After going well out of our way we made our way north and in from the very east entrance to Grand Canyon National Park. This made it possible to stop at many overlooks to get pictures. The first overlook was at one of the Navajo trading post places. They had many tables set up with their crafts of jewelry, pottery, and wooden items. They consider it as the Gorge, which is part of the Navajo reservation. Smaller but nearly as spectacular as the canyon.

Then on to the many regular overlooks in the park. Lots of pictures again and a little more amazing than from the north rim.

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What can I say, it's the most seen natural wonder of the world. That pretty much sums it up. Amazing, unbelievable, breathtaking. One day I would like to go back to explore the canyon on the inside. We were on a really tight schedule, so we didn't have the time. I loved it though.  We drove about two hours out of the way, both ways, just to stop here.  As soon as we got out of the car and looked out over, we looked at each other and agreed, it was well worth the trip.  The canyon is massive that my pictures of it do it no justice.  The colors are so bright, and there is so much depth and layers and crevices, and the pictures of it are so flat and gray :o(  If I do go back, I will be taking my good camera.  We could barely see the Colorado River from where were standing, but we did see a sliver of it.  I think we stayed for a couple of hours, we didn't really talk much while we were there, we were just sort of enjoying the view.  Looking out over the canyon does not get old, it's just so amazing.  

 The only complaint I had about the whole trip here was that it seems there is only one road in and one road out, and it's not a large highway, so if you get behind a slow driver, sucks to be you.  That is why it was so out of the way, no side roads to get you back on track.  I still loved it though!

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This hotel is equally priced as surrounding hotels. If you are in the South Rim Grand Canyon area, there aren't many other choices. Book early. I was here in February and many hotels were full. It has a small hot tub and weight room for the size of hotel. My first room looked like the bathroom was never cleaned, hair everywhere. And there was no water pressure. The second room was better but water pressure wasn't very good. Better but still poor. Service at the downstairs grill/bar was terrible. I contacted the management after my stay and they said they "would look into it." I would not recommend this hotel. 100 Highway 64, Grand Canyon, AZ, 86023, United States Phone: 9286382681

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Had the weekend free, so my colleague Annelette and I decided to catch the Grand Canyon.  Started driving Saturday morning and drove straight up to the South Rim where the weather was truly spectacular!  So much so, in fact, that we stopped at the grocery store in the little park village, bought some sandwich materials and decided to walk down the canyon a little until we felt we needed to turn back.

Well, turns out, neither of us wanted to stop, and we would up walking the entire way down the Bright Angel trail, past Indian Garden, and probably close to river before the time and looming clouds convinced us to turn back.  Needless to say, the walk back up was not as easy as the walk down!  All the signs recommended against walking down and up in the same day...I can see their point.  Definitely I would recommend staying overnight, especially if you want to make it the entire way to the river...which is something I still have to do (as of April, 2008)

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WITH MY FAMILY: My sister and her family flew over from Londond to have christmas 2006 with me. It was so exciting considering I had not seen her in almost 3 years and her little daughter who had been born two years earlier was walking and talking before I saw her. She like me had always wanted to see the Grand Canyon, so we olanned to drive from Tucson to the Canyon right after Christmas.

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For many years, I dreamed of visiting the Grand Canyon because it is on eof the 7 wonders of the world. At 15, studying world geography I, could not get enough of the wonders of the world and the land reclamation process in the Netherlands. And so I wrot eme a small list of places I wanted to visited when I grew older and had the means to do so: my list turned out to have 21 places exactly. 

