March 20th & 21st

I had very minimal access to Internet from when we left the Grand Canyon Inn till our arrival at the Las Vegas Airport. Expect another double day post tonight (the 23rd).

March 20th

There is no Internet at our hotel at the Grand Canyon. However will I survive? Well, there is a TV and books and views and stuff.

This morning was obscenely bright. The sun had no clouds to obscure it, and as the landscape was snow covered, it refracted painfully into my eyes. Gaaah.

We ate breakfast at the Inn. Hash browns, toast, eggs, and tea for both of us. A side of bacon for me. Mmm. It was filling and warm and lovely. The road was clear, and so we drove onwards for the Grand Canyon. Many cars passed mom by.

Arriving at the Visitor's Center was a typical situation for any National Park: you drive hours with barely anyone else on the road and all of a sudden, so many cars, and people! Where did they all come from? It wasn't that crowded at all, what with it being the off season. Snow sloughed off roofs, but the paths were mostly ice free. I stamped by book with its National Park stamps, and got a patch. We saw the video about the park, which contained lots of footage of people standing perilously close to the edge. Snacks were enjoyed, and we drove in a loop around part of the park. Even though check in was 4pm, we managed to get in at around 2:20ish. Our room has a fridge! One step up from the Inn, which had a coffee pot, and two steps up from the Luxor which had neither.

From our rooms, we packed our backpack up, and walked over to the cafeteria. Mom had chili, and I had Salisbury steak with mac & cheese and rice sides. A bit bland but filling and warm, which is good. We boarded the blue shuttle bus (within the Grand Canyon National Park, there is a blue, red, and yellow shuttle bus system that gets people around) and disembarked from it at the Hopi House. We looked at the beautiful jewelry designs, and oooh and ahhhed at the canyon. It is so bigly hugely big. We walked along the rim trail and checked out the Kolb Brothers studio. Those guys had some major balls. Rafted down the Columbia River with film equipment. Set up very daring scenarios to film and photograph. Ellsworth and Emry were crazy, but a lot of good came out of it. Mom got Ellsworth's book about boating the river, and I got the smaller book about the two of them. Whooo!

The red line took us up to Hermit's Nest. We rode it straight up, while other people got off at the various points (Hopi, Mojave, Papi(?), etc.). At the top , at Hermit's Nest, we saw some elk! I was able to get decently close enough to take pictures. We took the bus down, and got off at Mojave point and watched the sun go down. The canyon just goes so brilliantly red. Some people sat at very precarious positions, but none fell. The packed like sardines bus took us down into sunset, and under the arrival of night, we went to the Bright Angel Restaurant and had dinner. Mahi mahi tacos for me, fish for mom. I also ordered a slice of chocolate cake to go! The Blue line runs only every half hour or so, after 7:30, and we managed to board a bus right as we got to the stop. Hurray! The driver was hilarious. Tomorrow we will do some of the yellow bus routes.

March 21st

Had a pretty good sleep. The snow has melted a bunch, and it generally is less icy. We walked to the cafe for breakfast, and it was brilliant and sunny and even a bit too warm under our layers. I had the bacon, egg, croissant sandwich and mom had oatmeal. We booked our room at Bally's or somewhere in Vegas. From there, we returned to our room and packed our things up for a day's hike. We took the Blue to the Yellow, and there I found out it is actually the Orange. The Orange took us to the Geology center, and we took in the views. Then we took the bus up to Yapi Point. Also quite beautiful. From there we took the Orange back down to the Visitor's Center and got on the other Orange bus and went back up the Yavapai Point trail start. Unfortunately the trail was pretty icy and slushy and muddy, which made for horrible walking. No one wants to shuffle down a winding narrow path when there is a danger for sliding. So we went back up, and took the Rim Trail. I stopped and drew the canyon for an hour, which made my butt numb and I couldn't nearly capture the whole vista. Blimey. We took the bus back to the Geology museum, and walked along the Rim from there, and took the Shrine of the Ages path back towards the market village.

We are now relaxing in our hotel room. We will go grab dinner in a second, and maybe see the ranger talk at the auditorium. There is wifi at the cafe.