November 20-21, 2005
The main event of this trip was a two day hike from the South Rim to the North Rim and then back. The total distance was 42 miles with about 10,000 feet of elevation gain. We started out before sunrise on Sunday at the South Kaibab trailhead. We followed the South Kaibab trail to the bottom of the canyon where we picked up the North Kaibab trail at Phantom Ranch. We then followed the North Kaibab trail all the way up to the North Rim. We camped near the North Kaibab trailhead on the North Rim where temperatures that night went as low as 12 deg. F (at least that's the lowest I read on my thermometer).
The next morning, because of the cold, we didn't get out of our sleeping bags until after sunrise. We then retraced our steps down the North Kaibab trail and back up the South Kaibab trail, finally getting back up the South Rim around 8:45pm.
November 22, 2005
After our hike we spent a day resting and going to see all the tourist type attractions on the South Rim. We started at the National Geographic Visitor's Center where we saw the Grand Canyon IMAX movie. Then we went to the official visitor center in the park before hoping on the Grand Canyon shuttle bus to look at the vista points on the way to the Hermit's Rest trailhead. After that we took the Desert View Drive out to the various vista points that offered a pretty spectacular view of the canyon and the painted desert.