1. THE GRAND CANYON - Arizona (USA),  2. THE GREAT WALL OF CHINA - China, 3. THE TAJ MAHAL - India,  4. THE HANGING GARDENS OF BABYLON, - Israel, 5. THE PYRAMIDS IN GIZA,  6. STATUTE OF ZEUS IN OLYMPIA - Greece, 7. THE TEMPLE OF ARTEMIS - Greece, 8. THE LEANING TOWER OF PIZA - Italy, 9. THE COLOSEUM - Italy, 10. THE LIGHT HOUSE OF ALEXANDRIA,  11. THE WATER LANDMARK IN SWITZERLAND, 12. THE EMPIRE STATE BUILDING, 13. THE PANAMA CANAL, 14. GOLDEN GATE BRIDGE IN SAN FRANCISCO, 15. THE CN TOWER IN TORONTO, 16. RIO DE JENEIRO HABOR, 17. CHRIST REDEMER - Brazil, 18. THE VATICAN IN ROME - Italy, 19. PETRA IN JORDAN, 20. THE KREMLIN IN RUSSIA and finally 21. THE STONHENGE in UK.

By the time I, wrote this list, I had not taken the time to find out that some of my dream wonders to see were nolonger in existence like the "Hanging Gardens of Babylon", "The temple of Artemis", The Lighthouse of Alexandria" and "The Statute of Zeus in Olympia". So I, studies some more and got the first job I could get hired at right out of school. I was eager to leave home and save money to make my way out in life. So the years came and went by, bringing good fortune with each passing one. Finally I began my travels by visiting a friend in Tanzania. From there on, my travels increased (look at the countries I have been to).

In 2004 I relocated to the United States to get married and guess where my future husband lived? yesssssssss, in Arizona - the Grand Canyon state, lol! Having seen quite a few places on my list, I could not wait to visit the Grand Canyon - I did at the first opportunity which was in April of 2006. I could not believe the beauty of the view. The number of tourists there I could not count, the buses and private cars could hardly find parking space. I learned that the Grand Canyon averages 4.7 million visitors annually. Over 3 million will visit the South Rim Nearly 750,000 will enjoy the North Rim. And 500,000 will visit the newly discovered West Rim.

My daughter and I, took a bus tour from Las Vegas where we had been visiting with family friends. The bus drive lasted almost 5 hours with lunch stop along the way. We arrived at the Imex Theatre first where we were shown a video on the history of the Grand Canyon and it's earlier inhabitants (I highly recommend going to the Imex Theatre before arriving at the Canyon). We had also paid for lunch, so we had lunch at the theatre before proceeding to the Grand Canyon National Park. You know you are approaching the park when you start to see the trees, pines and animals lol, we managed to see a few. I remember that it had snowed the night before so the snow was melting away and it was a lilttle chilly outside.

(to be continued)

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The next day we got a phone call saying the our aunt and uncle were in Las Vegas.  So we found out where they were staying and went to go say hi.  My brother never bough his plane ticket and we eneded up spending the night with them we ordered pizza watched a movie and talked we were deciding if we wanted to go to the Grand Canyon wich for me was out of bounds.  We went anyway as long as I was going to make it back to base on time wich I did.  I didnt realize exactly how far away it was it looked so close on the map but it took awhile to get there.  It was a fantastic sight I would love to watch a thunder storm come through there.  you can see for miles around and all the colors of the rock were amazing.  we poked around for a bit took some pictures and did the gift shop thing where I bought yet another stuffed animal and 2 books of post cards not to send them to anyone but because the pictures were cool.  We didnt end up staying lonf because I had to drive all the way back to Camp Pendleton and had to be there for 0530.  So we headed back to the car on our way out there were deer everywhere like they didnt care they were in the road or wherever.  We grabbed a small bite to eat and started driving again and it seemed longer this time and driving across the desert in the dark the first time wasnt fun I knew the second time around was going to be worse but it was all worth it I got to spend time with some of my family and see a bunch of cool stuff not to mention all the cool stuff I bought. 

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There are no words to describe this masterpiece that Mother Nature has created for us.  I was not prepared for the enormity of the Grand Canyon and when I walked up to the edge of it for the first time, my breath was literally taken away from me!  I viewed the Canyon from the South Rim.  Unfortunately, I did not have the time to hike through it, so that remains high on my list of things to do in the future.

