AZ Tuesday

The Grand Canyon!

And here we were, mid way through our vacation at the visual splendor that is said to be life altering for some. We visited the frequently traveled to southern rim. We took the tour bus to the western portion of the overlooks where most of these early shots were taken. I found the tour bus to be a bit agonizing, filled with seniors, and catered to seniors. Nearly all of which were carrying "hiking sticks" even though the only hiking any of them did involved stepping on and off the buses with cameras around their necks sporting their bright white sneakers with black socks. I usually don't complain about that, I just found the bus drivers to be a bit slow witted which added to my irritation. One driver reprimanded me for standing too close to the door, calling me "son" and lecturing me that I didn't understand the dangers of buses, even though I tend to ride a few a week and am usually sandwiched against the door of a bus that is much more ill maintained than the one at the park. I actually thought he was talking to someone else and ignored him initially because I was well outside of the "caution" zone on the floor that people usually ignore. But no he was. And on another instance a driver called us out as city slickers who didn't understand the effect of elevation after he saw us running to the bus at one overlook to get it before he left. Like his fellow bus driver he also warned us of likely death due to such reckless behavior, and called us out as flat-lander city slickers. After our tour I was feeling very much the part and was looking forward to lunch at the visitors center.

It was nice to sit down, even though we hadn't really exerted ourselves. The National park cafeteria was not as good as I had remembered it being in Yellowstone. The staff was a bit disorganized. I had my heart set on a nice burger but after waiting over ten minutes at the grill for no one to show up, I settled on a rather mediocre bowl of chili and a salad. The food was a bit pricey too.... but who is complaining? Oh that's right, I am. To make our experience that much more enjoyable there was a political town hall occurring at the cafeteria with an awful country singer. He tried to sound like Cash but sang predictable rhyming tunes about Arizona and could only play one chord per song. I would have preferred that they were pumping in Britney Spears or something... and that is saying something. We had some smoothies for desert, and I was anxious to eat it outside for obvious reasons.

We had debated where we were going to hike. Initially we were going to try and go to Ooh Aah point, but with our agenda it seemed a little too ambitious. Instead we decided to go down the Bright Angel trail and play it by ear depending on what sort of progress we made.

Hiking in the canyon was awesome, and Kate and I both agreed that if we could do it again we would prioritize hiking and forgo the other "overlook" attractions. It really gave you a much better appreciation for the canyon, when from the side it is tough to really wrap your head around. At least for me it was. Before the trip I often joked with Kate that it was just a big ditch. And honestly early in the day I was totally imagining some giant back hoes should be down there somewhere. It really was tough to grasp that it was created by nature.

We shared the Bright Angel trail not only with other hikers but also the occasional mule. At times the manure was quite an obstacle.

After hiking to the second tunnel we turned back (about 0.75 mi), not really knowing how difficult it would be to go back up. I actually found hiking up a bit easier, probably because you can keep a steadier pace with less risk of falling down. We also wanted to be sure to have enough time to see the sunset.

For the last leg of our Grand Canyon trip we headed east. We stopped off at a couple more overlooks, and spotted some elk just outside of the Visitors center lot. One of the stops included more pueblo ruins which are always interesting. Desert View was our final canyon destination and is claimed to be the best place to watch the sunset by many. There is a great tower with a gift shop in it at the base. You can climb to the top for some spectacular views.
A bit blurry, this is inside one of the upper levels of the tower before ascending to the roof.
The canyon and sunset photos speak for themselves.

Upon leaving the park dusk was upon us and the wild life was especially active. At first a huge elk buck crossed the street and I paused so we could get a good look at it. About an hour later we were on our way through some steep terrain going east to Tuba City when I had to slam on the break and pull into the break down land in order to avoid hitting a flock of deer. The items we had in the back seats slammed into us and a box of hot tamales that Kate had in the console flew all over the car. The fool behind us didn't seem to "get" why I slammed my breaks on and kept going fish tailing through the deer and narrowly missing them. A bit shaken, I drove on with high beams and caution, but all we encountered were several rabbits that avoided us successfully.

Tuba city was a welcome site. It is a quiet town on the Hopi reservation. The hotel was very nice and had a native American motif throughout it. After settling in we had a great take out supper from "Pizza Edge" which was coincidentally where we stopped for directions when we first arrived in town. This place had some of the best bread sticks I've ever had. They were weaved together like a basket, and covered with garlic and Parmesan. Good stuff.