The Great American Road Trip III; Day 11

The Grand Canyon.  Note the people on the left for scale.  Looks exactly like it did the last
time I was there.  (click to enlarge)

We left Flagstaff and drove north and west to Grand Canyon National Park.  I've been three times before but my traveling companions wanted to go so the two of them could hike part way down the Bright Angel Trail.  I was raised better than that so I stayed on flat land, walked the Rim Trail east for a bit, made a few images then had a small lunch and waited for them to advise me that they had reached the top of the trail.  Well, it turns out that by the time they reached the Bright Angel Trail, they regained their senses and decided to walk west on the Rim Trail instead of down, down, down, which then requires you to come up, up, up!  Up is the tough part.  It was a cloudless day with temperatures in the mid-80s F and, as far as I was concerned relaxing in the shade with a gentle breeze was the right thing to do.

We did meet up at the famous El Tovar Restaurant and Hotel and sat out on the restaurant's covered patio overlooking the canyon.  I was sipping one of my favorite drinks, an Arnold Palmer, and we enjoyed about an hour of the day just sitting and looking.

Sarcastically speaking, if you have never visited the Grand Canyon, you can drive to the entrance of the South Rim, endure a long wait in one of five or six long lines of cars, trucks, campers, motor homes, motorcycles and such to get in, try to find a place to park an then walk a few hundred yards over to the rim at Mather Point.  Stand there and you'll see a really, really, REALLY big hole in the earth.  That is about it.  Look at it for five minutes, take in its majesty and enormity and you can then leave.  If you go back, it looks exactly the same.

Seriously, the Grand Canyon is a wonderous sight and everyone who has the opportunity should visit.

For this night's lodging, we rented a tiny house about 25 miles south of the Grand Canyon.  It was a really cool experience except for the fact that it was in the middle of nowhere!  I mean nowhere.  It was 8 miles to the nearest store or restaurant and the tiny house was in a trailer park (all dust and dirt, of course) and a mile down a really washboard dirt road from the main road.  A nice experience but not worth doing again due to the extreme inconvenience.

Join me over at my website, https://www.dennismook.com.  

Thanks for looking. Enjoy!  

Dennis A. Mook  

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