Road Trippin'- Part 4: The Grand Canyon

Day 5-7 Grand Canyon

The morning we left Page for the Grand Canyon the temperature had dropped.  For most of our stay we enjoyed temps in the 50^th and 60’s, but this morning it was about 30 degrees colder.  I had to put on a heavy sweatshirt and even considered bringing out the winter hat and gloves.  We were heading to the Grand Canyon where they had gotten an inch of snow overnight and the weather report was reporting temps in the teens. Back at home they were preparing for blizzard conditions.

Jim, our wilderness guide from White Pocket recommend we stop at Cameron Trading Post for a Navajo taco.  It’s fry bread topped with chili beans, beef, lettuce, cheddar cheese, tomatoes and green chili salsa.  It was excellent and very filling.  It was the size of a small pizza and I wasn’t sure I could finish it but I managed.

We pulled into the park midafternoon.  We were staying at one of the lodges in the park but since we couldn’t check in until 3, we spend the afternoon stopping at some of the viewpoints along Desert View Drive on the east side of the park.  It was cold and windy when we got there and I had to put on my winter hat and gloves.

Desert View Watchtower

Our first stop was the watchtower.  This was a place we enjoyed the last time we were here and although it was still very much the same it didn’t hold the same enchantment it had 20 years ago.  It seemed most of the park was like that.  The places we enjoyed last time just didn’t do it for us, and I can’t explain why.  The canyon was still beautiful, but everything else wasn’t how we remembered it.  

I discovered that when you’re walking around with a SLR camera people assume you know what you’re doing and ask you to take their picture.  I think I took more pics of strangers than anything else.   

The lodges in the park are made up of the main lodge where you’ll find the registration desk, a gift shop, a cafeteria, and a tavern.   The rooms are made up of little buildings spread out away from the main lodge.   Each building houses about 15 rooms.  The rooms were simple but functional and really who goes to the Grand Canyon to sit in their room?   When we checked into our room Hubby discovered we didn’t have Wi-Fi in our room and cell signal was spotty.  I saw this as an opportunity to unplug, but Hubby saw it as an inconvenience, and that started his mood for the night.
 

Grand Canyon at Sunset

We went for dinner at the lodge tavern.  There was a sign that said please wait to be seated so we waited.  And waited. And waited.   The tavern wasn’t that busy and it appears we were being ignored.  Finally, someone took us to a table, gave us menus and we never saw them again.  In the meantime, tables that were seated after us were getting waited on.  This made Hubby more upset and he flagged down a waitress.    She apologized for the poor service and was very attentive after that.  The food wasn’t that great and we decided we wouldn’t be eating there again.  Luckily there were other choices to eat at in the park.

After the whole dinner fiasco, we went back to our room.  To keep the light pollution to a minimum all the outdoor lights are a very low watt making it difficult to find our building, much less our room.  Already aggravated about dinner, it didn’t help his mood that the ice machine for our building was shut off for the winter and was told to fill the ice bucket at a different building.   Hubby came back to the room and threw the ice bucket on the table.  He was going to try to call the kids to give them a number where they could reach us, and right then my phone rang; it was our son, James.  The connection was bad, and Hubby could hear James, but he couldn’t hear Hubby.  James tried to call back a couple times and it was the same thing.  Finally, when they could hear each other, Hubby tried to give him the lodge phone number but we couldn’t find anything with the number on it.  At this point, Hubby grabbed his phone and the ice bucket, jumped in the car to drive back to the main lodge to call home and fill the bucket up from the cafeteria soda fountain.    Only he couldn’t even get a signal at the main building.  While he was gone, I found a phone number for the lodge and somehow was able to get enough signal to be able to txt home.  Hubby came back to the room exasperated and I started to feel bad for booking us there for 3 nights.   I wanted to be in the park so we could catch a sunrise without having to get up at an ungodly hour, but because he was mad at just about everything thing I began to wonder if we would have been better off at one of the hotels just outside the park.

