Total descent: 5691', ascent: 6436', FS says distance was 25 miles

Marianne sent us coffee cake which was perfect for our early start (4 am) this morning before anything was open. We ate and drank as much as possible. The canyon has a forecast of 109* today. The early start was to beat the heat.

I can't begin to tell how spectacular today's hike was every step of the way. The inner gorge was special just because only hikers could get there. The two rim hikes were significantly different to hike because of the direction each faces. We were at the trailhead before sunrise so we started hiking with a Petzel and a Photon. We got sunrise shots.

We were at Phantom Ranch by 8am, drank lemonade and left immediately for Cottonwood Camp on Bright Angel Creek in the inner gorge. We ate and napped at Cottonwood in the shade. The next mile and a half to the Pump House in the sun was the only hot part of the day. Climbing out with vegetation shade and then in the shade of the wall made the temperature manageable for the rest of the day.

After all the warnings by the Park Service, we completed the rim-to-rim in one day. We have to say that this hike is probably not for the average person though.

The final 1.6 miles climbed 1400'. That was demanding at the end of 21 miles! At the top we sat with the group from Indianapolis that we had been leap-frogging with in the afternoon. Their van gave us a ride to the campground, saving us an off-trail mile. Nice!

We camped with Edward in the hiker/biker campsite. Nearby was the Indianapolis group and commercial Backroads group from Berkeley, CA. They gave us so much of their "spare" food that we took the extras to the Indy group of students.

We slept like rocks.