Grand
Canyon
July 18th - July 21st
Wednesday,
July 18th
Flagstaff to Grand Canyon
180 - 64
We got to the Grand Canyon mid-afternoon, setup camp and head down to the rim. I had been to the Grand Canyon years ago with my parents. Despite that, seeing it for the first time (even if it is years later) is spectacular. It literally takes your breath away. We walked along the rim for about a mile trying to find a good place to watch the sun set. We finally found a place next to Hopi point. Hopi point was packed with people and didn't look too peaceful. We were sitting a little further away from the point where there were only a couple of people around us. This included a guy and his son from Oklahoma. He was taking photographs of the sunset and his son was running around obviously bored with his dad's photography hobby. We struck up a conversation with them. Very nice man, he ended up telling us about some of the photos he'd taken around the area and gave us some great pointers on the parks of Utah.
That night we cooked out. I had bought some lamb patties for dinner. It was dark so I cooked them in the frying pan over the gas stove. What a nightmare! The lamb seeped grease on everything it touched. I know it sounds gross but the worst part was that the campsite had no place to wash dishes. You had to fill up a bucket of cold water and wash the stuff at your site. When you were finished with the water, you had to flush it down the toilet. The water tap was right next to our campsite but the bathroom was far away. It was cold water and I couldn't get the grease off for the life of me. One lesson learned - never cook lamb when you're camping. Poor James, being a vegetarian he wasn't too happy either.
Thursday, July 19th
Grand Canyon
I spent a lazy morning futzing about the campsite. James went off gallivanting. At around 2, I head over to one of the points to do a Geology walk. It was pretty interesting. The ranger was blind and had spent 10 years at Phantom Ranch, which is down at the bottom of the canyon. He explained the history of the canyon and a couple of the theories of how it was formed. Apparently there are 10 different theories.
After that I took a leisurely walk back to the campsite. We made a fire and cooked dinner. (This time I grilled on the fire - much cleaner!) After dinner we head down to Mather Point to see a talk on the stars. Very cool. The ranger had a strong torch and showed us a number of constellations and stars. It was a little chilly but a beautifully clear night - perfect for stargazing.
Friday, July 20th
Grand Canyon
James and I woke up at 5:30am to watch the sunrise at Bright Angel Point. We quickly got out of bed and rushed to the rim. It wasn't the best of sunrises; there were a lot of people out and with the rush, it wasn't half as relaxing as the ones I had in T or C. We came back to the campsite and James cooked me scrambled eggs. He then drove me out to the Kaibab Trail where I took a 1 ½ mile hike down the canyon. It was a slow hike down and the ranger explained about the layers of the canyon and went into more detail about the theories of how it became.
It was stunning. I guess we went down a third of the way down. It's almost addictive - you really want to go down all the way. But the more you go down, the more you have to come back up. So at Cedar Ridge, I rested a bit and head back up. Good exercise, especially for Celeste who's been a lazy ass for years!
Took a leisurely walk back to the campsite and took a 4-hour nap under a tree. James was still not back by the time I woke up so I freshened up and head to the western point of the rim, Hermits Rest, to see the sun set.
The Grand Canyon is pretty geared up. They have shuttle buses going all over the park and some areas are actually closed off to private cars. Apparently they are trying to ban all visitor cars to prevent congestion and minimize pollution, which is already affecting the view. So I took a shuttle to the last point and walked along the rim for about a mile. I found an amazing spot right on a cliff. There was no one around but me. It was really serene and sunset was gorgeous.
After the sun disappeared, I walked to the next point and caught a bus. The bus took a while and I got back to the campsite way after dark. By the time I got there James was a little concerned. During the day, he had hiked all the way down to the bottom of the canyon and got back to the campsite just before I left for the sunset.
Saturday, July 21st
Grand Canyon to Page to Bryce Canyon National Park
64 - 89 - 12
On our way out of the Grand Canyon, we stopped at Desert View, the east rim of the canyon. The main attraction there was an observatory tower that was built in the 20s as a tribute to the Native Indians of the area. Inside there were petroglyphs painted on the walls and you could go up to the top for a wonderful view of the canyon.
Half way to Bryce Canyon, we stopped in Page, AZ. Page is on Lake Powell. Lake Powell is a man-made dam and is used as a power plant. Unfortunately, the dam doesn't allow silt to flow from the Colorado River into the Grand Canyon and this is apparently affecting the natural erosion of the canyon.
Page, itself, was another very bleak town in the middle of the desert. We had lunch and I managed to spend $100 at Walmart (again!). We head out of town and towards Utah.
The Southwestern part of Utah was very pretty; green valleys and farms and cute little towns. As we approached Bryce Canyon, the rock formations started to appear. We arrived around sunset and the red-orange of the rocks was gorgeous. The campsite in the park was full so we stayed in a private one just outside the park. It was a pretty nice campground; it had a swimming pool, good showers and a sauna. We were pretty late so the only decent site we could get was a group campsite right in the middle of the campgrounds. We were quite far from the toilets and next to us was a huge group of French teenagers. It was actually quite funny. They came back from their day and started to party. They were playing dance music and taking turns standing up and moving flashlights around to imitate the effects of a disco ball.