Days 8 and 9 - Grand Canyon Sweet

What an experience to wake up in the morning to the sound of Brewer's Blackbirds outside our window, step out and look at one of the wonders of the natural world less than a hundred feet away! Incidentally, the Brewer's are the "trash" birds of Grand Canyon Village. The weather was hot and breezy, but the skies were cloudless and that made for great viewing along the Canyon's South Rim.

Grand Morning

Our strategy was to do our hiking early. Then we would find some shade or maybe even take a nap during the heat of the afternoon, before venturing out again around 4 p.m. Note from Mary: who do you think took a nap; it wasn't me. The free shuttle system also was a great way to get around from vista to vista when we started to drag a bit.

For our first morning, we chose to walk along the south rim from Bright Angel Lodge west to Maricopa Point. That was only about 3 miles total out and back, but at our birding pace the easy walk along a paved trail took most of the morning. Since you already have seen a couple of canyon views, here are a couple of photos of other things we saw. Jealous yet?

California Condor

 Western Tanager

Back near our starting point, we checked out the Colter-designed studio of photogaphers Emery and Ellsworth Kolb. Ellsworth was quite a daredevil, and an exhibit included 100-year-old video of their canyon antics. After a break, a ranger led us on a short walk and shared some of the history about the Native Americans of the area. In late afternoon, we took the shuttle to Hermit's Rest, about 6.5 miles west of Maricopa Point, walked back a mile to the next overlook and then returned via shuttle to the village for dinner.

Kolb Studio

These old folks were not up to walking to the floor of the canyon. It is a day down and a day back, anyway. However, we wanted a taste of going below the rim, so we set out down the Bright Angel Trail, which does go all the way down to a green oasis called Indian Garden and the Colorado River. Our goal was to make it the first mile to the second of two tunnels along the path, and we are happy to report that we achieved that goal and made it back up to the top. Along the way, we kept thinking of Grofe's "Grand Canyon Suite" and the children's book, Brighty of the Grand Canyon.

Down Bright Angel Trail

Grand Canyon Suite - Live

We still had some of the relatively cool morning remaining, so we hopped on the shuttle again - this time headed east. We visited several more overlooks that gave us views of the South Kaibob trail below the rim and the Colorado River below. The antics of young people on the edge of the cliffs disturbed us quite a bit, though.

Colorado River Bridge near Phantom Ranch

We also stopped at the geology museum, but we still find the ages of canyon formation too complex to really get a handle on it.  An outstanding meal with a view at the Bright Angel Lodge Arizona Room capped another extraordinary day.

Tomorrow its on to the third of our southwest trio of parks - Zion.