Grand Canyon trip – day 8

After a great night of sleeping, I grabbed my stuff and got the road toward Grand Canyon National Park – South Rim. It took 1 hour or so. As usual, when I arrived there I went to Visitor Center to get some information. A nice and kind lady (Ranger of the Grand Canyon) called me. I said: "It will probably take a while … I intend to stay here 4 or 5 days and I intend to go hiking 2 or 3 times during all day long. I have a tent although I have no idea where I can put it."


It really took a while, but she was patient and gave me all tips about how I could spend my time in an enjoyable way. When she started talking about camping, the most peculiar question was asked me …

Ranger - "Do you mind stay at a rudimentary place?".

Marcio - "What do you mean?"

Elk - wild life on Grand Canyon

Ranger – "A place that there is no water, no electricity, no restroom … it is a forest outside of the National Park."

Marcio – "Well … Is it dangerous? How far is it?"

Ranger – "It is a forest … you know … but it is not an unusual place. People camp there. It is about 30 minutes from here. You can camping anywhere you wish, since this place be outside of the Park."

Marcio – "Deal! Show me the map"


As she suggested, I enjoyed my afternoon in various spots. That place is very well organized and it must be. The Grand Canyon National Park – South Rim receives probably 4 Million people per year. For instance, you can find supermarket, camping, laundry, coin showers (I was used to it), hotel, clinic, restaurant, kennel and gift shops in the park (of course crowded). For the record – that place is called Grand Canyon Village. It also has shuttle buses to take you at many places in or out of the park.

Colorado River

It is hard to describe how beautiful that place is. It is unbelievable. I visited a lot of point views and each one has amazing views. Even just one point provides innumerable views. Different of the north side, at the south side you can see the Colorado River in various points. It is something. I didn´t hold my tears. It was a dream that came through.

In the late afternoon I took a look at the map and I went to find out where the camping site is. At the beginning I was afraid that I got lost, but I wasn´t lost. The campsite is far from everything. The place is called Kaibab National Forest … so it is a forest. I would be camping in a forest. After I realized the whole situation that I was experiencing, I tried to find a better place to camp, after all, there was nobody there besides me. I could find a nice camping site. I mean a cleaned place among trees. It sounded like that place has been used as camping site for ages. As a professional camper I put the tent up in an easy way.

"Excellent!!!" I said. An afternoon full of views. Camping site found and ready to go. So let´s think about tomorrow. 18h30min. I realized I would need some supplies for tracking next morning – basically food, water and clothes. Let´s go to the math: Go and back to Village -> 1h; Have my clothes washed and dried -> 1h; Supermarket  ->15 min; Bath ->20 min. The whole thing would take 3 hours. At 21h30min that place would be dark …totally dark. I thought over about the situation and I realized – time is money. What is not critical here? Bath … so let´s skip the bath. That clever decision saved $2,00 and 20 minutes.

Before

After

Anyway, when I arrived at the camping site was dark. I must confess. I was scared. In fact, I was too scared. I was alone, and actually I would like to keep that situation. My mind went 10 years back when I was camped in a place like that and a bear came to visit me. Ok, there is no bear at Grand Canyon, but I saw a traffic sign that meant "Watch for Bobcats". So I took some "survival" measures …: park the car as close as possible of the tent, doors' car unlocked  (for faster entrance), go to sleep with knife, stick wood and flashlight. Those measures were kind of psychological stuff but them helped me a lot.


Everything set up … let´s go to "bed". As usual I took my notebook with me in order to write for the blog. While I was writing, inside the tent, I started hearing "something" moving. Instantly, I got quiet and scared. More scared than quiet. I realized it was like an opening plastic bag sound. That didn´t make me happy at all. After some tons of milliseconds I realized it was under the tent. I saw the shape of "something" moving under the tent. It wasn't a big deal and then after 30 minutes or so I turned the lamp off and closed my sleeping bag with that annoying sound. After all, I had to be rested for my first track on the South Rim. …


See you soon.


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