Grand Canyon Arizona

Sunday May 6, 2018

My masters left about 9 am headed for the Grand Canyon. I am staying in the hotel. So glad to have a day when I don't have to get in the car. My master is driving as far as Tusayan where they will take a shuttle from there to Grand Canyon National Park. Here is what they told me about their trip.

They took US180 West to avoid the construction on I40. They drove through the edge of town on a windy, tree lined street. They saw some deer just outside of town. There were quite a few but it was too hard to get a picture. The view opened up to what looked like golden meadow. Then they saw evidence of a fire so the meadow is probably a result of a much earlier fire. The open space is short lived and soon there are pine trees on both sides of the road again. As they enter Kaibab National Forest, there is a long vista to the east. Their path takes them in and out of the forest. When they are out of the forest vegetation is sparse. When they enter the forest, scrub gives way to more trees. Many of the pines have a very interesting bark pattern.

They park at the IMAX, Visitor Center and confirm that the pass they bought at Rocky Mountain National Park will get them in the park and on the bus. They take the purple shuttle to the Grand Canyon Visitor Center arriving about 11am. They buy some water and oriented themselves. They started to board the orange shuttle but when Bob asked which side was best for viewing, the driver said there were no views on this route. He suggested the red shuttle since it has many spots for viewing the canyon.

You have to take the blue shuttle to transfer to red so they got on the blue bus. Since they didn't have breakfast, they decided to get off at the El Tovar Hotel for lunch before the long ride along the rim. El Tovar is a very neat lodge. It would be the perfect spot to spent several days seeing all there is here. They split a club sandwich and salad. It was very tasty and the perfect amount. There is a train that runs from the town of Williams and the park station is right by the lodge. From the windows, they see there is a view of the rim right there so after lunch they go out for a peak. WOW. Neither of them realized how huge the Grand Canyon was. It is so deep and wide and long. Neither words nor pictures can describe it. Here is a sample of the pictures they took. The rest are on the Grand Canyon page.

They decided to take the blue shuttle back to the Visitor Center planning to make a few stops along the way. At one stop, Karen took this picture looking down at Bright Angel Trailhead. There is a path you can take down the canyon. You can barely see but there are people way down there in the circle. From the bus, they saw both elk and mule deer. My master got a good picture of one of the elk. She guesses it is a female since it doesn't have antlers. Now they are not skunked on getting pictures of big game. They bought some souvenirs while they were there. Bob bought a lightweight sweatshirt and Karen bought a book with pictures of the park. There is so much to see you can't see it all in one day. At the Visitor Center they take the purple shuttle back to the car. 

They stopped at the Big E Steakhouse and Saloon for a beverage before heading back to Flagstaff. They reversed their route so now Humphrey's Peak is in front of them instead of in their rear view mirror. They get back to the hotel about 5. My master takes me on my walk. She goes to the restaurant in the hotel for take out for their dinner. I enjoy my kibble. We move on east tomorrow to Albuquerque, New Mexico.