Vacation: Day Three

The Grand Canyon

On our first morning in the Grand Canyon, we watched an IMAX movie of the Grand Canyon before we began our trek for the day. We were glad we did. It was quite well done.

Once we were in the park we headed straight for the Bright Angel trail to do a little hiking. We hiked for a mile or so down the trail before we decided to turn back. It was a nice hike, but we decided we needed to save some of our energy for other hiking trails along the way. Just as we came back to the top of the trail, we saw a couple of California Condors. Both of the birds were enjoying sunning themselves on the rocks, so Marc had a great time trying to photograph them. A little later on in the day, as we were hiking, we watched as another California Condor was soaring above our heads. We were hopeful we would get a nice video of the bird in flight, but Marc was having a little trouble with the camera at that time, and unfortunately did not get it captured. :-(

You can't drive in the Grand Canyon, so everyone must take the shuttle bus or walk. We weren't real fond of the shuttle buses... they didn't seem to be as efficient as we hoped they would. They only ran every 15 or 20 minutes, and if there were too many people at a particular stop, you would need to wait for the next bus, which would be another 15 to 20 minute wait. That was the only drawback we had in the park... everything else was great.

We got off the bus at almost every point of interest, all the way from the Little Colorado River Gorge to Hermits Rest. We tried to hike around each area that the shuttle stopped, to get some good pictures.

By late afternoon we moseyed our way out of the Grand Canyon and headed toward Kanab, Utah where we planned to spend the night. While driving on Navajo Indian Reservation, we witnessed a patrolman who had pulled a driver over to give him a ticket. Just as the patrolman was pulling away from the side of the road, money started flying all over the place... not just a little bit... but a whole lot of money! It was like something you see in the movies... which made it hard to believe we were really seeing it happen with our own eyes!

On our way to Kanab, we decided to take alternate route 89. We were glad we did for the most part, because he scenery was beautiful and much different than the northern route. The last 40 miles of our trip, was a bit tedious due to the high elevation and switchbacks, but we made it to Kanab just fine... but much later than we had anticipated.