Food for 3 Days in the Grand Canyon

Thanksgiving 2006
Grand Canyon National Park

Planning for three days in the Grand Canyon isn't as involved as planning for six days of backcountry hiking like last year; but I still minimized my meal planning to Cliff Bars and couscous dinners, plus leftover raisins and nuts. Gladly, my bro Jon brought curry powder and olive oil and our pal Johnny had his candied trail mix. Dad made sure we didn't get nuts on trail mix.



Couscous (per serving)
in a heat-safe lightweight camping bowl
1/2 cup couscous
handful of raisins
handful of pine nuts
slivered toasted almonds

mix in and let sit five minutes or until soft and fluffy:
1 cup hot water (heated by a Jetboil or another camping stove)
one splash of olive oil (packed in a leakproof Nalgene bottle. Thanks Jon.)
two dashes of curry powder (from Jon)
salt, to taste (really tastes great after sweating it out all day)



Candied Trail Mix
I think Johnny's trail mix rocked us all. Johnny wouldn't describe the exact ingredient listing when I tried to capture him on video, but he did conjure memories of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas as he joked "no comment," and that his lawyer had advised him not to comment. My notes from last year say Johnny's trail mix included chocolate covered covered espresso beans, caramel corn, dark chocolate chunks, dark raisins, golden raisins, cashews, almonds, and fig pieces melted together in a one-liter Nalgene bottle by a day's heat.

After hiking out, we deep fried homemade donuts in our hotel room.

photos: Chris B.