Hiking the Grand Canyon 14th May 2008

3rd day in Grand Canyon. We decided to pick one easiest hiking trail into the Canyon . For your info , The place I am at now is called the rim , it is 2000 meter above sea level. The canyon goes as deep as 1.5 km and more to the bottom from the rim. The legendary Colorado river runs beneath it. Our target is to conquer the deadly Plateau trail that leads to the bottom of the canyon (and thus the river) . There are plenty helpful information here to helps us plan our hiking , including difficulty recommendations , hiking tips and all. Grand Canyon is very special to hike because the hard part only comes after hiker descended ... hiker hikes downards first and then only come back upwards. This makes the hiking very dangerous as you cannot estimate how far can you body take it when you hike down. The extreme temperatures in the half desert climate in grand canyon , <20> 35 in the canyon also makes overheating , overexchaustion , hypothermia and hyperthermia the common killer to the unprepared hikers. Each summer day there are more than 60 hikers are rescued from the canyon.

After much considerations and planning (well , for mere 20 minutes only) , we decided to descend using South Kaibab trail ( one of the four trail available in GrandCanyon) . The difficulty level indicated is "difficult" and recommended time is " 4 to 6 hours" . We bought some sandwichs and alot of water together with us. The trail only leads us to 1/4 down to the bottom. about 300 meter change in elevation .

Hiking the trail is VERY rewarding. I dont think there are other place on earth that will be more beautiful , more immense , more grand than the canyon. We get hike down very huge rocks , and get to see fantastic view. One special thing about hiking in grand canyon is that ... every single step you take , the view is going to change ... the colour of the canyon , the angle of your viewpoint and the overall impression the canyon gave.... It is not describable using photographs or videos ... that beauty , surpass everything ...

let the photos do the talking now. remember , photos will NEVER do justice to the beauty of grandCanyon . I have videos .. lots of it .. but now upload quite slow .

The view from the trail head. Every walk into the canyon changes the view. As we go deeper, we could see at least 260 degrees ... surrounded by canyons.

!The hiking trails . Its zig zagged all the way down. One good thing to hike in USA is ... people are way too friendly. Every hikers will say"how are you" or chat awhile when pass by. I like this culture.stunned by the view.

Stunning view .... one more step behind and we are dead ~! i dunno how long we'll need to fall before we touch the bottom of the canyon ?Every other things seem so small ... The power of nature . I take good photos huh ? Notice the layered structure of the canyon back there ? Very amazing.

Going down the trail .

Finally reached the checkpoint.

Trust me, it takes alot of courage to stand on that piece of rock.Nice shoot from me.!!

That's all .. i gotta rush back .. see ya !