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So, Wednesday we got up bright and early (6am is TOO early) to meet a shuttle bus that was picking us up.

It dropped us at the underground car park of Planet Hollywood where we got a very crappy breakfast (a honey bun and a bottle of water doesnt not a breakfast make) before boarding a coach that was going to take us to the Grand Canyon. Our driver was called Leroy and during our trip he gave us a brief history of the area all the way to our first stop which was Hoover Dam. We only got a few minutes off the bus to take a few pictures before we had to reboard. It was only after we had stopped at the dam that we were shown a video on the building of it. I have to say I was a sight more impressed with it after viewing the video. It took 14 years and over 100 mens deaths to build it, the greatest construction ever at the time.

We spent a long time on the bus, we boarded at 7.30am, stopped at Hoover dam for a few minutes then didnt stop again until luch time, where we all disembarked and had to fight through not only our bus worth of other passengers but a second busload to get to the buffet. After a rather stodgy meal (I had two helpings to make up for the pitiful breakfast) we all climbed back aboard the bus to continue on to the canyon. We finally arrived about 1.30pm and were given an hour to enjoy the view. We had a few minutes walk to get to the south rim, and it was worth it. The view was stunning, so vast you couldnt take it all in t start with. At over 7000 ft above sea level, we could see for miles and miles. We stood with our mouths open for a few minutes before taking many pictures.

It was surprisingly chilly at the sumit, we had expected it to be quite warm and had not brought any warm layers but we didnt care as we were too preoccupied with admiring the scenery. The hour passed far too quickly and we had to return to the bus. We travelled a short distance, stopping for a further 45 minutes at a gift/food stop. Why we couldnt have been given longer at the south rim I dont know but at the back of the gift shop there was a pretty good view of the canyon so it wasnt too bad.

We then had to reboard the bus and spend over 5 hours travelling back. We got to watch a couple of movies so it wasnt as boring but it was still way too long sitting down in one day. I wsh we'd had the money to take a helicopter over the canyon, THAT would of been cool! We arrived back at our hotel at 9pm and went straight upstairs to the buffet room. We had signed up for the free Sahara club card as it meant the dinner buffet was only $6.99 instead of $13.99. We stuffed ourselves silly *eyes waistline dispairingly* before heading to bed.

Our last full day was a busy one. We rose early(ish) and decided to forgo lazing by the pool as it was a bit windy. We hopped on the bus and went down to the start of the strip. We got off at the Luxor hotel, which is shaped like a pyramid with a huge sphinx in front of it. We played tourist, taking photos of each other sitting on the statues and posing in front of them. The Excalibur is a huge castle, New york-New York recreates the New York skyline with huge statues of the empire state building, the statue of liberty and other buildings with a rollercoaster running through them, Treasure Island has pirate ships sitting in a lake in front of it, MGM has a huge bronze lion (the largest bronze statue in the Northern hemisphere)

outside, Paris has a huge recreation of the Eiffel Tower.

We went into the MGM building as we had heard it had a lion habitat. I was a bit dubious at first, a hotel having lions on show sounded dodgy but it turned out to be very well done. Just on the edge of the casino is a large glass cage, with a waterfall, fake trees and rocks to try and give a natural look. There were two one year old lions on display, a male and female sibling pair called Gino & Belladonna. Inside with the lions were three trainers, who were playing with the lions, rolling big plastic balls around for them to chase. It was like watching a huge version of Phoebe playing with one of her toys. There was a speaker that explained about the lions, that they dont belong to MGM, they are owned by an individual called Keith Evans. He owns 38 lions in all, and they live on his ranch 12 miles away from the casino. The lions are only on display once every 4-5 days for 4 hours. They are all decendants of the original MGM lion (the one that used to roar at the start of films). At one point the lions laid down in the trainers arms for a cuddle, Rachel went very mushy at this point.

