Every time Garry (my father-in-law) would go on one of his famous hikes, I was either pregnant or nursing. To my good fortune this time I could go. We are hiking down the Grand Canyon on the Lava Falls trail....which is very remote. We left on Wednesday, April 8th and drove 3 hours to get to the Toroweap look off point. We came home late the next night on Thursday, April 9th, 2009. We scouted around the area and took some pictures. We found the campgrounds and found the coolest camping spot. It was really neat...sorry no picture. We took off first thing in the morning to the Lava Falls trail. We started hiking around 9 am.... 
When we first got there the men just had to get way too close for my comfort.
Okay, so I eventually warmed up and had to take my picture on the edge too.
So, this is the beginning of an adventure...it started out fine for the first 5 minutes down the trail. But then Garry's friend Martin had to complicate things. We stopped at a point where there were two trails...one to the left and one to the right. Garry having been on this hike 2 other times said to go to the right. Nate, myself, and Garry took off to the right, but Martin (who has never been on the trail before) left by himself on the other trail. Things were going great, we saw the markers for the trail and kept going down the 2,500 feet to get to the Colorado River.
We hiked for around 3 hours until we got ledged up on a cliff. We couldn't go anywhere but back up the trecherous and very steep lava falls trail! We all just couldn't believe this was happening. How did we get off on the wrong trail?
We yelled for Martin, who was on the other side of what I describe as a wash with steep cliffs on both sides. He is going down the wash to pick up the real trail. Good Luck! We continue to hike up and take lots of breaks...going back up is like straight up...almost. By the time we come to where we think we got off on the real trail we figure it is too late to go all the way back down to the river and hike all the way back up from the bottom. We would be hiking out in the dark. Not my idea of fun.
We keep going up the marked trail until there is no more trail. Not one of us can find a trail anywhere. I still don't understand it, we were all looking and agreeing on which way to go. So, we just start climbing up the rocks and making our own trail up the canyon. We know which way we came in so we just went and went and went. We finally found the first trail we had started on and were so glad to have some direction. We finally got out of the canyon at 3:40pm. Martin is still on his own and we don't where he is or if he is hurt.
We scramble over to the bush where Martin had put his keys to the SUV. We can't find them. We hunt every surrounding bush, we can't find them. We pray. We still can't find them. For the next 2 hours we pulled out and shook every bush in the area of where Martin put his keys with no luck. Finally Martin shows up. We are glad he made it back and got to the river. We ask him if he has the keys...he does. He forgot to tell us that he forgot his water and went back to get it and forgot to put the keys back in the bush he had shown us. Needless to say, I was just glad to get into the car and drive away. I was a little disappointed on not being able to finish the whole hike down to the river, but I will NOT do that hike again. Garry felt bad because he has always finished his hikes and never gotten lost before. Needless to say that was a huge adventure and I was sore the next two days. If I go on another hike with him again....okay so I totally would. It was fun after the fact!
When we first got there the men just had to get way too close for my comfort.
Okay, so I eventually warmed up and had to take my picture on the edge too.
So, this is the beginning of an adventure...it started out fine for the first 5 minutes down the trail. But then Garry's friend Martin had to complicate things. We stopped at a point where there were two trails...one to the left and one to the right. Garry having been on this hike 2 other times said to go to the right. Nate, myself, and Garry took off to the right, but Martin (who has never been on the trail before) left by himself on the other trail. Things were going great, we saw the markers for the trail and kept going down the 2,500 feet to get to the Colorado River.
We hiked for around 3 hours until we got ledged up on a cliff. We couldn't go anywhere but back up the trecherous and very steep lava falls trail! We all just couldn't believe this was happening. How did we get off on the wrong trail?
We yelled for Martin, who was on the other side of what I describe as a wash with steep cliffs on both sides. He is going down the wash to pick up the real trail. Good Luck! We continue to hike up and take lots of breaks...going back up is like straight up...almost. By the time we come to where we think we got off on the real trail we figure it is too late to go all the way back down to the river and hike all the way back up from the bottom. We would be hiking out in the dark. Not my idea of fun.
We keep going up the marked trail until there is no more trail. Not one of us can find a trail anywhere. I still don't understand it, we were all looking and agreeing on which way to go. So, we just start climbing up the rocks and making our own trail up the canyon. We know which way we came in so we just went and went and went. We finally found the first trail we had started on and were so glad to have some direction. We finally got out of the canyon at 3:40pm. Martin is still on his own and we don't where he is or if he is hurt. 
We scramble over to the bush where Martin had put his keys to the SUV. We can't find them. We hunt every surrounding bush, we can't find them. We pray. We still can't find them. For the next 2 hours we pulled out and shook every bush in the area of where Martin put his keys with no luck. Finally Martin shows up. We are glad he made it back and got to the river. We ask him if he has the keys...he does. He forgot to tell us that he forgot his water and went back to get it and forgot to put the keys back in the bush he had shown us. Needless to say, I was just glad to get into the car and drive away. I was a little disappointed on not being able to finish the whole hike down to the river, but I will NOT do that hike again. Garry felt bad because he has always finished his hikes and never gotten lost before. Needless to say that was a huge adventure and I was sore the next two days. If I go on another hike with him again....okay so I totally would. It was fun after the fact!
