Tuesday 20 April 2004

Interesting day today – hike up to Ribbon Falls and back.  I love going through The Box and I was excited to take the trail a little farther.  I struck out at first light and started winding my way up the trail.  It is an easy hike with a gradual uphill incline.  You seem to wind through The Box forever until you eventually exit out into a flood plain/valley of lush growth, trees, and flowers and abundance of wildlife.  This area was definitely ravaged by the flood from several years ago.  You can only imagine the force of the water by the car-sized boulders about and some of the metal telegraph poles that were bent at a 90-degree angle!

I really enjoyed the hike but it almost seemed to take forever (Are we there yet? Are we there yet?  Are we there yet?).  Finally through a break you could make out Ribbon Falls.  There is a fork in the North Kaibab trail for the falls.  Hiking North, if you take the left spur it goes down to the Bright Angel Creek where you must ford – this is OK unless the water is running high which means you’re getting wet.   If you take the right hand spur you can climb the hill, and on the backside is a bridge over the stream.  Once over the stream there is the side trail for Upper Ribbon Falls. 

I purposely left early and it paid off – I was the only one at the falls and I got to explore the entire area by myself in complete solitude – I was snoozing on a rock when some of the first hikers came – ironically an older gentleman from Springfield, VA – once again some one from the home area.  I hung out a bit and chatted with everyone before starting my trek back.  There were considerably more day hikers heading up and I was glad that I left early.  The trip back seemed to go much faster and I was back at the Canteen in no time for a Tecate and a snickers bar (don’t knock until you’ve tried it!). 

It took about 3.25 hours up and about 2.5 hours back.  Distance traveled 11.5 miles