May 14th through May 18th 2012
We spent the
night at the Budget Inn in Page, Arizona the night before we hiked into the
canyon primarily because it was much cheaper than any closer alternatives. We had every intention of starting off early
in the morning to avoid the scorching, miserable heat of the midday canyon that
we had read so much about online. But,
in the end, we had a few too many things to attend to in our “night-before”
preparations, so we decided a good night’s sleep (and the last one for a while)
was worth the heat tradeoff. We wouldn’t
have been able to avoid the heat entirely anyways, since the first day’s hike
was about 8 miles and takes at least 7 hours.
(Here I’ll
mention something I am likely to continue to harp upon throughout the blog –
the completely impractical suggestions provided by the National Park
Service. The paperwork that the NPS sent
us with our hiking permit included suggestions about avoiding the heat. It recommended that no one hike between 9AM
and 4PM – to instead take a siesta in the shade during that time. For 7 hours?
Really? Maybe if you have zero
stamina and sun-blocking technology, but if that’s the case you shouldn’t be in
the Canyon in the first place.)