After we tore ourselves away from cooing over the lions we wandered further down the strip, stopping into the M&M store on the way. There is an actual store dedicated to M&M's! The store is 4 floors, with every kind of merchandise possible bearing the M&M characters. On the 1^st floor one wall is completely taken up with different tubes, each containing a different type of M&M. There were tubes for all the different coloured M&M's, the peanut M&M's, the mixed M&M's and even had centain mixtures of M&M's, one was called 'spring'!?!

We got as far as the miracle mile, a huge indoor mall lined with shops that had the facade of an old fashioned outdoor harbour, complete with thunder storm every hour. We spent a while shopping, I was in desperate need of a strappy top as all I have are vest tops and it took a while to find one I liked. We then had dinner at a mexican resturant before catching the bus back up the strip to Hooters. We had bought tickets (at the half price stall naturally) to see an act called The Mentallist. a guy cally Gerry McCambridge, he seemed to be the US version of Derren Brown. There was quite a crowd, the place was filled to capacity (something we later found out was partially due to the fact that you got free tickets when you signed up to get a Hooters card) and we got seats quite close to the stage. It was an entertaining show, first thing he did was call 9 people onto the stage, sit one down with a telephone book and gave the other nine a brown envelope each to hold. He then got a member of the audience to pick a page number from the phone book, a different person to pick the column number and then the person holding the book to say stop as he was going down the list of numbers. He got her to call out the number which yet another member of the audience wrote down on a piece of cardboard. Once the number was wrtitten down he got the people holding the envelopes to open them one by one. The nine envelopes each held one number, which low and behold listed the number that had been picked at 'random' from the book.

He also got us to write our names down on a piece of paper, first, middle and last name, along with any nickname we might have. He then got us to write down a question we wanted answering, not one we knew the answer to but a question we wanted to know thwe answer to. All the pieces of paper were collected by an old guy picked from the audiance, who jumbled them up and put them into a bag while Gerry was getting himself ready. This involved him taping silver dollars over his eyes with duct tape. A pretty convincing way to prove he would not be able to see during the trick. He then took the bag, screwing up the pieces of card in his hand until one 'spoke to him'. He then called out the initials of the person he 'felt'. That person had to stand up and say 'yes Gerry, those are my initials'. At one point the initials RS were called out and Rachel got al excited and stood up to say the required line. Unfortunatly there were a couple of other people's initials too and it turned out to be someone else. But he managed to know exactly what they had written down and even threw the piece of paper back to them to prove it was their paper.

Once it was over we queued up to buy his DVD, which Rachel got signed. She also posed for a photo with him which she was very excited about. We then signed up for the Hooters card, receiving vouchers for a couple of free events, one of which was a stand up comedian who was performing at 9pm. It was 8.30 so we stuck around and caught this one for free (we're learning). it was a Jewish guy called Bobby Slayton whose act was basically insulting everyone. He slated marriage, Jewish people, black people, gays, mexicans, and anyone in the audience that caught his eye. It was funny, but somewhat near the knuckle at points.

Once the show was over were decided to play our 'free $100 slot play'. We gave our voucher to the women by the roped off machines, she placed a crisp $100 bill into the machine and all we had to do was hit the button. Each go was $2 so we got 50 chances. Rachels first play won her 950 credits. You had to earn 1700 credits before you could redeem $50, or get a certain line up on the machine to win the jackpot of $1000. Needless to say I won nothing and was soon finished. Rachel took a while longer to play all of her credits but eventually wound up at the same point as me, winning diddily squat.

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On our second full day we had decided a long time ago to go to the Grand Canyon and booked a bus tour. We were picked up from the hotel at 6am and taken to the main office to pick up the coach for a very long journey across the desert. Not far out of Las Vegas we went across Hoover Dam where we had a pitiful amount of time to take a couple of photos before getting back on the bus. It was incredible to see though, a real feat of engineering which was necessary in order to tame the violent and unpredictable Colorado river.

