Grand Canyon: So. Damn. Beautiful (Day 2)

Day 2: South Angel Trail from Phantom Ranch to Black Angel Campground & Plateau Point Day Hike

I had no idea what time we’d wake up the next morning, but I certainly didn’t expect it to be 7:00. The sunlight woke us up, and the majority of the campers had already packed up and left. Well don’t we feel like slackers. We weren’t in a huge rush, so we took our time with breakfast (granola with strawberries & milk, made with hot water) and coffee and packing everything up.

We saw some mules leaving and coming into the camp- our first mule sighting on the trail! We strapped on our packs and headed back out towards the Colorado River again, passing by a sign that said “Rockfall, no stopping” and quickly scurried along. The sunlight on the trees and the rocks was magnificent in the morning; the trees glowed green and the rocks were such beautiful reds and oranges.

We crossed a second suspension bridge, not far from the one we’d crossed the day before. This one was slightly newer, I think built in the 1960’s, but I don’t remember its name. It’s part of the system of pipes that carries fresh drinking water throughout the Canyon, and we could see the six inch pipe below our feet. From the bridge, we could see some workers maintaining parts of the trail. It’s amazing to think about the construction of the bridges, trails, and infrastructure in the whole Grand Canyon. Everything was carried in by hand or by mule, and to think about the sheer volume of material was amazing to me. I forgot to mention this for the first day, but we encountered some parts of the path (often when it was particularly steep) where the ground was inlaid with cobblestones. Again we marveled at the strength it must have taken to carry in the stones, and commented that the workers must have been very burly. Potter remarked “Yeah, and I bet they didn’t have any teeth!” Miceli and I looked quizzically at him. Apparently burliness is akin with redneck-ness in Potter’s mind... We gave him grief for it for the remainder of the trip.

Our trail took us farther west along the Colorado River, and then turned south (towards the rim, away from the river). For a long time it didn’t even feel like we were in the Grand Canyon, because you couldn’t see any of the edges of the rims- we were so far into a mini-canyon that the environment and views were just so different from the day before. We passed many areas with little streams, so again, there was lots of greenery.

There were also some telephone poles and wires along the trail, which fed to emergency phones that were scattered throughout the Canyon. Miceli commented that they were following us, and continued to explain that the telephone poles lived in a fourth dimension. When they moved through our dimension, we could simultaneously see where they had been and where they were going. Somehow throughout the course of this story the telephone poles also became evil, so throughout the hike anytime we came across them we’d all exclaim “oh no, the evil telephone poles have found us again!” I guess it’s one of those things that was really funny in the moment, but makes no sense now.

The portion of the trail that finally gained us enough elevation (to the point where we could see some of the major formations along the North Rim again) was, we would later learn, called Devil’s Corkscrew. They weren’t kidding- it was our first serious set of switchbacks on the ascent, and although it was rough, we had no idea what we were in for the next day.

Because we had started hiking at a more normal hour this day, we saw many more people on the trail- the whole hike had a very different feel from the first day. We often found ourselves playing leapfrog with groups of other hikers; when we stopped for a break, they’d pass us, and vice versa. Everyone was very friendly- I guess the kinds of people who are going to hike the Grand Canyon are generally going to be outgoing and good-natured.

After we reached the top of the Devil’s Corkscrew, the trail became more level for a bit, and we passed through some areas with the most fascinating rock formations we saw on the whole trip. They were the typical reddish-orange color we’d become accustomed to, but this particular area had rocks that looked like layered pancakes- strong horizontal striations, spaced very close together. They’re pretty hard to describe, so you’ll just have to look at pictures to get the full effect. At many times throughout the trip I kept thinking how great it would be to have a geologist in the group who could explain everything we were seeing (and nerd out about it all, I’m sure).

Our favorite formation of this type also had a huge chunk missing- you could see it slightly down the hill, and it was amazing to think about what it must have been like when this large mass of rock suddenly detached and tumbled downhill. I wondered how long ago it had happened- we had no way of knowing. It was in this area, too, that we were passed by our first group on mules. They’re massive animals, and although I think it would be fun to ride them, it also must be a little unnerving to be so high off the ground on narrow and often steep slopes.

