Grand Canyon I

Our motel did not have a breakfast room, but instead had given us coupons for breakfast at the adjacent restaurant. The restaurant was clearly, as the motel itself, owned by the tribe. The design was modeled after a Navajo hogan, the decor was very tastefully done, but all Navajo artwork, and the staff were all native American. Our expectations were low, but as we entered I noted two officers of the tribal police force were having breakfast, which either meant the food was good or else free. Turned out to be the former.

The drive to Grand Canyon was just over an hour and a half with light traffic. As soon as we left the reservation the time changed back an hour, which made it even earlier. We could not have asked for a better day — clear blue sky, unlimited visibility, and a morning temperature around 50 degrees (rising to mid-60s as the day wore on).

Our first glimpse of the Colorado River canyons was still out in the national forest area, between the reservation and the national park. Our first view of the real Grand Canyon was just inside the park at the Desert View Lookout. The famous lookout tower was not yet open, and we really didn’t want to climb all those steps before using those same legs for hiking a steep trail below the rim, so we were quite content to take in the view from ground level. The canyon itself was breathtaking in the clear morning light. There were probably only a half dozen or so others at the lookout, a tiny handful compared to times when this park is really busy.

Stopping at several more overlooks along the south rim, we continued to enjoy the views. We also heard other visitors, once again, speaking a babel of languages — along with some variant accents of English that we knew had not originated in North America. This is the nation’s second most visited national park, and when many visitors come to the U.S., this is one of the places they most want to see. Now that I’ve seen it for the first time, I understand why.

We drove on to the main south rim Visitor Center and got an excellent parking place not far from the buildings. The huge parking lots were almost empty. We spent a little time in the Center getting oriented with the various maps and information boards, then we jumped onto a waiting Orange Line shuttle bus to retrace our drive in by a couple miles to the South Kaibab Trailhead — a place private vehicles are not allowed to go.

From the bus stop we walked about a quarter mile, past the pack mule corral (bad smells) to the actual trailhead, where we started down “below the rim.” We were definitely not alone on the trail, but neither was it as crowded as the trails at Zion or Bryce Canyon. In front of us for awhile was a group of about a half-dozen adults being led by a guide. Members of this group all had large backpacks and clearly were preparing for an overnight on the canyon floor, some 5000 feet below us. We would not be going that far.

One had to make the descent rather slowly, as the path was steep and there was lots of loose gravel. One also had to beware of mule droppings, which were abundant. We were probably only a few hundred yards down when we came face-to-face with the mules themselves. Two rangers had taken a string of mules down the trail loaded with fill dirt and gravel for a team of national park employees who were making repairs to the trail. I’m certain the mules were happy to have been relieved of their loads before the trip back up to the top. They were moving pretty fast, and all we could do on the narrow trail was to make ourselves small and get out of their way.

We continued as far as “Ooh-Aah Point” a bit less than a mile along the trail. Knowing that what goes down must come up, we decided it would be prudent to turn around and begin our ascent. Despite the steep grade and nearly 7000 foot elevation, it wasn’t as bad as we had feared. We completed the nearly 3 mile round trip in just about 2 hours exactly. Not bad for old folks!

The Orange Line shuttle bus picked us up in short order and took us back to the Visitor Center, but we did not get off there. We continued westward with the same bus and driver to Yavapai Point, where we visited a small geology museum. After viewing the exhibits explaining how the Colorado River has acted as “liquid sandpaper” for the last 5 million years to carve the canyon, we enjoyed our peanut butter sandwiches on a bench outside with a gorgeous canyon view.

From there we walked the Rim Trail — which is really a flat, crowded, asphalt sidewalk — back to the Visitor Center once again. To get a few minutes rest, we watched the 20 minute film about the canyon. Then it was back to the shuttle buses, a Blue Line bus this time, westward as far as Hermit’s Rest Transfer Point, which is the trailhead for the Bright Angel Trail — one of the earliest and most famous below-the-rim trails.

No more of that today! Instead we did more Rim Trail in this western area, around and through the century-old buildings of the original Grand Canyon Village. After seeing what there was to see of this historic area, we found another (very crowded) Blue Line bus back to the Visitor Center once again. This time, after a 7 mile day, we decided we’d had enough and got to the car, setting off to find our motel.

Finding the motel was not as easy as it should have been, because it is set back from the road and has very poor signage. They could use a communication studies professor as a consultant! Once checked in, however, the room was nice. We enjoyed a very good (if pricey) Mexican meal at a nearby restaurant, relaxed a bit in the hot tub, then fought to stay awake until a reasonable hour.