October 22-28: A Blast From The Past At The Grand Canyon

Of course, the Grand Canyon is old (creationism aside), but so are we. This was our first visit to the “Big Hole In The Ground” in 20-25 years. Since we didn’t have Blogs and Facebook back then, it’s hard to recall exactly when, and Geri and I don’t recall the same things. I have some old pictures, but they are marginally helpful as the actual pictures aren’t date stamped and the digital versions reflect when they were scanned from prints or slides, not the date taken.

No matter; we had a good visit. It was an easy drive from Las Vegas, hopping on I-215 to US-93 to and around Boulder City, over the new Hoover Dam Bypass (nice bridge!) and down to Kingman. We fueled up there and caught I-40 heading east to Williams, then AZ-64 north to Grand Canyon National Park. Our Access Pass got us in for free and we were soon parked at the only RV facility inside the Park.

Like a lot of National Parks, many of the concessions here are outsourced. That’s good for us, since the RV facility, “Grand Canyon Trailer Village” has been upgraded significantly with paved roads and sites, full hookups (50 Amp electric, water, sewer, and even cable TV), and pull-thru positioning. Other that being a bit off level (which we were able to compensate for), and having an abundance of elk and deer scat for the dogs to try to eat, it was pretty darn nice.

Elk, mostly cows, wandered through the campground most days.

We saw these mule deer on our morning walk one day.

On Thursday, we took a drive to the west to the Desert View overlook, so named because looking east beyond the Park, you get to see the Painted Desert (no canyon). It’s the only scenic road that we could drive our own car on (they control traffic with a shuttle bus service most of the year), so we packed up the pups and made it a group trip. Of course, photo opportunities abound.

A rare "selfie", at Desert View Watchtower.

Snoozing!

I love making photos of native plants.

This formation is called "Duck on a Rock". I don't see it.

Everyone gets into the photo making act on a trip like this...

"Wow"...

With most of the trees Juniper or Pinyon Pine, it was nice to find some oaks to show some color.

Now, this looks more like a duck to me.

Time to test our the panoramic photo feature...

Friday was another nice, sunny day, so I set out on the shuttle system to see the “Village” and Visitor’s Center. Geri stayed back, as the elevation (well over 6,000 feet) was getting to her and she needed a few more days to acclimate.

Grand Canyon Village is the area where most of the lodging and tourist services can be found. Development started almost 110 years ago, driven by railroad tourism. Railroad access was originally established to support mining operations, of which very little evidence still exists.

Not the best shot because of the sun angle, but these building house the main lodges in the park.
You can also see the upper end of Bright Angel Trail zigzagging down from the rim.

The El Tovar Lodge was the first hotel at the Canyon, dating back to 1905.

The Visitor’s Center area grew up around Mather Point Overlook, the most visited place in the park. Did you know that the average visitor spends less than four hours at the Grand Canyon? It’s hard to believe, but they have stats on this type of thing. Basically, the majority of people visiting drive up from places as far away as Flagstaff, or get tour busses from places like Phoenix and Las Vegas, get dropped off at the Visitor’s Center, wander out to the overlook, take a few pictures, meander back to the parking area, and are on their way. Bucket List checked. Needless to say, I didn’t bother spending much time there, as crowds and nature don’t mix well in my mind.

Tourists. The Mather Point Overlook is the only one that's completely enclosed with safety rails.
For good reason...

Nice view, but note the small pile of rocks in the lower right. Some fool crawled out there to defile a landmark.

The Selfie Queen! This bimbo had a "selfie stick" and managed to take about 75 pictures in the 20 minutes she was there.
Every one was of herself.

After a couple of days rest, I ventured out again on Monday, taking the shuttle west along the rim to Hermit’s Rest. More photo opportunities, of course, but I’ll admit that things start looking a little similar after a while. I started looking for little distinctions, like differences in geology or places I recognized from our visit years ago.

Like the Canyon itself, you come to realize that time is a big factor here, well beyond the millions of years it took for the geology. Time of day and time of year influence the angle and intensity of the sun. Seasons have different weather patterns, which provide various areas of visual interest. And, visiting every 20+ years makes quite a difference, too! Or course, part of that may be memory related…

Anyway, I managed to get in a few more pictures, and even had lunch at a picnic area overlooking the Canyon before shuttling back.

More interesting views...

... and rock colors.

And that's why Geri stayed back at the "trailer park"...

Some railings are needed. This view looked straight down.

Interesting stonework on the "Hermit's Rest" building.

And, a great place for a picnic lunch!

Will it be another 20+ years before we visit again? I’m not sure, but it’ll likely be a different time of year for variety. No matter what, we enjoyed this visit!