A stop at the Grand Canyon is Always Wonderful

I had hoped there would be snow up in the Grand Canyon when we decided to drive up for a day trip from Williams on Sunday.

This what what Williams looked like when we woke around 7.

Feeling no rush to get going, we enjoyed a leisurely morning in bed, enjoying fresh squeezed OJ, and mellow brewed coffee while we checked out the online news and funnies. After a nice breakfast in the coach we drove the Jeep up to the Canyon. 

We only traveled a few miles when all signs of the morning snow disappeared. It had not melted, it simply hadn't fallen there. 

In spite of the less-than-perfect weather, there was still a line of cars at the entrance station, and the parking lots were fairly full.

Throughout the day the sky kept changing. White clouds and blue sky, dark clouds with rain falling in the distance, and both at the same time.

One of many crows we saw riding the wind.

Cloud shadows crawled across the canyon like big dark amoebas.

At the end of the day it is always difficult to choose which pictures to include in the blog, especially when the subject is as breathtaking as this.

Yup, a stop at the Grand Canyon is always wonderful!

Last Day At Grand Canyon

Our Saturday plan was to get up very early and take the shuttle bus to Yaki Point in time to watch the sun rise over the canyon.

Didn't happen. Craig woke me up and told me that if I wanted to do that, it was time, but that he didn't want to go. My body was not ready to leave the warm bed either, and so I cuddled up next to him and went back to sleep.  We are just not morning people. After the exhausting hike the day before, and the half bottle of celebratory wine, I needed sleep more than I needed to see a sunrise. In fact, for once I lingered in bed long after our usual wakeup time reading blogs and looking thru the pictures we had taken the day before. So nice to be retired!

Although we did not do sunrise, we did follow our plan for the rest of the day, which was to explore some of the east part of the park that is accessible by car. As we drove along Desert View Drive we lost sight of the Canyon. The land is flat and covered with scrubby pine forest. I imagined what it must have been for the explorers who first discovered the canyon, or the early Indians who came upon it without knowledge of its existence.  They may have heard stories, but to see the canyon for the first time without pictorial preparation must have been amazing.

Our primary destination was the Watchtower at Desert View. Although it looks old, it was actually built in the 30's for the park service as an observation tower. The stone is all local.

It has four levels, each open at the center.

The walls are decorated with Indian motifs worked so they appear to be ancient and weathered. Fascinating.

There is a large patio observation deck off the second level. As you can tell from the picture we were there before the Saturday crowds started to come. 

In the distance to the East we could see the flatlands and Cedar Mesa. It is beyond the park borders; the locals call it "Flat Top."

This part of the canyon is quite different from the areas we viewed over the past few days. The primary cut seems narrower, and the side canyons not as deep.

On the way back to the campground we stopped at all the remaining points and vistas we could find. We were able to see more of the river at this part of the canyon.

We relaxed and rested during our last afternoon at the Grand Canyon. Craig went out to buy the T-shirt he had seen on our second day and I stayed at the Alfa to work on my blog post. However, since he took his phone, I had no hot spot.

One of our small traditons is to enjoy a dinner at the grand lodge of each National Park we visit if possible. I made reservations at the El Tovar Hotel months ago.

We had a window table and a sunset time, but we really couldn't see much of the canyon, and the sunset was unremarkable.

It didn't mater, because our whole experience had been marvelous. One thing I enjoy about our special dinners is the sense of history and past luxury. There was a time that only the rich would have been able to eat at these grand hotels.

I am so glad our country has preserved our National Parks, and that now ordinary people can enjoy them. 

Our country is rich in so many ways. 

We should all remember that, and support public works.

We were Robbed!

We were robbed. But before I tell you about it, I want to write about our challenging hike on Friday.

By walking the Rim Trail we were able to get a feel for the vast size of the Canyon. The length of the park is over two hundred miles. Our thirteen mile walk was just a taste. On Friday we ventured down into the Canyon to sample its depth. Forgive the clichè, but this was like strolling into the vestibule of a fabulous cathedral. Just a taste, just a peek, but amazing.

The most popular trail to the bottom of the canyon is the Bright Angle Trail. It is the one the mule riders take. Hiking to the bottom and back in one day is not recommended. For those that choose to go to the river, there is a hotel at the bottom to overnight in. We did not want to, nor thought we were capable of going all the way down. The top part of the trail has three rest stops. One at a mile and a half, one at three miles, and one at four and a half miles down. We aimed for the three mile stop, which turned out about right.

Although it was only three miles one way, it was 2100 feet down. That means a lot of switch-backs. 

Craig stayed ahead of me most of the way down. I purposely went slow in order to save my knees. The trail had a lot of rough sized steps made with logs imbedded in the dirt, and each was a small jolt to my knee joints.

When we walked along the rim we looked down or across the canyon and marveled at the many rock towers. As we hiked down the Bright Angle trail, we got a different perspective and viewed some of the huge rock formations and canyon walls from below.  

It's hard to know the actual size of the feature in the next image. It's a large, natural amphitheater created long ago.

As we hiked on the trail to the left of this feature, we heard delicate music on the wind.  If you look at the blow-up of the image you will see someone far to the right who was at the bottom making the music we heard.

The hike was hard, but satisfying.  We did it!  Three miles down, ten miles back up.  Well, not really, but it felt like it.

