Southwest Day 4

Got up very early (5:45 am) to head out to trailhead. Met up with a ranger tour at 7 am at Yaki Point to hike the South Kaibab Trail. There were about 25 people in the group, led by Ranger Mike. He took us down to Ooh Aah Point and Cedar Ridge. He said only 5% of canyon visitors go below the rim. We hiked through "ocean," "desert," and "inland lake" levels of canyon. Very interesting. Hike was many switchbacks, but not too difficult. 3 miles roundtrip, 1100 foot elevation gain.

Met the Hughes family on the hike: Mom, Dad and two boys ages 10 and 8. Talking with them helped pass the time. We had snacks with them at Cedar Ridge and took eachother's pictures. Beautiful views. Hiked back up and the kids were troopers. J & the 10-year-old took off ahead and beat us to the top by a lot. We never saw them above us on the switchbacks. The rest of us took about 50 minutes to go back up.

Headed to Mather Ranger Station to get Jr. Ranger stuff, then back to camp for lunch and rest during the heat of the day. Very HOT! Kids cooled off by spraying water at eachother from their water bottles.

Then we went on the Rim Trail to Hermit's Rest via shuttle. We got out and hiked Powell to Mohave. M lost his Tetons hat in the extreme wind. (There were storms all around, but the rain missed us.) Kids were concerned about their hats and B was concerned about himself. "You'd be scared, too, if you only weighed 58 pounds!"

Took shuttle back to camp and had quick sandwich supper in order to catch at least part of the 7:00 campfire porgram, where the kids planned to meet up with their new friends. After campfire we had early bedtime.