January 31st, 2017
It was a little chilly during the night! Colder than I anticipated judging by how warm the day had been. But then again, it is the desert. The temperature definitely drops when the sun goes down. Normally I sleep like the dead, but if the temperature is too low, I end up spending the night in a meditative state instead. Even so, I still felt rested when we got up for the day at 7:30 am.
(By the way, we vlogged our hike as well! Click here to watch the video for day 2!)
We saw more deer along the creek while we packed up our tent and then right when we were about to leave, we saw mules! The trail workers had cleared off enough snow and ice for the mules to make their way down.
As we were getting our bags packed and situated, Greg handed me another envelope. This was one was titled “An Uphill Battle”, to reflect that our hike that day was going to begin a gradual climb and also to reminisce about our 4 year long-distance relationship. We faced that challenge very early in our relationship and it was so worth it. More tears!
We officially started our hike at 9:25 am. Just as we were passing the Ranger’s quarters and Phantom Ranch, a helicopter flew overhead! It was carrying something on a long rope and we couldn’t quite make out what it was. The helicopter hovered over the ranch and dropped off what turned out to be mattresses! I guess the mules didn’t want to carry those down!
We walked along Bright Angel Creek through a corridor of huge canyon walls. We really felt immersed in the glory of nature and it was beautiful every step. The mountains of carved out rock didn’t allow for much sunlight until midday.
We stopped for lunch in the sun by some rocks along the creek. Our new friends stopped by and had their lunch too while we chatted about the gradual incline ahead and the prospect of seeing a waterfall soon.
As we continued, we came across a girl walking back towards the Ranch and she told us there were two ways to get to Ribbon Falls: over a hill or across a small creek. We got to the fork in the trail and decided to check out the creek path. It didn’t look too intimidating but we weren’t sure if we felt like removing our boots. We turned back to go over the hill and ran into an older man who recommended going across the creek because getting your feet wet will feel “invigorating.” It was getting pretty hot now that the sun was out, so we turned back towards the creek and resolved to take the adventurous route. It really was only about 10 feet across and 3 feet deep, but the current was moving right along! It was very fun and very cold.
We had a hard time finding where the creek shortcut trail met back up with the regular trail, but after some trial and error we made it! A magical oasis in a desert. We found a sign for a trail that guided you up and behind the waterfall.
We weren’t sure if the trail behind the waterfall continued across or if we should go back down to the base and find where the shortcut trail met back up with the regular trail. There seemed to be a path across, and there was a sign several yards away, but it was facing the opposite direction so we couldn’t read it. Greg took off his pack and went across the thin, cliff-side path to check it out. It read, “Danger: Do not proceed,” indicating the way he had just walked. Whoops! No wonder it seemed like a risky path.
We went back down the waterfall path the way we had come up and from there it was only 1.5 miles to Cottonwood Campground. We got there around 3:30 pm and checked out all of the campsites to find the perfect one. We were looking for one with lots of sun exposure so we could be in the warmth longer as the sun went down. In our defense, we spent the extra effort finding the right place because we had several to choose from (there were only 3 other hiking groups) and also this would be our campsite for 2 nights.
We rested up a bit and set up our tent to air it out. I can’t forget to mention that Cottonwood also had very nice privies! They were the regular composting ones like the trail-side ones, but how do they keep them so clean? I suppose we were out there during the off season so that might have helped. The water spigot at camp was not turned on, but we knew that ahead of time and came into camp with plenty of water we obtained earlier that day. If we were desperate, we could have walked down a ways to the creek, but we ended up having enough both for dinner and hydrating. We chatted with our friends at their camp for a bit and made chicken and rice from Mountain House. Another good freeze-dried meal to end the day. Our friends mentioned seeing a skunk that they had to shoo away from almost entering their tent! Luckily it didn’t visit our site. Good thing we spent so long picking out a good spot!
We washed up and got in bed by 7:30 pm. We were on backpacking time!
Day 2 mile count: 8.1 miles (1,550′ elevation gain). Departed Bright Angel Campground (2,450′) at 9:25am, arrived at Cottonwood Campground (4,000′) at 3:30pm.
Thanks for reading!
-Rebecca
P.S. We vlogged our hike as well! Click here to watch the video of day 2!
If you want to read about day 3 of our backpacking trip, click here.
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