You may follow along in our journey by visiting Julie's Journal page. It will include photographs, suggestions, mishap adventures and our experiences on the road and back-country trails.

If you would like to know more about the history of our adventure click here for the history page. How we planned, saved money, chose our equipment and prepared for ten months on the road.

These are some other web sites we found useful and/or have recpical links with.

written by Julie Hackler & David Fink

March 18, 1999 to March 27, 1999

Grand Canyon National Park, Arizona

The first I want to mention is the mules. At first they seem cute and I thought it might be neat to ride one. But I quickly changed my mind. The Bright Angel Trail is used by both hiker and mule. It's one to the most traveled. It is a 12.2-mile round trip hike to the plateau. The closest you can get to the Colorado River in a one day hike from the canyon rim. Well, the serenity of the trail soon diminishes as the train of mules passed by us leaving urine, crap and a thick smog of dust. Not to mention the wonderful smell they left behind. The four groups of about 10 riders each seemed unsuspecting of the nusciance they were causing. But the hikers were well aware. I'd advise against the trail, but unfortunately it offers the only view of the River up close without backpacking overnight. So you have to use your best judgement.

The second notable experience was when we were hiking the 6 mile round trip Hermit's Rest Trail to the Dripping Springs Trail. About a ¼ mile from the end we stumbled upon an old rockslide (not uncommon on the unmaintained trails) that blocked our path. Only this huge stone had an interesting characteristic. About 40 or so tiny footprints had been fossilized in the stone. It looked like a small reptile. We didn't think much about it then, only that it was neat and took a picture. Only when we went to the Yavapai Observation Station Museum about four days later and saw the same type of footprints on a stone encased in glass with a small label saying that they were reptile footprints 250 million years old did we know that we had saw something special. I looked at Dave and said, "We should tell a Ranger." So I did and they sent one of their rangers out the next day to find them. I haven't received any recognition for it yet, but hope to hear back from them what they really were. But a real nice ranger thanked me and said they would incorporate it into the geology studies and other programs.

P.S. We received an email from a ranger, Mr. Sudar, that said he may have been one of the rangers that we talked to. He said that he went out and checked the site a week later. He also said "The tracks of 16-18 different species of lizards and amphibians have been found in the Coconino Sandstone. The smaller tracks are most prevalent. No one has ever found the fossilized remains of the animals. Only the tracks (trace fossils). Scientist believe these tracks are the same lizards and amphibians found in the Permian sandstone in Texas."

The last was that the heater broke in the RV. The weather hadn't been too bad on us but a few nights it dipped into the 20's. We figured we could tough it out until we headed out to Colorado where we'd get it looked at. We had a sheet, two quilts, Grandma Castine's Navy blanket, my sleeping bag, sweatpants, sweatshirts, and socks on. We were toast warm at night but when we woke up and could see our breath it was tough to get out from under the covers. But we finally did to enjoy the rest of our time at the Canyon.

We went on a Ranger lead sunset walk, the same one I went on with my family in 1988. Only in 1988 the trail wasn't paved and I remember the sunset being beautiful. Our guide seemed like he already hit happy hour and the sunset wasn't all that spectacular. We watched it one other night on our own and enjoyed it a whole lot more.

We also took in the IMAX Theater. They've been playing the same show since 1984 but it is still a lot of fun. Nighttime has been a bit boring for me. It's too cold to be outside for to long and Dave has been keeping mainly to himself reading magazines. So I've been going a bit stir crazy. I finally convinced Dave to go into town and we bought UNO. It passes the time and is fun, especially when I win. We've had a lot of fun and enjoyed ourselves, but I was disappointed when we could not go white water rafting down the Colorado River like we planned. The outfitters here don't start until about mid April. So we'll have to do it some place else. Well on to Colorado to get the heater fixed!