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We planned this trip to be five nights and six days, but we extended it to six nights and seven days by taking advantage of the full moon on our hike out. That gave us an extra day in the canyon which we used to relax by the river and in the canteen at Phantom Ranch. While we were talking to Sjores, one of the volunteer rangers at Bright Angel campground, he mentioned that Cheyava Falls was probably still running due to the higher than normal flow he observed in Bright Angel creek. The next day we hiked across to Clear Creek in relatively pleasant weather. I think the temperature stayed below 90° F. Sjores was right and we were treated to an awesome viewing of the falls when we got there on our third day. We visited the ruins on our way back to camp and added our entries into the visitors log. On our fourth day we took it easy and only hiked a mile or so down the creek and Alyssa rested while I explored the area and climbed up the side of the canyon to take some pictures. We made it back to camp, ate lunch, packed up, and headed to Sumner Butte to camp for the night. It's always great to camp there and look up at the rim where we started, see the trails we came down, and watch the sun fade away in the West as it drops below the peaks in the distance. We also had the pleasure of observing the full moon in the East as it rose. The next morning we packed up and headed down to Bright Angel campground for our last night camping. But before we headed to the campgound we dropped our backpacks at the junction of the Clear Creek and the North Kaibab trails, put on our day packs, and headed out to Ribbon Falls. Spectacular as usual, but this time we saw Santa Claus on the trail and at the falls! On our last day we got up and made an attempt to head up the Utah Flats route that starts near campsite #1. We weren't properly prepared for the challenge and consequently only went about 1/2 mile up the first part of the route. That route is more mountaineering than I had imagined. We headed (or slid as it turned out) back down the trail and took a more leasurely hike on the trail that heads East from the black bridge. Couldn't go too far, but it was remote and void of other people so we took advantage of the serenity we found and sat on the edge watching the rafters far below us. We finally headed back to camp to pack up and get ready to leave but it was so hot we took showers using our solar shower and then laid on the picnic table for a while. One of the rangers was doing his rounds checking permits and we had to explain we were on our way out and he didn't have a problem with that. We strapped on our backpacks around 7:00 PM and started our journey to the rim. By the time we crossed the silver bridge the sun was fading fast. We had pretty good light until we rounded the corner at the junction of the River trail and the Bright Angel trail. Eventually the moon rose above the canyon and we turned off our headlamps. We stopped several times along the way and took long breaks, not because we needed to, but to enjoy being in the canyon at night with the full moon lighting our path and the sounds rarely heard during the day. We also didn't want to make it to the rim until the Bright Angel Room was open for breakfast!