Oh, the robbery.  When we reached the three mile rest house we stopped for a picnic lunch. We found a nice place along a stone wall and had our sandwiches and fruit. There are many signs around that advise people not to feed the wildlife, so when a fat squirrel came begging, we ignored him.  Our backpack was open on the wall behind us. We heard a rustling sound, and as we looked back this guy was dashing away with a snack bag containing some  sweet onion and cheddar tortilla chips. 

We were robbed!

The culprit!

Grand Canyon, Thursday April 25th

We finished our walk of the Rim Trail on Thursday. Two and a half days, about thirteen and a half miles. We decided to stick to the relatively flat and mostly paved trail to both get accustomed to the altitude and to see as much of the Canyon from above as we could. Each day we walked part of it and then took a shuttle bus back to the campground. I really liked being able to stay near the rim. There are RV parks in both Flagstaff and Williams, but staying there would require a sixty mile drive each way, each day. The full hook-up, drive-thru sites at trailer village cost $37.50 (with tax). In late January I reserved our spot for five nights. We are a 35' class A. The other campground here has no hook-ups, has a 30' limit, but only costs $18 plus tax per day.

It is really hard to pick out a few pictures to post. Wednesday Craig took almost 200 images. Almost all were wonderful. We do disagree somewhat on processing images. Almost all of the images you usually see of the Canyon are very colorful. On a clear sunny day you will see it that way. Our images have been processed to bring out the rock formation colors as you may see them on a good day.

As we walked the last few miles of the rim trail we watched the clouds building up. We could see what we thought was rain falling in the distance. We still had some sun and it was not particularly cold. 

However as we hiked along, the clouds above us started to darken as well.

Then big drops of rain started to splat around us. We hurried on, not stopping to take pictures as the rain turned to snow.  Not much, but definitely snow that stayed on the path long enought to be seen.

It never felt really cold, but we were glad to get to the end of our hike at Hermits Rest.

Legend has it that if you have your picture taken while standing under the bell at Hermits Rest you will have good luck.  

Never pass up a chance to improve your luck!

Our first day in the Grand Canyon (Tuesday night), our Verizon internet service on our smartphone hotspot delivered its last email at 2:25 PM and then went away until some time in the early AM of Wednesday 24th.  Our daughter managed to get a phone call through about 5 PM, which made us wonder why the internet service remained inoperable, but we're happy to have it back.  There would have been no way to communicate the fun we're having to you out there in the rest of the country!

As we said in our previous mini-post, AZ 64 north to the south rim was a good drive.  We pulled into GCNP about one, got hooked up and went for a walk eastward from Mather Point along the south rim.

 
The weather was excellent, sunny but cool. We seemed to have come at just the right time. The park is not crowded, and there are very few families with children. (Not that we dislike children mind you, but crowds in general are dislikeable.)

Anyone willing to study a map of the GC would have known its chief feature in advance: it has tributary canyons in all directions, just like a lake that is formed by damming a river! This shouldn't be surprising, since such a lake is simply a highland river system filled with water, like Lake Powell above the GC and Lake Mead below it.  But when you're walking a rim trail you get very aware of the many side canyons!

Today (Wednesday) we walked west from Mather point along the south rim along the paved trail.

The building at the top of the next picture is the 108-year-old El Tovar hotel. There is more vegetation below it than almost anywhere else. Years of water disposal?

We didn't make it all the way to the end of the rim trail.  That will be for tomorrow.  

We are in awe of the beauty. 

Walking the Rim...

Catch Up

The remaining days of the Alfa National Rally were just as much fun as the first. Dinners every night, swimming, excellent seminars, wine and cheese sponsored by the resort, a pet parade, and time when some of the Alfa owners who have done modifications had their rigs open for us to see and admire. Throughout the week there were drawings for many prizes. They must have given out 100 gift cards of one sort or another. The resort gave away a free weeks stay, Freightliner donated several repair or service jobs including one for $350. Alfateers were the most generous donating a $1900 TV replacement package in addition to several hundred dollars worth of other stuff.

We did not win anything other than a token prize from one of the vendors. But that was OK. We feel we came away with so much. Although it would have been fantastic to get the TV package!

Craig, My sister iin-law Gerie, and my brother Keith

On Sunday we drove about 90 miles to Surprise, Arizona and stayed one night at the resort where my older brother spends his winters. He has been RVing for a lot longer than we have. My sister-in-law made a very nice dinner for us.  They have an older park model there and were excited to show us the brand new one they just bought. It was still being installed on their new lot. Very nice. I hope we can visit them again next year.

Monday we headed north to Williams, and tomorrow we will be at the South Rim of the Grand Canyon.

My feet are very happy to finally be heading to the Canyon!

So happy I wanted to dance with this par baked loaf of bread from Trader Joe's!





















We had heard that Williams was an interesting old town. I planned on spending the afternoon there.  However, many of the shops were closed or empty. We spent about an hour looking for what several people had recommended, but we were not impressed.

The air was pretty warm, but the wind came up again in the afternoon. My eyes were very irritated, and the lady at the RV park front desk said there was a lot of pine pollen in the air.  I'm going to take some Benadryl tomorrow.  Hope it helps.

Although there is a lot of green around, Craig found several of these trees that are not yet showing any buds or leaves. At 7000+ feet, the sky is incredibly blue!  Quite different from the brownish dust filled sky around the Phoenix area. I hope we get some good sunsets when we are at the Canyon.

Coming here is a big deal for me. The Grand Canyon has been on my "bucket list" for most of my life.