It was a beautiful day – sunny and temps in the low 70s. It was still very windy, but that should ease up tomorrow. Bill took off this morning at 8am to go to Planes of Fame. We figured out this morning that our phones were correct and that we were still on Pacific Time since Arizona doesn’t do Daylight Savings time.
Bill enjoyed the museum, and I enjoyed the extra sleep. I worked on some photos. I have the Oregon ones uploaded and just have to label them before I make them viewable.
We left the Williams KOA at noon and drove the 50 miles to Grand Canyon Nat’l Park. The drive was really pretty, especially the yellow flowers that were blanketing the ground around the evergreens. Even Bill commented on how gorgeous it was. The drive took us about an hour to check in at the Trailer Park. They are full, so we were glad we had reservations. It isn’t a bad park, but it is mainly just scrub with some trees. The sites are average size; we have all the hookups; and the satellite, phones, and internet work.
We had some burgers for lunch and then took off to tour a bit. First we went to the main Grand Canyon Visitors Center. I went to the bookstore and got a wonderful book – the Audubon Field Guide to the Southwestern States. It has just about anything anyone could want – geology, flowers, shrubs, trees, butterflies, birds, bugs, fish, mammals, and all kinds of interesting information.
From there we walked to Mather Point for our first look at the Canyon. It truly is breath-taking. We walked along the Rim Trail there, took lots of photos, met some interesting people, saw some neat plants and flowers.
We drove on down to Yavapai Geology Museum/overlook. From there we could see the suspension bridge way down on the river. As always we saw all the idiots climbing onto unsafe areas to get their photo taken. I am surprised hundreds of people don’t fall to their death.
The sun was starting to set, so we drove to the lodge area of Grand Canyon Village. We wanted to eat at the Arizona Room of the Bright Angel Lodge. They don’t take reservations, so we figured Thursday night was the best night to try it. As we approached the lodge area, we saw a concrete deer next to a building. I thought that was rather cheesy, and I joked to Bill that he needed to back up so I could get a photo. No parking so we drove around the big loop again. The concrete deer was gone. Ha. It never moved a muscle nor batted an eye as we first drove by.
We finally found a place to park and went to the restaurant. We only had to wait 5 minutes and got a table for two right next to the windows overlooking the walk and the Canyon. We could only see the top of the North Rim, but it was pleasant. The restaurant was pleasant but nothing spectacular. Bill wanted to try the Prickly Pear drink which was prickly pear cactus syrup, lime, triple sec, sweet and sour and Hornitos Reposado tequila. So I had the Kokopelli which had Midori melon liqueur, splash of cranberry, and Hornitos Reposado tequila. It was really good.
The food was also quite good and unique. I had sautéed pork medallions with an orange jalapeno glaze. It came with piñon cornbread stuffing and asparagus. Bill had a NY strip steak with mushroom sherry chutney. Both meals were quite good.
As we walked back to the car, we saw two mule deer grazing near the walkway. They didn’t blink an eye as we passed along with another couple.
Tomorrow we think we are going to get going about 9 to take the shuttle to various viewpoints that we can’t drive in the car. That will take a bit of time, but it should be fun.
I also added more photos. There is a new link for my photos from Oregon back to Raleigh. Both westward and eastward links are on the right.
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