It's just before 10:00, and we have just made it to the top of the Havasu trail and are very, very happy. It's also a little weird to discover how cold it is. We dump our packs and Linda immediately puts on warmer clothes.

On Day 5, we rose before 5 a.m. and headed back up the 8 miles of trail and 2000 feet to Hualapai Hilltop. I was determined to get there before it got hot, so the camera got put away, and I took no photos till we got to the top and started celebrating. Then drove to Grand Canyon South Rim, set up camp, watched the sunset, and got very cold very quickly. It was near freezing and it hailed around dinnertime.

Gallery pages: 1 2 3 4 5 >

< 5 of 39 >

elf1 > Linda displays our cool, tasty strawberry reward.

elf1 > The strawberries that we left in the cooler also survived our two-day absence, and we munch those in celebration.

elf1 > In the van, we were thrilled to see that our cooler still had ice and cold drinks in it. But we were already pondering warmer things.

elf1 > I gave up on my hiking boots, as they were so heavy and I was such a wimp. I wore my tennis shoes for the 8-mile trip out and they worked fine. They and my pants (and presumably Linda's legs) got a bit dusty, though.

elf1 > It's just before 10:00, and we have just made it to the top of the Havasu trail and are very, very happy. It's also a little weird to discover how cold it is. We dump our packs and Linda immediately puts on warmer clothes.

elf1 > Experiments in using the camera's timer. This one is a little posed.

elf1 > I like this one--we're done hiking, we're tired but happy and proud of ourselves, and spontaneously laughing.

elf1 > The high five for our spectacular success!

elf1 > Looking back at the beginning of the trail where it cuts across the cliff before heading into its downward switchbacks.

It's just before 10:00, and we have just made it to the top of the Havasu trail and are very, very happy. It's also a little weird to discover how cold it is. We dump our packs and Linda immediately puts on warmer clothes.