Working two minimum wage jobs in college I was able to save up enough money for a ring and a cross-country trip to Arizona. We drove two full days to Tucson, AZ and stayed with relatives before going to the Grand Canyon. We hiked down the Bright Angel Trail, a 6.1 mile trail down into the canyon. We started early in the morning and it took us about 2.5 hours to reach the end of the trail, Plateau Point, overlooking the Colorado River. There was no one else at Plateau Point making for an ideal marriage proposal location. I took the ring out of my backpack and asked Ashley to marry me, she said yes. She had no idea of anything after I worked so hard to keep everything a secret and hide the ring in my bags. After completely guessing on the ring size we found the ring was about 1/2 a size too small. However, we tried it again after getting back and found that it fit perfectly. The combination of hiking and heat had caused her hand to swell a little. After taking pictures and resting we started back up the trail. It took almost 5.5 hours to get back because of the 80-90 degree heat and the fact that the trail descends some 3000ft down into the canyon, easy on the way down, killer on the way up. After making it back up to the top both of us were completely exhausted, covered with dirt, sweaty, extremely hot. We enjoyed some cold bottles of water and ice cream before continuing on to explore more of the canyon as a happily engaged couple. We left the Grand Canyon the next day completely sore and with our feet covered with blisters. We drove 24 hours straight from the Grand Canyon through Utah, Colorado, Kansas and Missouri, before finally arriving back home in St. Louis Missouri. All in all the trail was 12.2 miles round trip with a 3000ft decent into the canyon and grades ranging from 10-20%.
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- Andrew P., Highland, Indiana