Hello there!

I am starting a series of blogs to highlight each adventure we went on during my stay in Arizona.

This was a trip WITHOUT the kids. Wow! I think the longest one I have done. My friends and family came through for me. Each day I was gone my kids were dropped off at a friends house for all day play. I am so grateful to know so many wonderful families I can trust! I hired a local teen to visit our house during lunch time to let the dogs out. Tony was exhausted from being a single parent for almost two weeks. What an amazing experience though for all of us.

How does life flow when mama is gone? LOL

Before we get into it - May of 2021 my mom and I hiked to Phantom Ranch.

So much planning went into this. It was basically an investment with all the items we needed. It was our first real hike so we needed the good stuff.

Now this was no walk in the park - especially for me living in CT. I thought I was fit and in good shape but I was for sure not prepared for what we were about to go through.

The story I kept speaking before I even got on the plane was that we were hiking to the heart of the canyon.

Which felt so true as we got closer to the bottom it got harder and harder to keep going. Such as the spiritual journey inward to the heart!

The focus for this blog is the hike down the South Kaibab Trail.

Boy was it brutal! The views were amazing though!!!

Here is my video talking about all the items we packed to be prepared for anything.

We brought 5L of water each.

& I of course remember that one time our family ran out of water on another trip to sedona. So packing extra water was 100% necessary.

I’m so glad that we did too because when we reached a spot to rest - we saw a young couple who had ran out of water and were hiking back up. I ended up giving them a liter of coconut water. Which was still not enough for both of them but hopefully it helped.

I think the trauma of running out of water will stick with me. I am now that person who always has water on hikes or walks. Unless it’s a short run. But still.

Our first stop was OOH AAH POINT 5:40am we started our descent into the canyon.

As you can see the South Kaibab Trail is very desert like. 7.5 miles took us 8 hours! Hiking in the heat of the day was brutal! I can’t imagine doing this in the summer. The sun temperature at Phantom Ranch when we finally made it was 100 degrees in the early afternoon.

Nothing could have prepared us for this hike. Although I did see someone say if you did the stair elliptical until you couldn’t do it anymore - then do another 3 miles it would be a good practice run for this hike. HA!

Here is my Gopro 9 video of hiking down.

We were so exhausted on the last switchbacks as we made our way down to the black bridge. These two pictures of us were AFTER we drenched ourselves with the sink water at the Bright Angel Campground bathrooms. Phantom Ranch was .4 miles away and we just couldn’t do it without a break.

Feet care is important!

I ended up feeling a heat spot on my toe about a mile down from the top. I felt so silly stopping so soon after starting our hike but I did. I put a bandaid on the heat spot and never had an issue for the rest of the hike.

My mom could feel these are they were happening but was nervous about taking her shoes off and not being able to put them back on due to swelling.

We ended up visiting the ranger at her station at Phantom Ranch where she popped these bad boys and bandaged her up. Not just once but twice & I did it for her once too. Love you mama!