Day # 44 - Grand Canyon

Alice was not quite feeling up to an outing today, so we left her to recuperate in hopes that she can enjoy her final day out west tomorrow. Tony and I and the kids decided to head back to the canyon to drive east along the rim from the south entrance to Desert View and to check out The Watch Tower. This was the same drive that Tony and I took probably a dozen years ago when we did the Grand Canyon in a 1 day side trip from Phoenix.

The views were as spectacular as we remembered. This drive also had the added benefit of being considerably less crowded. There were still other visitors at the overlooks, just not near as many as were at the main entrance. We met a nice woman who had come up from Phoenix with her dog Thor to take some photos. The kids loved the dog, who was more than happy to accept their attention. We managed to pry them away to look at the views and they really wanted to hike down into the canyon. We did not think that was a good idea given their ages. I was listening to “Canyon Dave the tour guide” tell his group how he had hiked down into the canyon a total of about 18 miles yesterday and had drank 16 liters of water along the way. The canyon floor is about 20 to 30 degrees hotter than the rim. Given that it was about 92 degrees on the rim, that’s pretty hot.

One of the scenic vistas we stopped at next, Grand View Point, was the sight of an old mining encampment. Because of this, the trail here is much wider and seemingly more accessible. We walked a little ways down the trail to get a sense of being "under the rim" of the canyon. It was pretty cool. I can only imagine what it must feel like to be down at the bottom of the canyon. We are looking forward to coming back when the kids are a bit older so that we can take a hike to really get down below the rim. It is something that I think would be worthwhile and would give you a different perspective on an incredibly amazing place. We pushed on and hit a few more vistas. We were again reminded how different the canyon looks at each view point. Every time we stopped we would ask the kids if they wanted to get out and "take a look" and the answer was always a resounding yes. The girls, especially Sarah, thought it was cool and I think AJ was just interested in getting dirtier.

We made it to Desert View and decided to stop at the snack bar for a bite to eat as a tour bus had just unloaded at the Watch Tower overlook. Abby kept asking when we were going to see the “Eiffel Tower.” That got quite a few laughs from the people around us. We enjoyed burgers and hot dogs to give us a little energy to explore Desert View. We smashed a few pennies in the gift shop and picked up a couple of t-shirts for Tony and me. We were kind of on a mission to replace a T-shirt that Tony had purchased on our last trip out that was on its last leg before being relegated to the rag pile. Sure enough Tony found what he was looking for in the Watch Tower gift shop. The Watch Tower (Cue the music….All along the Watch Tower…) is a 70 foot tall tower that was modeled after towers found in ancient pueblos. The Watch Tower is connected to a circular kiva that is decorated with art work by Hopi artist Fred Kabotie. The top of the tower stands at 7,522 feet above sea level making it the tallest point on the south rim. The view from the first floor viewing area is impressive. Sarah was impressed by a flat, mesa like hill called Cedar Mountain. She had taken to calling it a volcano. From this view point you can also see the edges of the painted desert. We just stood for a while taking it all in. The kids wanted to climb to the top (of course) so we started up the narrow, winding staircase. At each landing in the kiva (there are 3) there were more paintings. The top of the watchtower ends in s small landing that has an amazing view of the canyon through big glass windows. As I am not fond of tight spaces, I let Tony and the kids continue on to the top alone and I was left to quietly admire the art work below. When the gang climbed back down, we headed back outside to take one last look. On the way back to the car, we stopped in the general store for some ice cream (daddy had promised the kids ice cream earlier, and no matter how many other things they conveniently forget, my kids won’t forget the promise of ice cream). With popsicles in hand, we headed back the car as the sky was beginning to darken with rain clouds. We could see some pretty impressive flashes of lightning off in the distance.

We left the canyon via the East entrance and were headed back to Flagstaff through Cameron, Arizona. When Tony and I visited the canyon the last time, we stumbled upon a scenic view that led to a small but impressive canyon. The coolest part about this little canyon was that there was no sound at all other than the wind. No people, no cars, no buzzing electric lines -just quite. It was cool in a spooky, twilight zone kind of a way. We were happy to locate the overlook 8 miles from the canyon on State Route 64. The problem was that the minute we pulled off the road, it started pouring down rain. We waited it out for a few minutes, but conditions were not improving so reluctantly, we left. About 10 miles down the road we saw signs for another scenic overlook. Since it wasn’t raining there, we decided what the heck. This overlook was run by a local Native American tribe so we had to pay to enter, but it was only a few dollars. The overlook to the canyon was neat, and the best part was that you could climb way out on rocks near the edge (surrounded by railings of course) to get a closer look. It made the experience a little neater than the overlooks at the Grand Canyon because you actually felt like you were in part of the canyon as opposed to standing on pavement on a man-made overlook. Pretty cool! It was very windy and the storm was coming our way, so we headed back to the car. The drive back was fairly windy and everyone took a little snooze, except Tony of course. Tony and I began discussing our trip. We had been having such a good time and felt we wanted to see a little more before heading back home so we discussed extending our trip a few days. Tony really wanted to do some more hiking in Sedona and we thought that maybe instead of heading to Colorado Springs through Albuquerque we would cut back up through Utah and see a few additional National Parks before picking up I-70 and pulling the Rockies to get to Colorado Springs. Not an easy drive, but we I am confident that out truck (and my husband) can make it. After a few cell-phone calls we rearranged the necessary reservations. We got back to the camper and checked on Alice. She was feeling a bit better and was hopeful that maybe tomorrow she would be able to make a last trip back to the canyon. We are hoping to take the bus out to the west side of the canyon rim to check out Hermit’s Rest.