What goes down must come up

Here are Judith & Caroline after our first morning of hiking in the Grand Canyon, which involved 4 miles on the North Kaibab Trail.

4 miles isn't really that long for us, but the North Kaibab descends into the canyon. We hiked the first .7 miles down to Coconino Overlook easily, but the kids begged us to go another 1.3 to Supai Tunnel*. Only 2 miles of trail, but a descent of almost 1,500 vertical feet. That means . . .

Although I am pretty sure Caroline actually hated me during some parts of the ascent, we were all really proud when we came back out on the trailhead.

Rested a bit in the afternoon, then drove out to Cape Royal, which offers a spectacular view via a narrow rock spire that made everyone but Caroline a little queasy. On the way back, we saw that spire had a huge hole in it, called Angel's Window. More queasiness ensued.

Did one more short hike that afternoon - my favorite. The Cliff Spring Trail winds through a pine forest, then opens up to a canyon view on one side and an undercut sandstone cliff on the other. Much of the cliff is dripping from a seep spring draining through the rock. Didn't see another soul on the trail with us.

*This begging did not actually happen.