taychellewis May 8, 2018
This morning we got up, lifted our next couple days’ worth of breakfast from the hotel, and got on our way to the Grand Canyon!
We got there around 9:30 and headed to a lookout called Mather Point. It’s right next to the visitor’s center so there were lots of people. When there are lots of people, you hear lots of interesting things. See below.
“A squirrel took our ketchup” – Man grabbing ketchup while we were standing in line at the ice cream shop
“I keep smelling potatoes” – A lady on the Rim Trail who was apparently craving some Wavy Lays
“If you put Pop Rocks on pancakes, and then cover them with syrup, they start popping everywhere” – A very troubled soul
“You know you don’t have to eat dinner at Dairy Queen if you just want to eat their ice cream” – A young sage on the shuttle bus
Anywho, the Grand Canyon is pretty grand. It’s strange to look at because it doesn’t look real. It looks like a picture because it’s so large that there isn’t anything to give you depth perception.
We took in the sights at Mather Point, walked a little on the Rim Trail, and then decided to head back to check into our campsite. The campground is great! Many of the sites don’t have shade, but ours does so we were thankful for that. We ate our typical camping lunch of PB&J and Doritos while figuring out what to do for the afternoon. Before heading out, we made sure to pack up all our food because the lady at check-in said that the ravens would destroy it!
Since it was already really hot, we decided to do more of the Rim Trail. It’s paved and has minimal elevation changes so it was perfect for a long afternoon walk. We initially were going to do the entire portion of the trail from Mather Point to Hermit’s Rest, but then realized that the map we were using was not to scale and it was 9 miles. Oops. At mile 2, we saw a beacon of hope in the Grand Canyon Village: ice cream. We rewarded ourselves with two scoops of cookies and cream.
Refreshed, we made it another 3 miles and decided to hop on the shuttle bus for the rest of the way to Hermit’s Rest.
It was a great way to spend the afternoon and my Apple watch told me that we had walked over 20,000 steps. We’d be skin and bones by the time we get back if not for that ice cream.
After getting off the shuttle bus we decided to drive to the eastern section of the park towards Desert View to watch the sunset.
It was a quiet night after that. We made a fire, cooked hot dogs, and then went to bed. We decided that tomorrow we’ll visit Petrified Forest National Park instead of spending another day at the Grand Canyon, and knock out another park that way. Two down, six to go!
Lovely pictures! Especially liked the tourist comments. People make vacations memorable..
You are a great writer !!Enjoyed it ! Did you know Diane lived there several years, before they moved to CAlif.. We visited them several times there.
One time, your dad, and Herschel walked the trail down into the canyon and out on the other side—took all day, I think You’ll have to ask your Dad.about it.
This is odd, too, I just wrote a poem one time, and found it this morning—it was bout little flowers—I’ll tell you about it and why sometime—related a little to the GC.
Iknow you miss Blake !! First time I left Ellen, I cried a lot of the way.
Have a wonderful trip !! Love you both,Grandmommy
Grammy forwarded this link to me and I thoroughly enjoyed reading of your GC adventure! Surely brings back memories—although the park has changed quite a bit since I lived there 1977-81. The first time I saw the Canyon was with Granddaddy and Grammy in 1972 or 73. I agree that it looks like a large painting. I was “underwhelmed”, because it seemed ‘flat’ and there was no relative scale. Hopefully, you were able to view it at different times of the day and got to see some of its ‘moods’. It takes shadows and light to give it personality! Hope you had a wonderful trip! Love and hugs…
We felt the same way! It’s so impossible to really fathom the size of it, even when you’re staring right at it. Glad I wasn’t the only one to feel that way! Thanks for reading 🙂 Love you!