My three boys and I hiked down in the summer heat of 2005. It was 90 degrees at the southern rim and 115 degrees at the river. Thank God for a ranger who gave us a 20-minute death and misery lecture and recommended we spend the night at Phantom Ranch. In fact a man from England died that day from hyponutrenia, even though he had plenty of water. We were able to reserve a room only because of a cancellation. We headed down the next morning before sunrise. We spent the day relaxing at Phantom Ranch. Amazing dinner. The air conditioning in our four-bed cabin never stopped and it never got comfortable, but it was 115 outside! The next morning we started back up before sunrise, each of us with a gallon of Gatorade we made from powder and the sink in our cabin. So we didn’t get the breakfast. We finished our Gatorade on the climb up. I want to go there again and sit and read again with my feet in the ice-cold creek that runs by Phantom Ranch. Beautiful.