06:10 pm - Saddle Mountain camp

I am camped at the saddle next to Saddle Mountain and the top of the Nankoweap Trail. I got here around 530. It has been a long day and it will feel good to crash early.

I was up at 4am and out of the house at 430. I got to Yavapai Point on the south rim just about 10 minutes before sunrise. It was glorious, as usual. There was some kind of special Easter sunrise service at Mather Point and there were about a thousand people over there for that.

After sunrise I went over to the El Tovar for breakfast. I had a breakfast quesadilla and it was very good but the service level was a little off for the El Tovar. It was very crowded and that likely had a lot to do with it as service at the El Tovar is usually exemplary.

I did some shopping and picked up food for dinner tonight and breakfast tomorrow morning. I am just having ham sandwiches with potato chips tonight and I have a cinnamon bun for breakfast tomorrow.

I spent too much time shopping and getting away from the south rim and ended up about an hour behind my planned schedule, which is why I am here so late. I wanted to be here earlier but it's actually cold and windy and there isn't much to do. After I finish this entry I will have dinner, crawl into the tent, read for a while and then go to sleep.

The hike up to the saddle wasn't bad and the temperature was in the upper 60s with plenty of sunshine. The sun is going down now and the temperature is dropping and the wind is absolutely wild. I remember it being very windy here last year too but I know I still slept well. Hopefully I will tonight as well. I ended up sleeping very well last night.

There is some snow on the north rim but I didn't hit any along the trail. You can tell there was some here not too long ago as the soil is not completely dry yet and is sort of muddy in spots. That little creek that was full of muddy snow melt last year is not running at all this year. There are some pools of water here and there but it is mostly dry. I can't tell if there is anything running in the Marion-Seiber canyon because the wind won't let up long enough to hear anything else.

I had lunch at Vermillion Cliffs between 1 and 2 or so and didn't get to the trailhead until close to 3. It took about a half hour to pack everything up and finally get moving. There are two other cars at the trailhead and I met the owner of one of them as he was hiking out. We talked a while and he has been here about a week.