Day # 45 - Grand Canyon & Lighting

It was another beautiful day in Northern Arizona. We got up relatively early and decided that we would pick up some breakfast at McDonald’s in Tusayan on the way in to save a little time. We knew we would be paying tourist prices, but $40 bucks for a few breakfast sandwiches and hash browns is more than a bit steep.

Anyway, with full tummies we entered the park and located the red bus route that would take us out to the Hermit’s Rest overlook. We dropped Nana off at the bus stop so she could conserve her energy and went to find a parking place. The bus will only take as many riders as they have seats for when it departs from the 1st stop but after that you can ride standing room only from the rest of the stops – strange rule, but OK. We had to wait a few buses to be able to board. Fortunately, the buses run every 12 to 15 minutes so it didn’t take too long. We hopped off at one of the first overlooks to take a look. The National Park service limited traffic on this road to busses only a few years ago. While it makes getting to the view points a little more difficult, it limits the number of visitors to this area of the park and makes for a more enjoyable visit.

We hopped back on the bus to head to Hopi Point. This overlook is supposed to be one of the best in the canyon, especially for viewing the sunset. The views were once again breathtaking. We walked a short trail back from the stop along the rim. The day started off clear and bright. But we noticed some storm clouds off in the distance. That is one thing about the canyon, the weather can be unpredictable. Frequently there are afternoon thunderstorms, but it was still pretty early in the morning. We decided to head back to the bus stop to catch a bus out to the last stop, Hermit’s Rest, then to make extra stops on the way back as the weather allowed. As we were waiting for the bus, a bolt of lightning cut through the air above our heads along with a simultaneous and deafening crack of thunder. You know the rule about counting the seconds between the lightning and thunder to determine approximately how far away it is, we there was no time at all in between. It scared the crap out of all of us. Tony saw a blue spark on the toe of his tennis shoe. Abby and AJ started crying along with a teenage girl who was waiting with her family.

As we all started talking about how scary that was we struck up a conversation with her family. They were from Maryland and they too had Grandma traveling with them. Grandma was from England. There was so much static electricity in the air that people’s hair was sticking straight up in the air. The scariest part was there was no place to seek shelter. You are thousands of feet up in the air standing on the rim of a canyon watching storm clouds roll in and listening to thunder. There are little to no trees here so you are the tallest thing in the open. We just hoped that the bus would be along soon. To make matters worse, it started to rain...and rain hard. We hadn’t brought our ponchos or jackets. It started to rain harder and harder. We were soaked. The bus was late. It was going on 20 minutes since the last bus had come by and the group that was waiting was starting to get a little antsy.

Finally, a very full bus arrived and we all piled in anyway. He drove us to the next stop and a relatively empty bus that was making its way back to the bottom pulled in and those of us who were standing moved to the other bus. The rain got harder and harder with a lot of lighting and then it actually started to hail! Needless to say, our trip to Hermit’s Rest was going to be cut short. The bus drivers were picking up people along the way. Usually they won’t pick up passengers unless they are at a designated stop, but given the weather, they were authorized to pick up anywhere. It seems that a few years ago, a visitor was struck by lightning and died so they weren’t taking any chances. They wanted to get people down from the rim until the storm passed. We were a little disappointed, but no one can argue with Mother Nature (and after the scare we had we weren’t taking any chances either).

We got safely back to our car at about 2:00. Though the sun was coming out, we didn’t have time to go back out on the busses because we needed to have Alice in Flagstaff to pick up a rental car so she could drive herself to the airport in Phoenix in the morning. We decided to eat at one of the restaurants in the lodge before going back to the city. AJ’s asthma was flaring, so I took him to the restroom to change him and give him a breathing treatment. He was feeling a little warm. When we got seated at the table and I picked him up to put him in his seat, he felt really hot. Great – We made our asthmatic 3 year old stand out in a rainstorm with a fever. One of those parenting moments that make you feel awful. I grabbed the kiddie Tylenol out of the diaper bag and dosed him up.

We ate a nice lunch (thanks Nana) and then headed out back for one last look at the Grand Canyon. AJ was starting to cough quite a bit, so Tony dropped me and the kids off at the campground on his way to Flagstaff so I could give AJ another breathing treatment and put him down for a nap. I hope this is short lived, but I am worried he is getting what Alice had. When Tony got back it was getting late so we went into Williams to grab a quick dinner and then put everyone to bed early. Since we decided to stay an extra couple of days, we are looking forward to sleeping in in the morning.