After stopping for a lunch of dubious quality, we arrived at the South Rim just after 1pm to be told we had one hour to look around before getting on the bus to go to the gift shop. Hmmm, one hour, not quite enough time to see something of that scale, but a bus tour was never really going to give us that. We walked across the car park and suddenly the ground seemed to open up in front of us. I don't even know how to describe it, there was just this vast hole, with the sides layered red, brown and orange as millions of years worth of rocks were displayed in front of us. The canyon itself has taken 6 million years to form as we know it today, with the Colorado river cutting through the rock on it's journey to California. Looking down, you thought you might see the bottom, but then it cracked up again, we saw the river a couple of times though. Before the Hoover Dam was built, the river was thick and brown as it carried all the eroded material down with it. On the way we had seen a DVD about the mule rides which sounded amazing, they start at the rim and wind their way down to the river and back up again over the course of a few days. The place was very busy which was to be expected but a bit of a shame as there was no opportunity to just sit and 'be' for a couple of minutes.

Begrudgingly we went back to the bus an hour later to drive to the gift shop and cafe where annoyingly we were given as much time there as at the rim. We could however walk back a little and see the canyon again, which is what we did. One of the cool things about the forming of the canyon is that the ground squirrel species was split, and half ended up on the south and half to the north. So over millions of years these identical squirrels have evolved apart from each other and are now different species! Despite signs saying that tame squirrels would be relocated and probably die, people were feeding them and stroking them which was stupid.

So after a short amount of time we were back on the bus for the journey home which would take us till about 8.30pm, long day. It was fantastic, completely humbling that this vast geological feature has been forming for millions of years, but I wish we could have stayed longer. Next time....

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Canyon time! I had been waiting for so long to get to the Grand Canyon and I had chosen a means of transport that didn't involve any form of flying. Not that I am scared of flying but that I am petrified of small planes every since I was in a Cessna in Australia and was actually relieved I could jump out at 10,000 feet just to avoid staying in the 40 year old converted crop duster.

The Pink Jeep Tour is great and our guide John was friendly, knowledgeable and enthusiastic not to be doing his old day job of touching up prints on a computer. I shared the trip with an older Canadian couple and a young Scottish couple that had emigrated to New Zealand. As I sat in the front travelling alone, I was secretly glad not to be in the back of the Jeep as it wound its way through the off-road section because I had the best view and I can get travel sick in the back of cars. Yes, I am such a pussy and a lightweight!

The Canyon was amazing and it justly deserves to be prefixed with “Grand”. What was not amazing was the glass sky walk. Save your pennies, the view is not that good and unless you feel the absolute need to burn $60 on a 5 minute walk and old paper photo (both of which I did!!) stick to the path way and you get just as a good a view and no vertigo. On the way home everyone snored loudly, a job well done by Pink Jeep! That is, every snored loudly except me because I drank an espresso ice latte and was buzzing all the way back to Vegas.

Later that evening, Melanie arrived for a debrief. We sat in the casino drinking her favourite drink and sliding 10 dollar bills into the machines while I explained the psychology and technology behind these machines that prevents the average person from scoring. She really is great company and I was glad I had a new friend to keep me entertained.

