KTCHSRMBT

We still haven't updated you all on our trip to South Dakota for the Buffalo Round-Up or told you about the Chuska Challenge bike ride (for a sneak peak of how the day went, check out the end of Julie's post). But we're off again tomorrow and wanted to give you all a heads up.

We're headed to the Grand Canyon! We've been before, but this time we're BACKPACKING it! After visiting us last year and seeing the canyon from the rim, Aaron and Amanda determined that they would come back to hike down to the bottom and back out. So, they're flying out, and joining us, Dave and Julie to do just that! They sure are picking quite a locale for their debut backpacking trip EVER, this is the best time of year to do it, and we'd like to think we'll be half-way decent guides, so it should be a blast! We're hitting the trail first thing Friday and hiking out 24 miles and some 8,000 ft. of elevation change later on Sunday afternoon.

One of the things we've read about preparing for such a hike is to study up on the canyon's rock layers as a way to orient yourself. Someone created this mnemonic phrase to help remember the layers:

Know
The
Canyon's
History,
Study
Rocks
Made
By
Time.

(Okay, so I've got that sentence down, know if I only knew what rock layers they correspond to...and how that would help me...! And did anyone notice in the linked site that there's apparently one layer missing from the mnemonic--you're just supposed to remember it? What kind of mnemonic is that?!)