I spent the weekend down in Arizona at an old friend's wedding. I have a running competition with this friend to see who travel and do the wackiest things in life. Up until this point I think I had a slight lead in the game, but not now. She and her fiancee are graduate students in geology at Arizona State, so they thought it would be appropriate to hold their wedding in their favorite place: the Grand Canyon. This was great news for me. Not only would I get to see my friends again, but I had an excuse to return to the Canyon. The only problem was that about fifty other people were headed out for the wedding too.

This is the first break of any sort that I have had since New Years, so I decided to make a four-day weekend out of it. I flew down on Wednesday night and tried to help out where I could. We had to rent extra sleeping bags and backpacks for some people. Had to get food. Then there was the whole problem of how to get a formal dress, some tuxes and the flowers and all down to the wedding site.

After the preparations were made and most of the people had arrived in Tempe/Phoenix, we all had to drive up to the National Park. The drive amazes me every time. You pass through like three or four very distinct environments from desert to foothills to plateau to canyon. From the south rim, the fun began.

About twenty people hiked down to the campground at Indian Gardens on Friday. This is a 4.6 mile (7.4km) hike down from 6860ft to about 3850ft. In the overall scheme of things, this is only about half of the altitude and distance to the main campground at the bottom of the canyon. But at any rate, this was quite a feat for our twenty hikers. We were all carrying a decent amount of gear for the night's stay. Everyone arrived by evening and the weather was cool. A few of us walked out to Plateau Pt. to see the sunset. So far, so good.

On Saturday morning, the remaining thirty people hiked down in the morning. It was raining off and on all morn, so everyone was getting a little worried. However, right around eleven, things cleared up a bit. The bride climbed in her tent and put on her shining white dress and the groom his tux. The rest of us followed them for the 1.5 mile hike out to Plateau Pt.

The wedding ceremony itself was the most beautiful thing. The weather was perfect as everyone gathered round the preacher (a geologist-turned-Lutheran pastor whom the couple had met during undergrad) and enjoyed the panoramic views while they listened. He finished off his tailored sermon with the wish that their marriage only start "on the rocks" but that it be built on the rock of the Lord and lead to only good things. Good man.

From there, the weather deteriorated. It haled on us as we returned to Indian Gardens. Then it rained most of the way back up the Canyon wall. I stayed back to help some of the stragglers, so I didn't make it out till dark. By this time it was snowing pretty hard at the top and I was more than worried about countless unprepared people whom I had passed in the last mile or so. I gave one guy a couple of my shirts and offered a blanket to another couple. All of our party made it out by 11pm and most of the people even managed to stop by the reception up at the top.

The Canyon was a pretty good host for our grand spectacle, but it wasn't going to let us off too easy. Even the most prepared people can find themselves in trouble when the weather conditions or their physical condition suddenly takes a turn for the worse. The Grand Canyon was a humbling experience as always. That is one wedding that I can never top: you win Merry.