loved to hang out in this area for a couple more hours but onward we must trek.  We made it to Cottonwood campground early and there were plenty of sites to choose from. 

It had gotten pretty hot throughout the afternoon and I really wanted to get in the creek.  Nancy and I tried to go down and filter water but had a naked man alert so we turned around and went back to camp.  I went down another way while everyone was setting up their tents and found a spot where I could frolick and filter.  I plopped myself down in the middle of the creek, pants and all, and soaked for a bit.  Then I filtered water while I dried out.  It was delightful! 

Later on, Carrie happened to be brushing her teeth when a dude in camo pants walked by- henceforth known as Camo Pants.  She was spewing toothpaste into the bushes as he walked by and it was quite comical as he did a double-take on her tooth-brushing technique.  He also used the opportunity to scope out her whole package.  LOL.  A couple more younger dudes straggled by, obviously exhausted.  Then one more older dude in their group barely made it in because his knee was in bad shape. We hypothesized that it was an older scout troop or maybe some juvenile delinquents but they turned out to be part of the Arizona Backpacking Club.  Way off base!

There was one other group at this campground with about 7 people.  One guy carried a fishing pole the whole time and we leapfrogged with him as he would stop to fish.  He only caught 1 trout the whole time- he is henceforth known as Fishing Guy.  We don't get real names, we just make up trail names for everyone.









There seemed to only be a couple of groups doing the triple rim so we had a nice peaceful evening of drinking honey bourbon and stargazing. Day 2 was one of the the most peaceful days I've ever had backpacking.