The Grandest Canyon of Them All

Callie and I had a rough night of sleep as our refrigerator in the room make this loud annoying buzzing noise through the night. But we didn’t want to unplug it because we had our cinnamon rolls from Lulu’s in there. We woke up early because of the noise, but also because we were still dealing with the time change. We decided to get ready, grab some breakfast and begin our day of hiking.

Now before you think we would be crazy enough to attempt hiking the whole trail to the bottom and up, be reassured that we’re not that suicidal. We did have a hearty breakfast at the lodge’s restaurant and then we loaded our backpacks with water and hiked down to the 1 1/2 mile Rest House. We tried very hard not to take pictures on the way down so that we would have a few excuses to stop on the way up. Two groups of donkeys passed us on the way.

The downhill part was the easiest. When we started back up the canyon it took a little longer and was more strenuous, but we took our time, stopped to see the big horn sheep on the hill,

to talked to the crazy kids who were going to the bottom and back up (starting at 10am), hike in the slushy hail and to encourage the poor backpackers who looked ready to give up just 1/2 mile from the top.

After we reached the top we went back to our room to rest our legs just a bit. We both said that is the only way to see the canyon, to actually get down into it, even if it is 1 1/2 miles. We then grabbed a small lunch and hopped on the Hermit’s Rest Bus. Our plan had been to ride the bus a little while and hike a mile or so on the rim trail. However, the weather had different plans for us. After we got off at the first stop to see the views the storm really began. We scrambled back on the next bus came on and only got off at stops we really wanted to get off at. It was definitely a different perspective of the canyon from these view points because you can see the river from most of them and see how deep the canyon is. It was only a bummer that the rain was making it hard to see very far down and across the canyon.

We took the bus back from Hermit’s Rest and tried to stay warm. We transferred buses and headed straight for the visitor center, while we were out and about. We saw some Elk.

We got our passports stamped and bought a few souvenirs and postcards. Then we went back to the cabin to take warm showers and get ready for our dinner at El Tovar.
By the time we were walking to El Tovar the sun had come out and the clouds were trying to clear. We had a very good meal at El Tovar, it was fancy and delicious with a wonderful homemade apple pie for dessert. Yum! It was a great “Last Supper” for our trip.

We left hope to catch the sunset on the rim, which is the more famous thing to see at the Grand Canyon, unfortunately the clouds had not cleared enough to give us a great picture.

So Callie and I shopped in the Bright Angel store for T-shirts and stuff.
After that long, cold, non-stop day Callie and I went back to the cabin and filled out our postcards. We were in bed asleep by 9pm.