Sunrise over the canyon

After a good night’s sleep Hubby was in a better mood and we got up at 5:30 to catch the sunrise at Yavapai Point.  When we got there, there were only 2 other people.  As it got closer to sunrise more people started to show up.  I staked my claim on a spot with my tripod and for the most part people respected my space.   After the sun peaked over the horizon I moved about 6 feet to an area away from the fenced off viewing area and pointed my camera in the opposite direction to catch the light shining on the canyon monuments.  This made some people nervous because I was standing on top of a cliff with no railing and they were a little vocal about it but I was still a good 5 feet from the edge and ignored them.  I think our experience at Horseshoe Bend had steeled my nerves a bit.  

About an hour or so after sunrise I realized we were the only ones left.  The golden hour was over and my toes were frozen so it was time to go.  We drove up to the watchtower to get some breakfast.  The snack bar didn’t open until 9  so we had to sit outside in the cold for 15 minutes waiting.  After breakfast, I decided needed to do laundry.  We were there for the next 2 days and had already seen half the park so I had no problem taking an hour or so to make sure we had clean clothes for the rest of the trip.  Hubby dropped me off at the park laundromat while he went to look gas so we would have enough to get out to the west end of the park and back.  

Somewhere along Hermit Road

We did find cell signal in the middle of the park at the visitor’s center.  I just happened to be checking Facebook when I saw a post from our daughter, Alison.  She was at an urgent care clinic waiting to see a doctor because she fell down the stairs the night before.  I called her cell and caught her still at the clinic waiting to hear the results of her x-rays.  I told her to txt me when she knew anything, and I would call her when I could.  Later in the day I got a message from my mom informing me about Alison’s accident and that they would drive out to our place over the weekend if the kids needed anything.  Later in the day I got another message saying not to rush home, Alison was in a sling with a hairline fracture in her elbow but other than that she was fine.

Hermits Rest

We spent most of the rest of the day on Hermit Road.  This side of the park is my favorite.  The views just seem better from the west side for some reason.   I don’t know how many photos I took but it was a lot as we stopped at each point working our way to Hermits Rest.  Even though we drove from point to point there was still a lot if walking and sometimes stairs to climb up and down.  By the end of the day my feet were tired and my knees were weak.  We’re not in the shape we were 20 years ago, and even the small inclines were difficult.   After making it to Hermits Rest we drove back towards the village and stopped at Hopi Point for sunset.  It was probably in the high teens for temps, with the wind blowing right at us as we stood on the overlook, and as the sun went down the canyon started to fill with shadows, so we didn’t stay very long.    That night for dinner we got a pizza and took it back to our room so we could be back before it was to dark.  

The next morning, we headed to the village to visit the gift shops and look for the spot we had our picture taken 20 years ago, to recreate the photo.   We walked up and down the village looking.  Hubby even pulled up the old pic on his phone trying to match landmarks.  I don’t think we found the exact spot but I think we got close.  We wandered around the village for most of the morning and then went to get lunch outside the park.

 Back in the park we visited a few other gift shops and saw they had Grand Canyon wine.  We

thought about buying a bottle, but wanted to be able to taste it first and were told we could buy it by the glass in the taverns.  We headed back to the tavern we ate at the first night, only because it was the closest.  I asked about the wine we had seen in the gift shop and the bartender told me they don’t sell the same wine because the stuff in the gift shops wasn't very good.  Instead we tried a wine from the winery we were planning on going to in Williams.  I was so tired and sore from all the walking we did in the last couple days I need a nap so we went back to our room and I slept until dinner. By this time we were both done with the canyon, we had seen everything we wanted to see so we had a quick dinner and then went back to the room to watch tv until bed.

Road Trippin' - Part 1: Minnesota to Arizona 

Road Trippin' - Part 2: White Pocket

Road Trippin' - Part 3: Antelope Canyon