5 miles down, 20 miles up

Thursday- Grand Canyon North Rim

After a good nights rest in our cabin we had to pack everything up and transport it to our campsite where we spent our second night.  Once that was taken care of, it was time for our hike on the Kaibab Trail.

JP, his Dad, and brother Matt had hiked this before and told us we needed to go to the waterfalls.  So, to the waterfalls it was!  We didn't know how far it would be, but we were ready for whatever was to come our way.

Before setting out on our hike, we said hello to the mules, who we would again encounter on our hike.

About a mile down into the canyon we did run into a group on mules.  As we were passing them, we asked the leader how far it was down the waterfalls.  His response,  "5 miles down, 20 miles back up"

The hike down went by really quickly.  It was SO beautiful.  Looking down from the top and seeing the trail we would soon be hiking was really cool.  I don't feel like the camera does it justice!  We had a great time chatting with each other and viewing the sites.

We ran into several people on the trail.  A lot of these people were apparently doing overnight hikes as they had huge packs.  One guy had 3-4 days worth of food.  My 2L CamelBak, on the other hand, was quiet small in comparison.  Everyone of these people with large packs commented on mine saying how small it was and that they hoped I wasn't staying the night!  I told them there was no way I could carry a pack their size!

About 2 hours into the hike we finally saw the first signs of the waterfall!  It was amazing!  We stopped to eat lunch before finding Roaring Springs.

Unfortunately we were not really able to find the bottom of it.  We went to Roaring Springs, which was cool, but we were expecting a big pool at the bottom of the waterfall.  We later found out from a Park Ranger that there is no pool at the bottom of the waterfall because the waterfall goes underground. 

Here we are at Roaring Springs.  It was an incredibly muddy trek to reach this destination but we were glad we reached our goal point.

Once we experienced Roaring Springs, it was time to head back up the canyon.  Trust me the guy on the mule wasn't lying.  Stay tuned for our hike back up... and learn how I earned my nickname for the trip.