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Phantom Ranch is the only lodging facility in the canyon. If you come here make reservations about a year in advance...it's needed more with men than it is with women. The site that Phantom Ranch is on used by Native Americans; pit houses and a ceremonial kiva dating from about 1050 AD have been found there when walking around you can see the Indian drawings. At the bottom of the Canyon you come upon small cabins and people milling around lauging outside. You're just excited to sit down and take a load off after the long hike. There are two types of lodgings and two types of meal accomodations. One type of lodging is a cabin. In the cabin you get your own privacy with your family... you get your own cabin...but there are not bathrooms in the cabin so you must use communal bathrooms for showers and neccessity purposes. In the dorms you have 5 bunk beds where they are separated into male and female dorms. The beds were in small quarters and you felt clostrophobic...but the beds were really comfortable. I slept so well that night, I woke up so refreshed. I even woke up before the sun came up and was not able to go back to sleep...and if anybody knows me they know that I don't wake up before 11 let alone before sun rise! In the dorms you don't have the privacy but you do have a bathroom inside the building. For meal accomodations you can get a stew dinner option or the steak dinner option. the steak is $10 more and I highly recommend that. Everyone but one person in our group got the stew and Dave looked so happy after he got his steak. We had 2 meals of stew and it sort of got bland after a while. If I were to do it over again I would have gotten atleast one night with the stew. You also get a bagged lunch provided each day too with bagels, summer sausage and some cheese and you can also get breakfast. Room Type Summer 2007 Dorm, per person $34.16 Breakfast, per person $17.50 Sack Lunch, per person $10.14 Steak Dinner, per person $35.61 Veggie Dinner, per person $22.60 Hiker's Stew Dinner, per person $22.60 Duffel Service $60.83 each way

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I had a wonderful time exploring the South Rim. I am going back to take the helicopter ride! The Grand Canyon is grander than any picture can capture. This is a MUST SEE!

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Today was the day! We’re going to the bottom of the Grand Canyon. We had to be at Scenic Airlines, about a mile south of the hotel, at 7:30AM. As expected we were running behind, but we made it only about 10 minutes late. That was no big deal, as our flight did not leave until 8:00. “Our flight” that I mentioned was going to be the start of a really great day. At 8 AM all four of us would board a small plane and fly from the airport here on the South side of the Canyon, to the West side. From there we would transfer to helicopter that would take us down 4000 ft to the Colorado River. Once there we would board a pontoon boat and take a short river ride. Then we would reverse, with a lunch thrown in, and end up back on the South side about 1 PM. Everyone was looking forward to this.

We left at about 8 AM, as scheduled. The flight was to be 45 minutes or so. To be honest, it felt a lot longer. You would think that flying in a small plane, over the Grand Canyon would be full of Oooohhhhhs and Aaahhhhs. It wasn’t. It was actually a bit boring. It wasn’t the Canyon’s fault, because we were flying over the outer edges, and it was no where near as spectacular as deep and endless main area. But, it was still pretty. Part of the problem was we had kind of hyped it up in our minds. Much like the Super Bowl, when the actual game often is anything by the ultimate showdown the network had been promising for weeks. But, also like the Super Bowl, you had to respect the grandeur anyway. More of the problem was it was noisy and the seats cramped. I know I’m whining a bit. If you are not a seasoned flyer (we are, at this point in our lives) you will still probably find this portion of the trip enjoyable.

Anyway, if this was the most I had to complain about today, it was going to be great. As it turned out, it was the worst I had to complain about. 45 minutes later we touched at the airfield on Hualapai Indian Reservation. We were on the ground just long enough to be unloaded and reloaded back into a helicopter. In just a few short minutes we were airborne again. This leg of the trip was a hundred times more interesting. In this day and age flying in a machine is something that you take for granted. Some more than others, but I know very few people who have not been in an airplane. With an airplane you get a nice running start and the ground falls away. You get the feeling you could do that in your own car if it had wings. But a helicopter ride brings that back into perspective. You start by being in a very confined space. An airplane definitely qualifies as a confined space. But for me it does not project the same kind of feeling of intimacy. It’s more like a bus with seatbelts. The intimacy of a helicopter ride is more like a thrill ride at Disney or Universal Studios. You have not only a smaller group of people, but the atmosphere of something special. Then the noise starts as the rotors turn faster and faster. You feel your pulse quicken and wonder “Are they turning fast enough yet” They keep going, and quickly they rotors are beating the air into submission, and the helicopter lifts off, in a manner so gently as to take you by surprise. Your intellect fights with itself. One side saying “This happens everyday, probably a million times” The other side says “Really? People defy gravity to descend into a mile deep pit” Then the third half of your brain tells the other two to shut up and look out the window. There is tons of room all around you, so you don’t get a feeling of doom. But it is a tad weary as you descend as see cliffs rise up around you. It’s not just an air based elevator ride. The pilot needs to fly you down to a specific spot that is not right below you. So even though the ride feels like two minutes, and lasts for about 8-10, it fills you with a sense of awe and wonder all at the same time.