A little further along, we passed by a particularly gutsy squirrel- he felt no need to keep his distance from us, to the point that it was a little unnerving. I guess I should also comment on the wildlife we saw on the hike- we saw some squirrels, lots of little lizards (maybe four inches in length), and the lone goat. Thankfully, we never saw a scorpion.

We reached the Black Angel Campground a lot faster than we expected to- we claimed our campsite around 12:30, and decided that we deserved naps. We pitched our tents and laid down for two hours.

After waking up, we left our packs behind, only bringing 1 pack with water, and headed out for a 1.5 mile day hike to Plateau Point. The cliffs of the Canyon level off into plateaus towards the bottom, and the edge of one of these was said to have some of the best views in the whole park. After going through small canyons with streams and trees, it felt strange to walk along a flat plateau, with no vegetation higher than our knees. We saw some strange cacti, too- they were the kind with multiple paddle-shaped leaves (do they call them leaves?) with spikes, but instead of the typical green color, these were purple! And not a subtle, light purple, either- they were quite bright. We also saw some cacti that were green with areas mottled with purple coloring, so I wonder if the color change is something that happens within the plant’s lifetime, rather than being two separate species of plant. Note to self: research purple cacti.

When we finally reached the edge of the trail, it was very windy- being out in the middle of the canyon with nothing tall nearby, the wind really picked up (Miceli almost lost his cowboy hat a few times). To get out to the very edge of the trail we climbed onto a rock formation that looked like it barely clung to the edge of the plateau. It felt like it could fall off, but had obviously been there for a very long time, so we went out. The views were as amazing as we had hoped. We could see straight down to the River, and could see very far up and down stream. The rocks on the northern side of the River were right in front of us, and we had a great view of all of the different layers stacked on top of each other. It’s mind-boggling to think that this was all formed by water over millions of years.

We sat on the rocks, taking pictures but knowing that they could never do it justice. We could see the rocks we’d hiked along the day before, and had fun tracing our trail against the formations we could recognize (including The Flatness). We sat around for a while taking it all in, but eventually had to head back.

When we got back to camp, we made hot-water dinner: spinach putanesca with green beans for me and Potter, and spaghetti with meat sauce for Miceli. Potter and I ended up having some pad thai too, because our pasta was actually a single portion, which I hadn’t realized. As it got dark, we sat around our picnic table just swapping stories and hanging out. We finished Potter’s scotch, and also had the Cuban cigar that Ali had given him for Christmas. It all felt very cowboy-ish- the scotch, the cigar, and sitting under the stars. The only non-traditional part may have been the way we lit the cigar- our lighter wasn’t working, so we ended up lighting it with the flame from the fuel for the hot-water boiler. It burnt a little unevenly, but still tasted great and made for a funny story.

It was much windier that night, and we were a little underdressed. We piled on all our layers, but when I was still cold, I had Miceli boil up some water for me, and, in a weaker moment, drank hot water. No hot chocolate (which we all realized would have been a good thing to bring), no tea, no coffee (because it was caffeinated)....just hot water. It felt sort of pathetic, but I didn’t care. When it got too windy, we went into Miceli’s tent and played gin rummy until we got tired and decided that we might as well just go to sleep.

That night the wind continued, to the point that the tent that Potter and I were sleeping in actually collapsed a few times. We knew that one of the connections was weak, so we had splinted it back in New York, but it wasn’t enough to hold against these winds. Every time the tent caved in, we’d have to throw our hands up, pushing back against it, until the tent popped back into place. Not the end of the world, but annoying. In my sleepy state, there was something almost scary about all the noise of the wind, too. It felt like we were the last people on earth and the world was ending. Something about the experience (combined with my half-asleep state) was just a little unsettling. Eventually we were able to sleep soundly, though.