I think Dreams by Fleetwood Mac is one of the best songs ever made. When you listen to Dreams you absolutely love it. You think “What an amazing song!”

However…you can also listen to Dreams, and instead of listening to the song as a whole, you can focus in on the individual parts. Listen to the bass line, then the drums, then back-up vocals. Every component of the song is amazing on its own. And after focusing on the individual components, you listen to the song with new appreciation.

And that’s what packing through the Grand Canyon is like.

You can sit and look at the Grand Canyon, and it is incredible. It’s breath-taking. It’s unbelievable. It kind of breaks your brain. The whole thing is right before you.

But when you pack through it, you get to immerse yourself in the individual parts, and it gives you a new appreciation for the whole.

So with that in mind, I’m gonna walk through the individual sections of the 3-day packing trip.

DAY ONE

Initial Descent

Part of this includes the 5-hour shuttle ride to the trailhead on the North Rim of the Canyon. Also of note is the old man who sat next to me. He was 83 years old, he had done the rim-to-rim trail 42 times, and he talked literally non-stop for the full five hours.

Alex and I got on the trail at 5:30. It was a solid hour of descent along a gentle run of switchbacks.

Cliff Hugging

From there it stopped being a gentle run. The trail was 4 feet wide with a straight wall up on one side and a straight drop down on the other side. I got vertigo more than once looking over the edge.

Night One

We ran out of daylight and did the last hour in the dark, then set up the tent, ate, went to bed.

The next morning…Woosh. Gorgeous.

DAY TWO

Cactus Fields

Bright morning and we headed through fields of prickly pears and tall yucca plants. (Take note of the yucca; it’ll come back later.) Also note the rattlesnake.

Slot Canyon

This was my favorite stretch of the whole trip. The canyon narrowed and we hiked along a verdant green stream with unreal rock walls lunging straight up. Every new turn would take your breath away. It got to the point where I would brace myself at every bend because the impact was so overwhelming.

Colorado River

We’d made it to the bottom – where it was 100 degrees with pounding sun. And at this point, I was done. Nothing left. And worse off, we were only halfway through the day and it had all been down hill. We still had 8+ miles and 1500+ feet to go. A mild panic started seeping in.

However…this is where experience kicks in. I’ve done enough packing trips to know that these things come, and they pass.

We set up under a tree with our feet in a creek. Cooked up some lunch. Waited out a few hours of heat.

The Red Steps

Killer climb. Up and up and up. Blazing hot. We saw a guy collapsed on the trail surrounded by two rangers, and later we saw a helicopter come get him.

Look at the photos here and pay attention to the river. You can see just how steep this climb was.

Tonto

Tonto Trail, which was a 6 flat miles along a single strata. Pretty monotonous terrain, but it’s the Grand Canyon, so no matter where you are, you look up and see rock walls, buttes, peaks, fins, spires. You’re inside a mountain range.

But the last two miles were agony. I felt like my crotch was filled with battery acid. My calves were cramping. 

Like zombies we staggered into the campsite. No chit-chat. No card games. We set up the tent, choked down dinner, went to bed.

DAY THREE

Plateau Point Substitute

A mile from our campsite is a famous overlook called Plateau Point. But that was closed. So we went on an adjacent trail hoping for a similar view, but got nothing. However, it did get us up and moving. Plus hiking without the pack on felt like levitating.

Bright Angel Climb

The last climb up, up, up, and up. Back and forth the trail wove up, and it’s just incredible because you’re going through distinct layers of rock. Red, ochre, bright white, sandstone. Up up up…

After 3 days, 34.7 miles, 5201 feet of descent, 6,716 feet of climbing….we had reached the South Rim.

AFTERMATH

Messages

My phone got reception and I had 255 text messages. At first I felt overwhelmed. But then it struck me just how many people I’m in daily contact with and how blessed I am for that.

Music

We had a whole list of songs we’d decided we wanted to listen to when we got out. It was a list of maybe 15 songs. As we drove out of the park, Alex queued them up. And I’m not ashamed to tell you that I cried through every one of them.

I was so raw and beat up and awestruck and glowing. I was processing this huge thing we’d just done. So don’t judge. I was emotional.

Pamela

An old friend from high school invited us to stop at her place for dinner. Alex and I sat on towels to protect her furniture from our filth. I had a rapturous beer. I met her husband and son. For two hours I got to catch up with an old friend and meet some new ones.

Night-Night

We drove the rest of the way to our hotel. We scrubbed ourselves pink in the shower. We laid in our hotel beds and then watched 5 straight episodes of the Golden Girls until we turned out the light.

DOWN DAY

We had a recovery day in Phoenix. We ran errands. We went to a movie. We moved slowly. Then we had our 4:00 appointment…

Alex and I have been plotting tattoos for years. Alex got a yucca plant. They were in the canyon, and it was a perfect way to mark the trip. 

My tattoo needs some explanation.

First off, that’s the National Park logo, but with some changes. I replaced the pine tree in the logo with a yucca to connect with Alex’s tattoo. And instead of the words reading “National Park Service” it reads “GOOD DADDY.”

You know how a parent says to a son: “Good boy!” or “Bad boy!” Well, when Alex was a kid he started scolding me “BAD DADDY!” when I did something he didn’t like (make him go to bed, say no to more cake, etc). Or once in a while when I did something he was happy about, I would get a “GOOD DADDY!” And that gag has continued up until today. So that’s the meaning of the words.

In truth, it is a truly ludicrous tattoo that condemns me to a lifetime of explaining what the heck it means.

But what it really means? Aside from the silly stuff? It means that I’m connected to my son in a way that has been built over his entire lifetime. 

From our first packing trip in 3^rd grade, to an annual overnight along the Appalachian Trail.

From the Adirondacks to the Grand Tetons to Yosemite, Zion, Rainier, Arches, Bryce Canyon, Olympic, Smokies, Congaree, Acadia… all the way to the Grand-mother-fuckin’-Canyon! Rim to rim, bitches!

Step by step by step by step, my son and I have built memories as grand as any canyon and more beautiful that any song.

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So do I have a truly idiotic tattoo? Yes. Yes I do.

But I really didn’t have a choice. Because none of these other images would fit on my leg.

Wind Gap Overnight, Appalachian Trail, 2015

New River Gorge National Park, 2025