Through a series of events we wound up at the Grandview trailhead. On a side note, when visiting this national park, you must arrange any change of itinerary with the park rangers.
The two vehicles with no snow on them are ours:
Dad and brother gearing up at the rim. We encountered the scout troop that owned this trailer the next day. They attempted the trailhead we wanted to hike the day before but lost the trail shortly into it.
I'm geared up and ready to go:
Dad, do you think those crampons are secured properly?
The view of the Grand Canyon from the rim as we began our descent:
Still lots of clouds at this point:
Dad having the first of many "wardrobe malfunctions." His crampons were heavy, intense and somehow improperly secured. We had to stop numerous times so he could refasten them. What was the old adage about using untested gear in the field? (In all fairness, how could this Floridian have tested crampons?)
As the clouds began to lift, we continued to make progress into the canyon:
There were a few times that I got ahead of our group. I managed to grab a few pictures of my dad and brother along the way:
At one point another hiker met up with us and hiked with us for a while. He kept a pretty good pace and left us behind. After a while, his use of two hiking poles began to make more sense:
My surreal picture. The shadow from the southern rim is still long, so you can tell it is still morning when this was taken:
My brother posing near the Horseshoe Mesa:
Upon arrival at the Horseshoe Mesa, we examined our options for reaching the campsite off the Tonto trail. Given the snowy conditions and the apparent difficulty (particularly with our packs) of heading north from our present location - we decided to spend the night at the Horseshoe Mesa campsite.
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