A Grand Adventure

As you can probably already guess, our adventure today was to none other than

Grand Canyon National Park.

After waking to early morning temperatures in the upper 20’s, we weren’t too eager to get out.  However, by the time we had breakfast, packed our snacks, and headed out, the sun was promising us a beautiful day.

It was about an hour’s drive to the park.  Once we entered, we found that they were doing a lot of construction.  Parking was limited, but we found a spot and made the walk directly to the

Visitor Center.  There is where I found the

official cancellation stamp for my passport book.

While I checked out the

weather forecast for the day, which by the way was looking pretty good, Mark

was checking out the tour route.

After a short look through the bookstore, we were off to the South Rim walkway.

This is where we

we got our first look of the Grand Canyon.  As we continued along this upper trail, we were just amazed by the

beauty of rocks.

Mark

isn’t too fond of heights, but he did really well today looking over the edge.

We walked for awhile along this trail and then decided to drive down to the

General Store.  After a brief shopping trip here and lunch, we were off to catch the

free shuttle bus for the rest of the trip down the South Rim.  There are several of these buses that travel through each loop of the park.  We were looking for the one that would take us to Hermit’s Rest.  The nice part of this service is that you can get on and off at each lookout point and they have it timed so that you are never waiting more than 10-12 minutes for the next bus.

We did however have to wait for the third

bus before we could get started.  Lots of folks here today.  And waiting for the bus was better

than this transportation!

So, once we were aboard our bus, we chose to get off at the first

overlook.  From here we decided to take the

1/2 mile walk to the next

point.  This is known as Bright Angels Trail.  Pictographs near the trail give evidence of early Indian use.  This trail is popular, but challenging.  It offers a spectacular view of the Colorado River deep within the enter gorge.  The round trip is 12.2 miles and takes all day.  This trail is shared by both hikers and mules.  By the way, the mules have the right-of-way.

Yes, Deb…I wanted to do it, but didn’t have enough time today.  And, I didn’t bring my backpack…LOL

This time, we boarded the shuttle which took us to Mohave Point.  From this observation, we got a good look at the

Colorado River as it flows through the canyon making its way from the Rocky Mountains to

Lake Mead and on to the Gulf of California in Mexico.

This river is 1,450 miles long and varies in width from 76 to 300 feet.  It’s average depth is about 35 feet, but in places is more than 100 feet deep.

The river drops more than 11,000 feet between its source and mouth.  It loses 2,200 feet during its 277 mile journey through the canyon.

The width of the canyon is an average of 10 miles in a direct line from rim to rim.  However, rim to rim, it is 24 miles by hiking and 200 miles to drive.  The rims are about 5,000 feet above the river.  The elevation of the south rim is about 7,000 feet while the north rim is at about 8,000.

Again, we chose to hike the

  trail to the next stop.  It seemed that we were seeing the same thing, but, it

always looked just a little different.

From this point, we took the bus on to the final destination of

Hermits Rest.  Of course like all good tours, when you get to the end, there is the

gift shop.  We looked around

inside and did a little shopping before

getting one last look at a real wonder.  It was time to catch the bus back to the village.

As we concluded our visit today, we were left with this scripture that was posted at the last lookout…

What a Grand adventure.