Our friend Liz came to visit this week and she wanted to go to the Grand Canyon. I had never seen it, so I was excited. We did some research and decided it would be best to make it a two-day trip. So after school on Friday, Liz and I picked up Stephen at work and we drove to Flagstaff, AZ, where we had hotel reservations. We had dinner at a truck stop in Grants, NM, and got the the hotel around 9:30 PM. Here is what our drive looked like.
The next morning we had breakfast at the hotel and then set off for the Grand Canyon, another hour and a half away. On the way, I saw a scenic overlook at the Gorge at the Little Colorado River and asked if we could stop and take some pictures. All along the route there were Navajo jewelery and craft stands that looked like the makeshift vegetable stands in upstate NY. They were just setting up when we arrived.
We didn't spend a lot of time here, but we stretched our legs, took some pictures, and used the rest rooms.
We had searched the web for the best way to see the Grand Canyon in a day, and we had a plan. But before we got to the trail we were headed for, we saw a sign, "First View of the Grand Canyon," and just had to stop. We were really glad we did, because there was this amazing watchtower to climb:
Stephen called it "the Navajo Guggenheim" because the stairs and walkways wound around as we went up, and there was art on all the walls. And here is our first view of the Grand Canyon.
It was quite cold and windy at the watchtower, and we all donned all the warm clothes we brought with us. Our plan was to find the Kaibab trailhead and do a 3 mile round-trip hike. We hadn't counted on there being snow at the Grand Canyon (who knew?) so none of us brought boots. But we continued on to the trail head anyway, figuring we'd make a decision when we got there. We found the road to the trail head without any problem, but the road was closed except to shuttle buses! So we had to drive to the visitor's center, figure out which shuttle bus route went where we wanted to go, and wait for a bus. Stephen is not a fan of shuttle buses because he is not the one driving. But we didn't have a better plan, so off we went.
From the web search I did, I had gotten the impression that we would have to walk a mile and a half to get to the rim of the canyon. But no -- it turned out that the shuttle dropped us off at the rim and the trail went a mile and a half DOWN INTO the canyon! Awesome, except for the sign that said, "Icy Trail. Crampons Required." We were wearing sneakers, and not even trail runners, just basic walking shoes. We looked down at the trail.
We decided to go down a little ways and see how slippery it was. I said
that whoever got uncomfortable first should speak up and we'd turn
around. Notice there are absolutely no railings on this trail! Every
time we got to a corner, I thought I wouldn't go around the next corner,
but then it wasn't so bad.
Liz went ahead of us and clowned around.
And the whole time, we had this view.
I decided to climb back up just to see how difficult it was going to be. It wasn't bad, so I turned to go back down, and saw the mules coming up! Stephen and Liz were on their way up too, having decided to turn around. We let the mules pass us so we could stop to take pictures. The poor mules were pretty hot and sweaty. I felt bad because it wasn't their choice to take that hike, particularly with big heavy people on their backs.
When we got back up to the rim, I showed Stephen and Liz an overlook. I decided to see if I could get to it through the snow. There was a little drop-off to slide down, but I made it. By this time, it was no longer windy and the sun was quite warm. We decided to eat our lunch on the rock outcropping overlooking the canyon.
Stephen stayed a little farther back from the edge and took pictures.
After lunch we got back on the shuttle bus. We got off at the next stop, the highest elevation look-out on the South Rim. We walked around and took pictures for 15 minutes until the next bus came.
We left the Visitor's Center around 3 PM to go back to Abq. With one stop for gas and one for dinner, we made it home by 9:30 PM. Great day!
