We decided to go to Grand Canyon from Flagstaff so that we would not have to change hotels yet again. That means we traded packing / unpacking for an early / long day. Luckily for us and Duncan there is a dog boarding place reasonably close that has great reviews. It’s called Cinder Hills Kennels and boards dogs and cats alike. Today they open at 8:00 a.m. and close at 6:00 p.m. and we were there to greet them when they opened the front door. We brought a snack for them to give Duncan mid-day and signed him up for the forest walk and felt good about our choice to let him rest here while we went to the park.
Grand Canyon National Park has some excellent bus services to see both the western rim (from Grand Canyon Village) and the eastern rim. We arrived at the park around 10:00 a.m. and were easily able to park at the Grand Canyon Visitor Center and grab the Blue Line (or Village Route Bus) to the point where it meets up with the beginning of the Red Line (or Hermit Road Shuttle), which tours the entire west rim (all nine over looks). The buses come to each stop every 10 to 15 minutes so you can spend as much or as little time as you like at each overlook.
I have to admit a couple of things at this point. Number one, I do not have any good way to easily tell which shots are from which overlooks so I decided to pick out eight pictures showing the immensity of this geologic and environmental amazement.
I guess it’s a testament to the skill and organization it takes to create a truly organized and outstanding travel blog and my need to hone my skills and tools so that my organization gets better with each post. It’s especially useful, and maybe even vital when touring something of such stunning majesty as this park.
Number two (you thought I forgot the second thing to admit, didn’t you), this is the first site I have felt like the pictures did not do the scope of our experience justice. To behold the Grand Canyon, especially on a day like today when the sky is completely clear and blue and you can see for miles, is to realize there really are places that are still untouched by humans on this earth. And this is even though an estimated 5.9 million people visit the park each year.
As a side note, the Grand Canyon is the second most visited national park in the United States. Do you know what is number one?
These last two shots have pretty good views of the Colorado River which, according to the experts, is only one of the four ways the Grand Canyon was formed. I’m not here to give a geology lesson and I’m nowhere near qualified so if you’re interested in what happened over about two billion years resulting in what we see today, click here.
We took the Red Shuttle to every stop on the western rim and then headed to Grand Canyon Village so that Dan could see the central tourist stop and we could both get something to eat. We were so busy making sure that Duncan had lunch that we didn’t pack anything more than a couple of protein bars for ourselves. We had a couple of the driest sandwiches imaginable from a shop in the village and learned our lesson for the next long day trips. If we would have had time we could have gotten something to eat in one of the restaurants but as it was we didn’t get back to pick up Duncan until almost 5:30 p.m.
This is the second time I’ve been to the Grand Canyon but like so many other national parks this is a place one could study their entire life and still not know everything. If you’re a young outdoor enthusiast, what an experience hiking down and camping near the bottom of the canyon would be. Ah well, I guess that’s for another life.
Next up will be Walnut Canyon and Wupatki, both separate day trips from Flagstaff. Thanks for following and reading.
