Utah rocks...

When we leave Jackson Hole we drive over the Teton Pass in blizzard conditions to find that the the ongoing road back south is closed. So we're forced to ski another day, now in "Grand Targhee". Interesting skiing as the the top half we see literally nothing (all white) untill we get to the trees, which provides great powder and better sight for the second part of the descent. Because of these conditions there is hardly anybody on the hill. In the quiet and all white conditions on the top of the mountain we try to come to terms with some bad news from the home front. Nature and life can be incredibly beautiful and incredibly cruel at the same time. Our thoughts are with the Van de Ven / Hanse family. In the afternoon the weather clears and we continue south.

The plan was to go to the Grand Canyon, but a visitor centre in Salt Lake showing pics of all the Utah National Parks makes us decide to do a detour. We don't regret the decision for a minute, the next week we drive through some impressive countryside, visit five parks where we hike through arches, bridges, canyons, spires and what else, all made of red, orange white and pink rock, some of it dusted with a sprinkling of snow. We cross the Colorado River twice, upstream from the Grand Canyon and get an absolute overdose of spectacular and overwhelmingly beautiful landscapes. This is the country of John Wayne and Butch Cassidy and behind every corner there is another great shot, difficult to keep your eyes on the road or walking trail. To top it all off, the icing on the cake, we get to the Grand Canyon, and grand it is...

We try our luck at the Grand Canyon offices to try and get a 'backcountry permit', which are mostly booked out 11 months in advance. You need a backcountry permit to hike down the Grand Canyon and stay overnight at the bottom of the canyon. We are very lucky and get the last permit of the day! We spend the night in a tent in bloody cold conditions (minus 4) on top of the rim (which lies at about 2100meter above sealevel) and the next day start our descent on the South Kaibab Trail. About 300 meters down the trail we see a huge condor, just sitting 20 or 30 meters away from us, incredible. The trail down still has some very small patches of ice/snow on it and is reasonably steep, the panaoramic views underway are magnificent. From top to bottom of the canyon is a vertical drop of almost 1500 meters and it takes us about 4,5 hours to get down to the Colorado River and campground. Where on the rim the condtions were still like winter, on the bottom spring has started. We spend the afternoon snoozing in the sun on the edge of the river. The hike back up promises to be tough and long and we make an early start, which turns out to be an excellent plan. The first couple of hours we walk comfortably in the coolness of the shade of the canyon and by the time it heats up through the day we climbed enough to be in a higher and thus cooler environment. We manage to do the hike back up on the Bright Angel Trail in about 5,5 hours, not bad at all! A bit sore but otherwise perfectly fine we get in the car to make a start towards the city of lights: Las Vegas!