Bright Angel - Part I

After the long hike down and a short nights rest, our bodies, particularly our muscles, weren't quite ready for the 12 mile hike within the canyon that we had planned for our fourth day. After a brief consultation with the crew over breakfast it was decided the morning would best be spent in leisure, relaxing in the canyon along the Bright Angel Creek. Strangely enough there wasn't much protest from anyone.

Morning light over the Colorado River.

I mistakenly left out my water bladder overnight and as we prepared our breakfast we noticed that we'd missed some visitors. We suspect the tracks were left by a few ringtails we'd spotted the previous night.

Another shot of the Bright Angel Creek near our campsite.

By mid-morning temps were already up in the 80's. We took frequent trips to the creek to cool off.

A few rain showers pass over us in early afternoon as we packed our gear in preparation for our hike on the Bright Angel Trail to Indian Gardens. On our hike out we stopped to take this picture of the Silver Bridge over the Colorado River as the storm clouds receded in the background.

We spotted this little guy alongside the trail.

More storm clouds approached us as we hiked, shading us from the mid-afternoon sun.

The largest storm of the day passed to our west as we ascended the canyon. While we remained dry, it did dumped a lot of rain in other portions of the canyon. Best of all it brought out this rainbow for our viewing pleasure.

Mammatus clouds that formed on the tail end of the storm.

As we neared Indian Gardens we came across this waterfall along the Bright Angel Creek.

Quent catches up along the Bright Angel Trail after wandering off with the camera once again.

The setting sun light off of the North Rim from our campsite at Indian Gardens.