February 3rd, 2017
We started out at 8:30 am and it was chilly and shady. Not much sun reaches the campsites at Indian Garden in the morning and evening. We were eager to get going!
Over dinner the night before, we read over the trail description for this section. One phrase pretty much summed it up: “seemingly endless switchbacks”. Think about it – we came down the cliff, now we have to climb back out!
We put our traction on fairly early in the day as we came upon ice and snow again. Even though it was cold, we had to delayer at one point because we were hiking hard and working up a sweat! When we made it to the 1 1/2 mile rest house we stopped to use the bathrooms. That landmark meant we only had 1.5 miles left to the top! We were making great time.
(By the way, we vlogged our hike as well! Click here to watch the video for day 5!)
We crossed paths with a lot of day hikers coming down. Up to that point, we really hadn’t seen much of anyone throughout our entire hike! We plowed ahead but eventually I had to stop and have some trail mix (peanut butter trail mix from Wal-Mart = my new favorite!) because I was running out of steam. From our stopping point, we could see people above us looking out from the rim.
As we got higher, the snow got a little deeper, but it was very packed down from lots of foot traffic. And we’d handled much worse a few days before!
Finally we made it to the top of the South Rim again! We finished our hike at the Bright Angel Trailhead at 11:45 am and had a lady take our picture.
Once we stopped hiking, we had to layer back up as our bodies cooled down quickly. It was sunny though, and Greg suggested we head over to one of the outlooks so we could look out and see how far we’ve come.
When we got there we were the only ones there, and I sat down on a rock to rest. Greg asked if I would like some more trail mix. He reached into his pack and pulled out another envelope! This one was titled, “A New Road”. In the letter, he talks about starting our next adventure together. It was so sweet; I laughed and sniffed while I read it. The letter ends saying he has a question for me and when I looked up he was down on one knee! He had a ring in his hand and asked those life-changing words: “Will you marry me?” I said, “Yeah!!” and we hugged and giggled and teared up a little. Greg had set the camera to record the moment – purposefully only recording the audio, so you just have to imagine the scene. It was so special and exciting.
He gave me the ring to put on and I love it! I didn’t give him any hints as to what type of engagement ring I would like, mostly because I am very indecisive and would never have been able to make such a large decision on my own. But he knows my style – simple but with small details – and chose one that is very “me”.
We spent some time at the outlook to let the moment sink in and made a plan to go back there someday. We headed over to the Bright Angel Lodge to check out the gift shop and meet up with our hiking buddies for lunch. We told them the news and had a great meal with them – chatting long after we finished eating. They paid for our lunch! That was so very nice of them. They were very happy for us and actually said they thought it might happen since we told them we’ve been together for a long time and this was a very special trip.
We all perused the gift shop to select which “Rim to Rim” shirt we wanted to buy as a souvenir. They don’t make shirts that say “Rim to Rim to Rim” but deep down we know what we accomplished.
We stopped back at the Backcountry Information Center to get our car and we dropped off the rest of the fuel for our hiking stove that we didn’t use. We wouldn’t be able to bring it on the plane, and we had talked to a ranger on the trail that told us the office could definitely put it to good use.
Our hiking friends have been to many National Parks and recommended that we buy a National Parks Passport and get our first ink stamp mark here at the Grand Canyon. Greg and I plan to fill it with more stamps from amazing trips together to National Parks across the country.
We drove to our hotel in Flagstaff and called our parents to tell them the exciting news. We each showered and scrubbed off a week’s worth of dirt and then ordered a pizza and watched HGTV (we don’t have cable at home). A great way to end an incredible trip!
Day 5 mile count: 4.8 miles (3,150′ elevation gain). Departed Indian Garden Campground (3,760′) at 8:30 am, arrived at Bright Angel Trailhead (6,910′) at 11:45am.
We flew home the next day and were greeted by our kitties who we missed dearly!
Thanks for reading!
-Rebecca
P.S. We vlogged our hike as well! Click here to watch the video of day 5!
If you want to read about day 1 of our backpacking trip, click here.
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