When you get out of the whirlybird, your first thought is “Wow”. Not “Wow! That was great!” or even, “Wow! I’m at the bottom of the Grand Canyon!” But, “Wow! It is flippin' hot down here” This is June in Arizona. The temperature up top when we took off was in the low 90s. It was in the mid 100s down on the floor of the Canyon. That is not an exaggeration. They warned us ahead of time, but it is still a bit of a shock. I had my camera going the whole time, snapping pics here and there. I got a pic with us, using the helicopter as a backdrop. We were quickly greeted by the guide at the bottom who ushered us towards the river with the sentence “Let’s get you all on the boat. It’s much cooler on the water” She did not lie. We got onto the large pontoon boat, similar to the large bass/party boats I had seen at Lake Powell and other places. It look us less than 10 minutes to land, take a few pics, walk to the river, board, and be cruising on the Colorado River.

This last twenty minutes had passed in a blur. After having been bored to death for the prior 45, we were being thrown many new sights to see. As such the information our guide tried to impart to us about the geological and cultural history of the canyon was ignored while our brains focused on all the visuals. The view of the Grand Canyon is radically different from the river. You get no feeling of the canyon’s immense size on the river. It has a rough comparison of being in the midst of a major city, with the high buildings on each size. Of course you have to subtract out all of the people and 99 percent of the noise. But that more intimate, but far from claustrophobic feel dominates. It is so peaceful, at least on that section of the river. I do know from the IMAX movie we saw yesterday that there are areas of serious white water. But, here the only white to be found was in clouds above us.

The twenty minutes we got to spend on the boat was over in what seemed like five. Our guide took a final picture of us, on the boat, with the River and Canyon as the background. Then we docked and walked back to our waiting, exceedingly expensive, but worth every dollar, elevator. The ride back up was not quite as spectacular is the ride in, but it was a close race. When we landed we were sent over to a waiting, air-conditioned (Yea!!) coach bus. It was going to take us to Guano Point, where we would be having lunch. Lunch, as I recall, was some sort of a shredded beef, that was seasoned in either an Indian (Native American) or Mexican way. It was a just OK. But, it was served buffet-style so we got to eat our fill. For Scenic Airlines, at least I guess, the primary reason for stopping here was an agreement with the local tribe, to allow them to sell their wares to an audience that had been flown in. In return, or more likely as partial compensation, the tribe gave them access to this area. It was beautiful! It may have been the prettiest part of the canyon. I walked around and took a few pictures and admired the desert birds and such. Then we all headed to the area where the crafts were set up. None of us found anything we had to have, and we tried. But, in the end there was just nothing that inspired any of us to pull out our wallets.

We did manage to leave some money, buying bottled water and tipping the bus driver, whose name I have forgotten. I did take his picture and he was a bit of character. We were among the first to return to the bus, as Patty wanted to get out of the heat, and the other two girls found no fault with that idea. While we were waiting he asked us, and the few others waiting if we enjoyed our lunch. He told us that it was Coyote. That got a few chuckles. He told us a little bit about the cultural history, as he was a Hualapai Indian. He told his ancestors moved out of the canyon, centuries ago, as it there was no electricity to power the air conditioners. He went on in that same humorous vein for several more minutes, and through the short ride to the airport. That earned him a little extra in tip when we completed the journey.

