Vacation Planning

This morning my wife and I went for a walk and she expressed a desire to hike rim-to-rim in the Grand Canyon. This is kind of like her idea of climbing Mt. Rainier. While it sounds like fun, it is not something you think about and then do the next day. there is a lot of training involved and requires about a year of preparation. Even then, there is no guarantee you will be successful.

As we walked, we talked about the logistics required for such an adventure. Do we start at the North Rim and hike to the South Rim? Do we stay at the lodges on each rim? How long is the hike and what is the expected elevation gain? We talked through some of the details, most importantly that we would do south to north. While it is a 22-mile hike, the drive requires 4 hours and needs to be factored into the planning.

Most vacations require some planning and the Internet has become very useful for such adventures. In the past, you might have to go through travel magazines or books to find information. Now you just use your favorite search engine and all the data you need is at your fingertips. Everything from lodging to tips for training. You can even find videos of someone else doing the same thing.

We came home from our walk and I immediately looked at lodging options. Sometimes staying in one of our National Parks requires reservations be made over a year in advance, other times you can't make reservations until after January. Fortunately we can reserve our lodging now, provided we avoid a few important dates.

My wife wants to do the adventure with some of her coworkers and so she needed to go to the office to confirm dates. She knows which ones to avoid and we should be able to make plans soon. Now all we need to do is to develop a training plan. And stick to it, of course.