Click on Picture to Enlarge

Heritage Highlands Grand Canyon Adventure by Gary B.

On February 29 thru March 2, 2004, 48 Heritage Highlands Hikers (HHHikers), friends and relatives trekked down into the Grand Canyon and stayed at Phantom Ranch.

The average age of the HHHikers was 61.6. The average age of the friends and relatives was 52.7. We had 4 hikers over the age of 70.

The group collectively took over 1600 digital pictures of our adventure. Al Lively and Jan Flory received disks of all these pictures and whittled it down to 160 pictures. That in it self was quite a task. Al Lively choreographed these pictures to music and created a 30 minute DVD that is a real tear jerker. The DVD was played at our post Grand Canyon Survivor Party and there was not a dry eye in the house. A copy of this DVD was given to each Grand Canyon Hiker. HHHikers that did not partake in the Grand Canyon adventure might find it very interesting to borrow and view the DVD. It should be noted, that DVD players over a year old, may not have the capability to play the computer generated DVD. Al Lively told me that five of us, including me have gone out and purchased new DVD players just so we could watch the pictures at home.

I personally took 214 pictures on our G.C. adventure. Forty of these pictures are now on our HHHiker Web Site. There were so many great pictures, it was quite difficult to pare the 214 pictures down to 40. I originally told Steve Wacker , our HHHiker Web Master, that I would provide 30 pictures. I now realize what a difficult task Al and Jan had.

The logistics of our G.C. adventure were as such that all of us would not be hiking down and staying at Phantom Ranch at the same time. Thirty hiked down on February 29^th. Thirteen of us stayed down for two nights and the remaining 17 hiked back out on March 1^st. On March 1^st an additional 19 hikers trekked down and stayed one night. The following morning (March 2^nd) the remaining 31 of us hiked out together. On the hike down into the Grand Canyon and the hike back out, we were scattered all over the trail. We did not hike in one large group, but we hiked in many small groups of 2 to 6 hikers. We hiked together with our close friends of similar hiking abilities. It was stressed that we all hike in groups and that no one hike alone. As a result, my 40 digital pictures of the original 214, center around the hikers that I personally hiked with on the trails.

Prior to our adventure, Barb Farr, Jan Flory and Lila Brown volunteered to document the trip. Barb Farr’s notes were given to Jan Johns, a Heritage Highlands friend, who then composed two articles for local newspapers. A short article was published in the March 25, 2004 edition of the Northwest Explorer. We expect the longer article to be published in the April 1, 2004 edition of the Arizona Daily Star.

In addition to the 40 Grand Canyon pictures that are on the HHHiker Web Site, the following notes are posted: Click on Links below

Barb’s notes describing the first groups trek down to Phantom Ranch on February 29^th, that night and the trek out on March 1^st.

Jan’s notes describe the second group’s trek down on March 1^st .

Lila’s notes describe the trek out on March 2^nd.

This trip completes over 2 years worth of planning, but all involved came away with a grand experience and memories to last a lifetime.