Our ride home was a reverse of the ride in. It was too loud to talk, too cramped to relax, and not picturesque enough to get excited about. But, I have spent many worse hours not only at work, but on vacation, so this was small potatoes. It had been a good five hours, when all was said and done. It was somewhere around 1 PM, when we completed the last leg. So now it was time to go back into the park. We were going to see the sunset today, but that was still 6 1/2 hours away. There is not a lot to do, but yesterday had only served as reconnaissance for the girls shopping. There was still the canyon to look at from several different angles, The Yavapai Museum, and the Bright Angel Trail, that went down into the canyon.

I already knew that latter was going to be me alone. Patty was not able, and the other two not willing. But, I was going to hike into the canyon. Not too far, as I had read over and over about how dangerous it could be, especially if you took it too lightly. As I walk regularly (8-10 miles per day) for exercise in the Colorado summer, I was confident I could handle whatever the canyon had to offer. But I wasn’t stupid either. Flat level ground is one thing, even at altitude. Hiking down and then back up, in 100 degree heat is another. I was only going to take about a liter of water. That is not nearly enough for an extended hike of that type. So my plan was to walk down to Mile and a Half Resthouse and back. I figured it would take me about an hour and fifteen minutes. I was never dumb enough to think I could walk from top all the way to bottom in one afternoon. It is probably possible to do it in one day, but not without a camelpak, and training first. At this point you are probably expecting a horror story about how I had underestimated the canyon and my ability. But the hike went fine. It was hot, but there was some shade. I have hiked in similar conditions, and event the extra stain of walking uphill was fine. My legs were up to the task and I made if back on time. I did turn around within sight of the resthouse, but only because the others were waiting on me, and I didn’t see that I would be missing anything by continuing on. The sights were OK. I mean, we are talking the Grand Canyon here, so “OK” means in relationship to looking from the rim. There was not a lot of difference, but there were many more different looks as you were exposed to something via a twist of the trail. To me the real allure was just to hike into the canyon, even if it wasn’t much of a test.

Back on the rim, it was time for ice cream. Hike or not, it was still Arizona in June, so anytime is great time for ice cream and a cold drink. The girls had gotten some shopping in, and took me to a few of the places they had discovered. After some of that we decided that we were going to need to eat supper, and then at least think about a spot to watch the sun set. We decided on the Bright Angel Lodge Dining Room for dinner. The food was good, and it was again nice to be out of the Arizona sun. About the only thing we had not done was to go to the Yavapai Observation Point and Museum. The museum had exhibits about the geology and people of the area, but really the big draw was yet another stunning view of the Grand Canyon. It is truly amazing at how people can get used to anything, good or bad, and then be able to take it for granted or ignore it all together. Be it the people who can eat lunch in a slaughterhouse without throwing up, or those who have been looking at the Grand Canyon for two days and start to think they have seen it all. I was a bit guilty of the latter, but you only had to stare in one area for a few minutes to be taken away again, wondering what “that” was or how “that” was formed, or it anyone had ever set foot “there” before. We spent half an hour or so there checking out the museum and the view, and then decided to find a place to sit and watch the sun go down.

I saw one sunset over the Grand Canyon, in 1989. But, I did not even try to get it on film, as I knew I did not posses either the skill or the right piece of equipment. I was not that much more confident in my skill, but I did have a better camera. We walked along the Rim Trail searching along the boulder lined asphalt path for a good spot that was not already taken. We had started our search about fifteen minutes later than we should have, as all of the really good spots, in our area were taken. But we eventually found a spot that was good enough, and staked out our rocks to sit on. I went off the path, closer to the edge and found two places to sit my camera. I had neglected to bring a tripod, so I would have to use a tree or boulder to hold my camera steady as I took a low light shot. And I planned to use the blind squirrel technique to take my pictures. This technique requires you take as many possible pictures as possible, operating under the theory that even a blind squirrel can find a nut if the ground has enough on them. I ended up taking almost a hundred pictures from a couple of different angles, over the course of about 30 minutes. None of them were truly spectacular, but a few of them were very nice.

But as it was now getting dark we decided to go back to the hotel and get to packing. It had been a long and very fulfilling day.

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