Grand Canyon: pre-hike

We were invited to go with my parents and their group of friends on their hike down and up the Grand Canyon. Their group does this every 5 years. It was my mom's third trip and my dad's second due to back surgery he had 5 years ago. Rose and Dave flew from Virginia and we met them in Las Vegas and drove out to the Grand Canyon together. They humored us by stopping at the Hoover Dam on the way.

 The canyon. This was the view from just steps outside our room at the Bright Angel Lodge. It was a great, basic room. Showers were shared down the hall but our room had its own toilet, sink, clean bed, no TV. And the location was perfect. Looking out at the canyon this is when I first had the feeling of, "How are we ever supposed to get to the bottom of that?"

 After settling into our room we took the shuttle down to the other end of the canyon near the visitor center to get another view. See all the little people on the overlook up at the top left of the picture?

 The visitor center was closed, but we found trail maps posted. It was definitely intimidating to see the signs that said hiking to the bottom of the canyon was very high difficulty. I suppose it is meant to discourage casual day hikers from trying to get all the way to the bottom.

 Eric and his 10 year old sense of humor liked this picture of someone puking on the trail.