NYT/Grand Canyon Hike in Winter story

[TwinMom+1]

http://travel.nytimes.com/2009/11/29/travel/29canyon.html?pagewanted=1&ref=travel

My new life's goal, after reading this article. Makes a lot of sense - hiking in winter, when crowds are gone and the cooler weather makes it more pleasant. Check out the slide show which presents many of the images used in the print edition's story, especially my favorite below:

http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2009/11/29/travel/20091129-canyon-slideshow_6.html

I'm not up for the mule ride but the thought of experiencing the multiple colors of the geology from the prism of the snow makes me want to hop on a plane like right now.

 

[Snowflea]

Nice article. I particularly concur with the author's thoughts on trails in general:

But before we left, from the rim I saw a trail, pale as chalk, winding down a huge slope beneath a cliff. There’s something about a trail seen from far away. That thread snaking over the landscape — where does it go, who uses it, why does it seem so intimate with the land? And why does it arouse such an intense longing to follow it?

It's an incredible place. For the past three years, I've done a rim-to-rim-to-rim "run" (with the word in quotation marks because we always seem to do more walking & gawking than actual running). IMHO it should be on every hiker's bucket list.

 

[RiseAboveHiker]

Agreed. I hiked it in 2002 from 12/27 to 12/30 with New Years spent in Vegas. At the rim there was snow and ice (we brought crampons but didn't need them), but soon we were hiking in T-shirts. We camped at night where it got down to 30-degrees. Great time, worth doing again... and again.