February 16, 2011--Grand Canyon

Well, today is Thursday---but we went to the Grand Canyon on Wednesday. We returned home late last night so after making and having dinner I was not thinking very creatively to write the blog.

We started out early on Wednesday morning and went into Williams, which is only a few miles from our home, and went to the Grand Canyon Visitors Center. It was a very helpful place to stop to find info on our tour of the Grand Canyon.

Armed with stacks of brochures we turned north on route 64 and started the drive for a hours drive to visit the Canyon. After we drove just a few miles we saw the mountain which I had been hoping we would see from the park. The rest of the drive was through desert with ranch lanes in some areas. We did not see anything except for low bushes and brown grass and  beige colored ground. When we got close to the Grand Canyon we started to see some tall pine trees and forest which was not very dense.


Our first stop was the IMAX theater which gave a nice show of how it looks to fly into the Canyon. It definitely gave you a thrill and made you excited about what you were about to see. We also found that things were very expensive in the area. Just to get a nice glass of tea was not good for our budget.

When we came to our first stop on the Canyon road, Walt gave a big gasp when he saw the first glimpse of the canyon.  He had seen the Canyon from a small plane years ago, but this was different. All I could think of was the beauty and thanked the Lord for giving me the ability to see such beauty. The sky was dark and the sun was not visible but it was still beautiful. Our pictures will not give the beauty any justice. We took all the pictures we could-in fact, we took 302 pictures. Thank goodness we have digital cameras these days. All you have to do is download them and do some editing or deletion.

More pictures:

We continued west on the road and stopped at every viewing area. It was getting colder and the wind was picking up. By the time we finished the tour we were very cold and you had to watch so the wind did not blow you over, especially if you were on unlevel ground or rocks.

We found a great place to eat lunch. It was The Tovar Lodge. It was built in 1905 for the rich and the famous when they visited the park. We had a wonderful lunch at a cost less than the minimum meal at Applebee's last week and their meal was horrible. Walt had a great Rubean Sandwich and I had Chicken marinated in Prickly Pear Juice with caramelized onion and roasted peppers on top of it. I also had rice and broccoli as sides. It was yummy.

After lunch we walked to the Hopi House were they had art works done by the Hopi Indians. The works were just magnificent and very costly, but just wonderful. I do wish I could have worked a piece into my budget. There was jewelry, sand art, pottery, silver works, rugs and wall hangings to mention a few. They did wonderful southwestern art.

More scenery with wind and cold getting worse.

We kept on going because you did not know what you may see at the next. Stop.

The Hermits Rest Route was the next part of our tour. It is an area that only buses can navigate during the months of March thru November. From December first to February 28 you can travel the 7 miles by car.

We can understand that if the traffic was heavy it would be a major grid lock. The road is narrow and winding with small pull offs and it could never accommodate a large group of people.

When we reached the end of the trail we went into the Hermits Rest visitors center and got some hot chocolate and defrosted in the warm building before heading east to our starting point were be had entered the park.

The sunset over the canyon was not very good because of the cloud cover.

BUT LOOK BELOW

Our southern trip on 64 gave us a view of the sunset which I have never seen anywhere before last night. It was a 180 degree sunset --from the east to the south and on thru to the west. It was something to behold.

Well, since I am the "Sunset Grandma" I think I have seen the best. Such beauty comes only at special times.
"The perfect icing on the top of the cake."  It was a wonderful day.