Rim Trail!

The next morning we woke up (BARELY - see previous post about freezing our faces off in the tent, yikes!) to a gorgeous morning with elk munching on leaves in our campsite. We hiked all day long on the Rim Trail which is exactly what it sounds like - a gorgeous, winding trail that hugs the South Rim of the Canyon. It was BEAUTIFUL! It was really quiet and we only crossed paths with a few people, mostly at the drive-up scenic outcroppings (because, really, we were the only crazy ones who were braving the cold weather, it seems. Most normal people were driving from one scenic stop to the other).

I'm not the biggest fan of heights, so pretty much the whole day I had tinglies in my legs (aka "the jimmy legs") and kept saying to Rob "CAREFUL!" because he, unlike me, had no fear of going straight to the edge to look down. There are no railings along the path and one false step and bye bye! I'm sure I sounded like a worried mother, but there it is. We're both still alive.

I love the total disregard for the Danger sign.

Look, Ma, no hands!

Grover didn't seem to be afraid of heights...

One of the coolest parts of the day - we asked some random guy on a Harley to take our picture at one of the scenic spots and we chatted with him and his 2 friends. Ends up, one of the guys was Alex Van Halen! He was super nice and funny - we had a great time talking to them. And, I fully admit I usually suffer from "Famous People Syndrome" when I continually think people are famous and they aren't (see prior post on "Mark Wahlberg", but this really was him - Rob is my fact-checker. :)

There are no words...

Hiking..

Hanging on for dear life:

Nothing tastes better than a PB&J with the whole canyon in front of you.

One of the funniest parts of the day was our poor planning. We hiked 8 miles one way to the Hermit's Lodge and had planned to take the shuttle back. We got there around 3 in the afternoon only to find....the shuttle doesn't freakin' run during the winter months! OMG! It was impossible to make it back with the dwindling amount of daylight and there was NO WAY I'd hike that close to the edge in dark. Makes my palms sweat just thinking about it. So, we did the thing you're never supposed to do and hitchhiked with some college kids in their car back to ours. In our defense, they were French kids so I somehow knew we'd be safe. Logic? Dunno.

And some more pics to enjoy: