Maddie's Moments at the Grand Canyon

Hello! I apologize for the delay in post this week due to the holiday weekend celebrating Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and I hope you all enjoyed some rest and relaxation.

As previously acknowledge in my blog, my family took a trip to the Grand Canyon in 2022. That trip was the first I’ve taken to the American southwest, and it opened my eyes to a completely new landscape.

We flew into Las Vegas, spending a couple days exploring the city. Most notably, we drove about an hour north of Las Vegas to the gorgeous Valley of Fire State Park, which was one of my favorite parts of the trip. We spent hours exploring the slot canyons and hiking through the sandy, barren landscape dotted with colorful rocks. Departing from the Las Vegas area, we stopped at the Hoover Dam before continuing the 4 hour drive.

We arrived to the Grand Canyon midday, tackling a sunset hike after settling in that evening. We hiked along the rim, taking in the beautiful layers of the sunset and the rock below us. The next day, we hiked the Bright Angel, which dove deep into the canyon. This is the hardest hike I’ve ever done, 2000 feet of elevation change is no joke. We did 6 miles of the trail, to two “checkpoints," or rest stops along the way. Doubling our journey would've taken us to the river at the bottom of the canyon.

This hiked specifically piqued my interest in the prospect of completing the “rim to rim” trail, hiking from one rim of the canyon all the way down to the bottom and back up the other side. In order to complete this hike, you must be in good physical shape and adjusted to the elevation (roughly 8000 ft at the top of the canyon to 2,200 ft at the bottom). With that being said, my goal of hiking the rim to rim trail is far in the future, with many years of intense training. Nevertheless, it is an achievable goal that I am excited to get working on.

Living in Ohio, I see a lot of flat farmland, and overall not a lot of elevation change. This trip was a nice change of scenery, even if the elevation was challenging at times. It definitely made me appreciate the area I live in for ease of exercise and getting around.

All accompanying pictures are in my portfolio under "Maddie's Moments in the Grand Canyon as well as on my Instagram. See you next week!