{"id":3402,"date":"2014-09-12T21:48:32","date_gmt":"2014-09-13T02:48:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/?p=3402"},"modified":"2014-09-12T21:48:32","modified_gmt":"2014-09-13T02:48:32","slug":"grand-canyon-bright-angel-trail","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/2014\/09\/grand-canyon-bright-angel-trail.html","title":{"rendered":"Grand Canyon: Bright Angel Trail"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"One<\/a>

One of my favorite photos ever. My boys enjoying America’s beauty.<\/p><\/div>\n

On the 2nd full day of our Grand Canyon trip, we decided to get an early start and hit the Bright Angel Trail.<\/p>\n

The Bright Angel Trail<\/a> originates at the heart of the “touristy” part of the South Rim Grand Canyon park. It’s a well-maintained trail, in part because this is the trail that the mules use for those tours. Because of the accessibility, it’s definitely more crowded than the remote Hermit’s Trail.<\/p>\n

We drove our vehicle from the campground and found some parking about 1\/2 mile from the trailhead.<\/p>\n

\"At<\/a>

At the Bright Angel Trailhead, which is adjacent to the Bright Angel Lodge.<\/p><\/div>\n

The trail itself is very easy to negotiate. The kids had no problems, and I didn’t even have to worry about their getting too close to the edge; there was plenty of width to most of the trail.<\/p>\n

In addition, we went early enough in the morning that much of the trail was still in shadow, although on our way back up to the rim, it became quite sunny.<\/p>\n

\"IMG_9785\"<\/a>

If you get up close and personal below the rim, you find quite a bit of wildlife. I was surprised at how many trees and animals could be seen.<\/p><\/div>\n

We hiked approximately 1 1\/2 miles down the trail, perhaps 750′ down. We were attempting to go down five layers: that was the goal Jacob had set. He wanted to see the iron-rich Redwall Limestone layer. We barely got down to that layer before I decreed we needed to turn around. I got too nervous to go any further with the boys.<\/p>\n

It’s important to remember that any venture down below the rim requires you to come back UP from any distance you choose to descend. This makes for a very daunting task. I was constantly worried that, the further we descended, the more difficult it would be for Timmy to come back up. He isn’t as enthusiastic about hiking as his brother.<\/p>\n

However, Timmy did just fine. He enjoyed the Grand Canyon hikes quite a bit.<\/p>\n

We spent just over two hours on the hike. We took several breaks on the way up, stopping for snacks and water. We talked to several other parties who were hiking at about the same speed\u00a0we were. It’s remarkable learning how far away people travel to see the Grand Canyon.<\/p>\n

After we got back up to the rim, we stopped for ice cream at the Bright Angel Lodge soda fountain.<\/p>\n

If you ever go to the Grand Canyon, take a trip below the rim! You’ll be glad you did. The geology is amazing! The Bright Angel Trail is perfect for beginners.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On the 2nd full day of our Grand Canyon trip, we decided to get an early start and hit the Bright Angel Trail. The Bright Angel Trail originates at the heart of the “touristy” part of the South Rim Grand Canyon park. It’s a well-maintained trail, in part because this is the trail that the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[1],"tags":[523,551,522,552,37],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5ycQ0-SS","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":3567,"url":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/2015\/01\/june-july-vacation-summary.html","url_meta":{"origin":3402,"position":0},"title":"June\/July 2014 Vacation Summary","date":"01 January 15","format":false,"excerpt":"Our June\/July 2014 summer vacation to the American southwest was fun and filled with National Park goodness. We are grateful for\u00a0the National Park Service's \"Military Annual Pass\" program which saved us nearly $80 in entrance fees on this trip. Here's the summary of everything we did: Drive to Durango Durango\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"arizona\"","img":{"alt_text":"IMG_9830","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/IMG_9830-1024x768.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3281,"url":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/2014\/07\/a-grand-canyon-preview.html","url_meta":{"origin":3402,"position":1},"title":"A Grand Canyon Preview","date":"29 July 14","format":false,"excerpt":"I \u00a0have several posts to write about our trip out west in June, but between my full time work and making sure the kids are squared away this summer, I've been quite slow. Feel free to browse these Grand Canyon photo albums and at the end of this post I'll\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"arizona\"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/IMG_9772-1-1024x768.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3388,"url":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/2014\/09\/grand-canyon-hermit-trail-hermits-rest.html","url_meta":{"origin":3402,"position":2},"title":"Grand Canyon: The Hermit Trail & Hermit’s Rest","date":"01 September 14","format":false,"excerpt":"We had made it clear to the boys that we would be hiking at least part of our two days at the Grand Canyon. I saw a list of family-friendly activities in the park summer guide. We chose the Junior Ranger Family Adventure Program, in which families can descend down\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"grand canyon\"","img":{"alt_text":"Hermit's Rest is on the far western end of the South Rim of Grand Canyon National Park.","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/IMG_9685-1024x768.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3474,"url":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/2014\/12\/grand-canyon-junior-ranger.html","url_meta":{"origin":3402,"position":3},"title":"Grand Canyon: Our Junior Ranger","date":"31 December 14","format":false,"excerpt":"Timmy earned his first National Park Service Junior Ranger badge while we were at the Grand Canyon. He was required to complete several age-appropriate activities in a workbook (which includes things like taking observations, coloring pictures, answering questions, and writing a poem about the park), attend an age-appropriate Ranger-led program,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"grand canyon\"","img":{"alt_text":"Timmy performed all the tasks to earn Junior Ranger. He then had to pledge to respect nature and the environment before earning his Junior Ranger badge.","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/DSC_0277-1024x678.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3337,"url":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/2014\/08\/colorado-discoveries-40-mesa-verde-np.html","url_meta":{"origin":3402,"position":4},"title":"Colorado Discoveries 40: Mesa Verde National Park","date":"31 August 14","format":false,"excerpt":"This post is about the first of the four national parks we visited on our southwest vacation. We tried to jam this visit in during our drive to the Grand Canyon, and it was admittedly a really tight fit. We spent about 3 hours in the park, but it could\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"colorado\"","img":{"alt_text":"DSC_2002","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/08\/DSC_2002-1024x678.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3930,"url":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/2015\/08\/utah-discoveries-11-alta-ski-area.html","url_meta":{"origin":3402,"position":5},"title":"Utah Discoveries 11: Alta Ski Area","date":"24 August 15","format":false,"excerpt":"For our last day in Utah, we decided to make the trek over to Alta Ski Area, which is one canyon south of Park City. It seems so simple, but in reality, what we had to do was take a route that was a\u00a0270 degree loop that was ~40 miles\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"alta\"","img":{"alt_text":"This was a shot I took in between snow showers at the top of the one of the numerous mountain peaks at Alta Ski Area.","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/IMG_1096-1024x768.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3402"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3402"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3402\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3424,"href":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3402\/revisions\/3424"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3402"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3402"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3402"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}