South Kaibab Trail {Grand Canyon RV Trip: Day 3} June 25

We literally only skimmed the surface of Grand Canyon hiking. We had two nights at the south rim, so this was our full day exploration. We choose to hike the South Kaibab Trail, woke up ate breakfast then hopped on the shuttle to get us to the visitor center where we'd hop another shuttle that would take us over to the South Kaibab entrance... however we choose to get off a little early to do some extra hiking which looking back was a little bit of a mistake because the kids didn't have that extra juice in them. But once we made it to 'the real hike' after the practice hike they were excited. Mary loved going down and said "I could go all the way" haha! It's not the down part that is hard. 

The Before photo: 8:50am 71°

This was the hike along the rim from Pike Creek to South Kaibab

This plant was so cool, it's the Utah Agave plant

WE FINALLY MADE IT! Mary was so happy to finally be at the real hike, grumpy too. Didn't realize the extra jaunt across the rim was going to be a 45 minute walk but we made it. 

 

These mules bringing up supplies from Phantom Ranch (the campsite at the bottom of the canyon)

There's our turnaround spot. If you go back up to look at the map that shows the vertical of the South Kaibab Trail, we turned around at the first point: Ohhahh Point. 

It took us 45 minutes to hike down and 45 minutes to hike up so that was great timing! 

Now it's time to head back up!

Quick stop in the shade for a snack. This squirrel almost attacked us wanting food. 

We made it to the top, refilled on water and found an elk resting in the shade. 

We went back to the RV for lunch and rested a bit before setting out on another adventure a little after 3:00. It was starting to look like rain. We took the shuttle to the Yavapai Geology Museum which probably had my favorite views of the canyon. You could see right down one of the ridges. 

Map inside the museum:

We shuttled back to the market plaza area, we decided to have dinner at a restaurant there, ended up getting rained on as we sat on the patio under umbrellas. We waited for the rain to clear than walked back to our campsite.