Summer vacations, past and future
Have fun with everything from a backyard picnic to playing golf. Having fun is not something the pandemic can take away from us.
Saturday June 20 is the first day of summer. That’s when the carefree days of summer will officially be here. I have always thought summer is such a fun time of year because we can be outside so much of the time.
Swimming, bike riding, working in the yard and going to the beach are all activities we get to enjoy outside. We can get in the hammock in the back yard and read a good book. We can ride to the mountains and hike or we could take a cruise. We can take a camping trip to the mountains, visit historic sites and museums, play golf, go to the lake for boat rides and skiing, and we can go to Six Flags Over Georgia and Stone Mountain.
Best of all, we can go on vacation — and I am reminded of some great vacations I’ve enjoyed. Like ...
Backpacking in the
Grand Canyon
My son, Paul, is an Eagle Scout so he is an experienced hiker. He and I have been backpacking in the Grand Canyon three times. It was fun planning those trips and deciding what trails we would hike and the locations of the campgrounds. We did our homework well in advance of the trip.
One of the first things we found out was that backpacking in the Grand Canyon requires a permit, which has to be displayed at all times on your backpack. The permits are mailed to you and, based on the dates of your trip, there are deadlines which must be met.
There is nothing like the American Southwest. Paul and I thoroughly enjoyed backpacking out west and I am glad we had the opportunity to go.
Bright Angel Trail
The Bright Angel Trail is the main trail, on the south rim of the Grand Canyon, where tourists hike or ride mules into the canyon. Wranglers lead the mule caravans into the canyon.
Phantom Ranch is at the bottom of the Grand Canyon. We began our hike on the Bright Angel Trail. Views from the trail are a sight to behold. Within a mile of Phantom Ranch, you can hear the Colorado River before you see it.
Most of the hikers are from California, Arizona and New Mexico. They are impressed to meet hikers from Georgia and are somewhat surprised that anybody would make the trip out west all the way from Georgia. Interestingly, they know all about the A.T. (Appalachian Trail) and that we train there in preparation for the Grand Canyon hiking.
Park ranger talk
The Grand Canyon park ranger at Phantom Ranch gave a talk one night. The ranger’s name was Pam. The Havasupai Indians had recently honored her with an invitation to a “find.” That is an eight day hiking trip, in the canyon, and you have to find the trail.
I always believed those switchback (trails) we hiked had probably not always been there and I was right. Pam told us all about her hike and her experiences
discovering the trail.
Indian Springs
We had fun camping at Phantom Ranch for two nights and taking day hikes along the Colorado River. Y’all, there are waterfalls in the bottom of the canyon. It is beautiful. When we packed up and left Phantom Ranch, we hiked halfway out of the canyon to a place called Indian Springs and camped there for one night.
At sundown we hiked to Prospect Point, which overlooks the Colorado River. You haven’t lived until you hike in the Grand Canyon under a bright, full moon to an overlook of the Colorado River.
Zion and Bryce Canyon
One year, what began as a planned trip to the north rim of the Grand Canyon morphed into a trip to Zion and Bryce Canyon in southwest Utah. We didn’t backpack Zion or Bryce but took day hikes.
We enjoyed seeing the colorful limestone rock of Bryce Canyon called “hoodoos.” At Zion we hiked trails around massive sandstone cliffs. Pronghorn antelope, the second fastest land animal in the world, live at Zion.
We saw them while we were hiking one day. They lie down and blend right into the scenery.
Zion has a famous trail called the Narrows, so named because there is a place where the trail narrows and the Virgin River becomes the trail. We didn’t get to make that hike, however, because the river was really moving that day and was too dangerous to hike.
Vacations, like the ones about which I’ve written today, are fun. They leave us with many great memories.
Even though the pandemic has significantly curtailed travel, and most of the national parks out west are currently closed, we can still have fun this summer. Have fun with everything from a backyard picnic to playing golf. Having fun is not something the pandemic can take away from us. Roman Pam Walker is a paralegal, a writer, an avid cyclist, history enthusiast, and an ardent reader of Southern fiction. She is the author of “People, Places, and Memories of Rome.” Readers may email her at
pamterrellwalker@gmail.com.