Thursday, May 10, 2012

Thursday Thoughts

by Rachel

..."and Never..."
                    ..."and Never..."
..."ever Ever..."
                    ..."ever Ever..."
..."complain about hiking..."
                    ..."complain about hiking..."
..."in the Grand Canyon!"
                    ...."....in the Grand Canyon!"





Our 6yo made the trek with me down into the Grand Canyon on Saturday - down 4.5 miles and over 3000 feet to Indian Gardens. We started the morning off hiking with a friend, who took lots of great pictures of the canyon and the events of the day!
We made our way down, stopping at each resthouse, and he took breaks to work on his Junior Ranger booklet. Once we made it down to Indian Gardens, we went to visit the ranger station - and met a really nice ranger that told us about a special Junior Ranger program just for kids that visit Indian Gardens! So we spent a couple hours there, going through the workbook, eating lunch, and relaxing before the big climb out of the canyon.
We learned all about the word "wilderness" and what it actually means - and found out that there are 149 federally designated "wilderness areas" in California (and 90 in Arizona)! We'll have to start visiting them...
Once he finished filling out his book, the ranger went through all the activities with him, and talked about the things that he wrote.
He was now sworn in as an official Junior Ranger, and had to repeat after the ranger an oath about protecting national parks and being a responsible Junior Ranger...
oh, and not complaining about the hike back up :)
He did such a great job climbing all the way back up to that faraway point at the top of the rim! There was very little complaining... for a 6-year old anyways
It was pretty hot out there - and by the end he was pretty much cooked! His stomach was hurting, his foot was bothering him - he just wanted to be done - but we finally made it!

We got to see my 15yo that had just completed a trek from South Kaibab, to Phantom Ranch, to Bright Angel - he had such a great time with the group that he ran/hiked with!
Thanks Theresa Wheeler for the picture!

Then we got to see Paul finish his Rim2Rim2Rim trek - so exciting and emotional at the same time!
Thanks Kristen Trujillo for the picture!
Such a great hike and we did it together!

Here is his write-up of his journey!


6 comments:

  1. Jude is my hero.
    (mer)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. He is a pretty awesome dude!

      Delete
  2. I'm so proud of my boys, both of them inspire me each day. Tough little cookies!! :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I know what you mean - and Grand Canyon was such a great experience for every one of us, I think

      Delete