The Adventures of Andrew Maurer

Woke up in the campground today and were reminded to pay the $10 camping fee. Dam! Had we left before 7am, it would have been free (though morally wrong). We were now able to drive to the rim of the Canyon thanks to our brand new national parks pass. We talked to some tourist offices, and found out that we’d be able to hike to the campground halfway down and make a reservation. We were overjoyed as we had the impression that all the campgrounds would be booked out many days in advance.

We strolled around the rim, waiting for the intensely hot hours from 10am-4pm to pass. Around 3pm or so we began our hike down. Though hot, the hike was beautiful. We passed tourists by the busload through our decent. There’s a reason they call Arizona the Grand Canyon State (because half the populatin of Arizona is at the Grand Canyon at any one time).

As I was really against paying rediculous prices for food at the tourist shops on the rim and because we didn’t have any supply of food in the car, we decided to get the best energy per dollar food we could find. This turned out to be a jar of peanut butter – $2.50 for something like 4000 calories. Perfect! We decided to get some sunflower seeds as well because who wants to eat peanut butter alone?

We reached the campsite tired and ready for dinner. We had a few spoons of peanut butter each, a handful of sunflower seeds, and then departed to the viewpoint over the Colorado river. This was a 40 minute hike from the campsite. Though we were both feeling the effects of the heat and I was convinced Katie had flees, we eventually made it to the viewpoint. And boy was it worth it! We got some amazing views and saw the sun descend away from the canyon.