It was an odd place to be on New Years Eve but very nice none the less. I don't think there is a bad time to visit the Canyon but that's just me. July and August can be a bit brutal as far as the heat and the thunderstorms but even then there is just something about being there.

We had the late (7 am) breakfast at the Ranch and brought with us everything we would need for the day so that we could leave for Ribbon Falls right away afterwards. Breakfast never seems to take as long as dinner as people are usually very anxious to hit the trail. We were done by probably 7:20 and after a few minutes visit to the restrooms we were on the North Kaibab Trail and on our way to Ribbon Falls. The morning was overcast but it was very bright so I was hopeful that it would clear up. The weather has been absolutely perfect so far on the trip and I was getting greedy.

I was amazed at how long it took before we finally got through all of the schist along "The Box" section of the trail. I remembered this as being a lot shorter and I remembered very wrong. This was only my third time up this section of trail and the last time had been 9 years ago, for Robin's birthday. [No, dear, I won't tell them which one] Anyway, it just seemed to go on and on and I was very happy when we finally broke out of the schist and into the narrow valley that is middle Bright Angel Canyon. That happened at around 9:20.

I had not been up this way since the big flash flood of 1995 had come through and I was surprised by the devastation that it had left behind. Most of the vegetation had been completely destroyed and in its place were just piles and piles of boulders of all shapes and sizes. I was able to tell when looking at upper Bright Angel Canyon from the rim, that there had been a lot of damage caused by the flood by this was my first experience with it up close. It had now been almost 4 years since the flood and I wondered how long it would take the plants to re-colonize the place. Given the fact that it is technically a desert and that things don't grow very fast here it would probably take a very long time. Unfortunately the tamarisk would probably be the first to come back and they would make it a lot more difficult for other plants to take root.

The sun was out now and the day was clearing up. We hiked north for another hour before arriving at Ribbon Falls. We ignored the sign for the bridge and tried to ford Bright Angel Creek, which was a mistake. I was sure that it was low water but there didn't seem to be any good place to cross without getting wet. We followed the creek north and finally made our way up to the bridge that way but it would have been much easier if we had just stayed on the trail. Dumb and dumber was all I kept thinking to myself.

We hadn't seen any other people on the trail all morning and there was no one at Ribbon Falls so we had the place to ourselves for the hour and a half that we were there. First I ran around shooting pictures from all different angles and then we opened up the sack lunches that we got from the Ranch. We were surprised at all of the food and decided that we just were not hungry enough to eat it all. We had two sack lunches and each of them contained:

We ate all of one and some of the other and saved the rest for the hike out tomorrow.

After lunch I decided to hunt around for a supposed trail to Upper Ribbon Falls but never found it. I think I had a pretty good idea of where it should be but I never found any sign of a trail or route or any kind of human or animal access. After I returned home I confirmed that I was looking in the right place but I don't think there is really a trail there and it's probably even less than a route. There is simply a slope that you can scramble up to gain access to Upper Ribbon Falls but it is not marked and aparently not heavily used.

Back at Ribbon Falls I got out my water filter to proceeded to refill our water bottles for the hike back to Phantom Ranch. We started back around 12:30, by 1:30 pm we were back in the schist and at 3 pm we were back at the Ranch. It took us almost 3 hours to hike up to Ribbon Falls but only about 2 1/2 hours to hike back to the Ranch.

After we arrived at the Ranch I made a call out to the rim in search of a room for the following night and managed to get one at Maswik Lodge, Bright Angel Lodge was completely booked. We were originally scheduled to spend the night of New Years Day at Indian Gardens but I knew that it was going to be cold up there and a meal at the Arizona Steakhouse, a real bed, and another breakfast at the El Tovar won out.

After that we puttered around camp for a while and read some more of our books while waiting for the dinner bell again. A very strong and very warm wind came up late in the afternoon and the thermometer that had read 55 when we got back to camp earlier in the afternoon had now shot up to almost 65. It was strange and I could not figure out where the warmer air could be coming from. We were already at the very bottom of the Canyon and the warmest air should already be there. When it got too dark to read we again headed up to Phantom Ranch to wait there. Stew dinner again that night. I liked it just fine but I think Robin was getting tired of it. There's not much to do if you don't want to bring your own food down with you, as the Ranch only serves two meals, steak or stew, and the steak dinner was sold out for the nights that we were there. I think the stew dinner is better anyway.

After dinner we came back for the Beer Hall again which was not going to be open any later just because it was New Years Eve. This suited me just fine as when it closed at 10 pm it was midnight in Boston. We hooked up with the couple from San Diego again and had a very pleasant couple of hours just drinking and talking about the Canyon and hiking and other such stuff. When we returned to the campground it was very quite and most people were already asleep. So much for New Years Eve at the bottom of the Grand Canyon, not a lot different from any other day. That night was again very comfortable for sleeping and we got plenty of it.