Grand Canyon N.P. – a 3-day weekend
Grand Canyon 3-day Adventure
To catch everyone up with a recent adventure Karen and I completed, we spent Easter weekend at the Grand Canyon. It was a short 11 hour drive from Stockton. We departed just around 2pm on Friday and slept in the car in Kingman, AZ before wrapping up the last couple of hours the following morning.
We stayed at the Bright Angel lodge, right on the south rim of the canyon, within the National Park. It was a great old lodge, built over 100 years ago. While there, we had dinner in the Grand Canyon’s equivalent of the Awanahee, and walked through the historic adobe structure named Hopi House. Our lodge, Hopi House, and many of the famous buildings in the park are designed by Mary Colter, a prominent architect that was the chief architect in residence for the Santa Fe railroad (the company who originally popularized and developed the Grand Canyon).
We spent our first day hiking the trails along the rim of the canyon. The following morning just after dawn we hiked half way down and then back up. We might have gone further but we got to a place called Skeleton Point and thought it was a sign we should turn around.
Karen saw her first rattlesnake. It was a young little snake, with about 5-7 rattles, and enough common sense to give us a heads up that he was on the trail. He was slithering across the trail to find a warm place in the sun. We waited a few minutes and he went about his marry way.
We also saw hawks, deer, elk, squirrels, lizards and buzzards.
Sunday night we stayed back on historic Route 66, in a neat hotel/hostel. Monday morning we listened to the cafe owner across the street talk about the towns history and numerous booms and busts. It looked to be in a good economic place at the moment.
With our adventure done, we jumped back on the highway and drove home to see our two cats, six fish, one rabbit, and one tortoise. They are all doing well and say hi.
I’ve compiled a short two and a half minute slideshow of some Grand Canyon photos with appropriately sappy country singer accompaniment. You can find the slideshow on YouTube at
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_IBpwcRZu0&feature=youtu.be