Day 3 (Mon Jun 9, 2014): Grand Canyon National Park (South Rim)

Pullthrough spot #202. Was one of the few spots left since I reserved only a few days before leaving for the trip. You can usually secure a spot in Mather if you reserve in advance (even if only a few days). If you show up the day of, you probably won't be able to get a spot.

At the "amphitheater area" with rock cairns. I decided to hike down during the morning because check-in time for the Bright Angel Lodge was not until 4PM.

At Indian Gardens. This is a favorite spot of mine, but there's always a lot of squirrels trying to beg for food. I decided to go all the way for the total 12-mile hike!

Headed out onto the Tonto Plateau. At Indian Gardens, the Bright Angel Trail continues down to the right to the river. The Plateau Point Trail continues to the left to Plateau Point. At 2:10, a view of the Bright Angel Trail.

More views of the upcoming trail.

Final section towards the overlook. 360 pan at around 0:20.

Junction with Tonto Trail. It's inadvisable to hike on that backcountry trail unless you really are prepared and know what you're doing!

O'Neill Butte is at 0:30. The Battleship is viewable from the first section of Bright Angel (nearer to the rim). Duh!

Just a note: while I absolutely love videoing and documenting my hikes, it's sometimes a pain to take out and put back camera equipment. I understand why people use GoPro-type cameras that are just mounted to the forehead for the entire hike.

While I think the camcorder I'm using is much superior in quality, and while it is very easy to use, it still has to be taken out of the backpack. Sometime I just hold it for an extended period of time while hiking, but then I worry about dust, damage, etc. Minor grievances, but since this is my site then I'm allowed, right?!

C&B water access pipe at 0:30.

Tourist helicopter from Vegas? Doesn't look like an NPS chopper. Great camcorder resolution means that I'm clearly able to read the registration number at about 0:39 or so: N838PA

I lament the difficulty in trying to get great footage and balance my heavy backpack!

Getting close to halfway through the hike. The easy part is about to be ending.

The drum contains a spigot that I don't remember from 2010. I met a park ranger who *suggested* or *told* me to wet my clothing down. Did I? Nope, I don't allow park rangers to control me! But, I probably should have. Might have been 100+ degrees in the Canyon.

Taking a panorama nearby the overlook itself. At 0:30, you can see how close I am to the edge. Careful!

A bunch of French tourists, perhaps? I'm at the overlook itself.

More videoing of Plateau Point, including solar panels at 0:35 and a river raft at 0:50.

I'm getting a panorama, no matter how many people are in the video! Viva la Plateau Point!

What a pleasure to be able to be the only person at Plateau Point. Exhilarating. Bright Angel Trail at 0:50.

Maybe the only reason I hiked out here was to get better-than-720p footage? That 720p footage from 2010 was inferior stuff!

The return hike begins. I didn't take any videos on the hike up.