Grand Canyon Tanner Trail

Grand Canyon National Park, Arizona

Luck was on my side, I showed up at the backcountry office on the south rim and secured 2 nights and 3 days in the canyon. Of course I stayed away from the main corridor trails and went for the far east portion of the canyon where few go. It was via the Tanner Trail, a seldom maintained trail just inside the east entrance to the park. When I started over the rim and looked where I was going it was a long way down to the river. And it was going to be a steep descent.

Looking up after a short ways didn't make it look any less steep either. Pretty view but I was losing altitude quickly.

The conditions were perfect for hiking, and for the flowers to all be in bloom. I was surprised by the diversity of plant life and with how many bees were buzzing around. I have always been told that bees will be close to water, but the only water was the river at the bottom of the canyon. These deep red flowers on this cactus were my favorite.

All of them were nice to look at.

Not to far from the river I came across a patch of cactus all in bloom together. This picture doesn't begin to do it justice.

After close to 9 miles down I came to the mighty Colorado river. I took a break and refilled all my water because I had located a place on a ridge about 2 miles up the canyon that I wanted to camp. I also did my best camel imitation and drank my fill of water as well.

This flowering cacti was near where I spent the night. All the different buttes and rock walls in the canyon make it look like you are near the top when you are nowhere close.

I like how you can see ll the layers of rock along the walls of the canyon. Somewhere in here is about a billion years of geologic history. The park brochure tells me that this is the part of the canyon with the oldest exposed rock layer. I just don't know where the old rocks were at.

This was the view I had while the sun was setting, and I was laying on my sleeping bag. Eventually I watched the full moon come up over this same wall. The photos I took of the moonrise were all bad. But I have a great memory of it.

I was pretty close to the top of the canyon when I took this picture. The canyon is so massive. Someday it would be nice to take a raft trip down the length of the place.