Grand Canyon

If you know us you know that we enjoy taking trips, probably far often, but hey we enjoy every moment of it. And so we decided recently to make a trek we have never made before, but one we definitely need to. So we went to AVIS and picked up a Ford Fusion; we got the color black and wow did it have power. I know I keep repeating this every blog but we never have trouble with these car rental companies. We have a tradition to rent a car every trip, and only once or twice has the car we wanted not been on the lot, and all that means is we choose a different car. We made the proper reservations and we were in and out in 15 minutes, with our car loaded and set to go a half hour later we were headed to Arizona.

We drove through the night, making our way across several states, now if you have read any of my past blogs you know that my wife has a very expensive camera and enjoys stopping at locations that catch her eye along the way. Suffice to say it took us countless extra hours to get out of Florida on this stop and go pace. However that was of no concern, we intended to make reservations with the hotel hours before we arrived, so we were in no particular hurry. We stayed at a few Holiday Inns along the way, and it took us about four days to get to Arizona, we drove two of the nights and slept two of the nights. Upon arrival they had our room ready for service, and we placed our things in the room and then went out for dinner. We found a small restaurant in the area that had the best lobster I have ever tasted, that is to say that neither of us can remember the name of the place, fortunately for us we know where its located if we ever return.

The next day we went to the Grand Canyon, and purchased a tour that would start around noon. Before that time we decided to take more pictures, and ventured to the edge in designated areas. We took an abundance of pictures and ate our mornings breakfast on the edge with a few other families. All in all it passed the time till the tour started, and the guide walked us around several areas that we had missed. He began by explaining the several theories that people had as to why the Grand Canyon was hollowed out, and then informed us that we would get a chance to go down into the gorge. We learned a few interesting facts about the canyon, such as the fact that is nearly 6000 feet deep in most areas and was carved by the Colorado River.

We got a chance to walk down a narrow path to a shallow area in the gulch. We didn’t go to the bottom as was said but we went deep enough in that we felt like we were being consumed by the massive red walls around us. Using the cameras zoom we could see hikers down in the valley below us, and we longer for the chance to do it ourselves. So we talked to the tour guide and he gave us information on how we could make reservations for a hike back at the cabin where we had gotten tickets for the tour. However after the tour ended it was too late to make a trip into the canyon, so we got tickets for an early departure in the morning.

The next morning we made our way down at a very early time in the morning. The guides were waiting for us and we made our way down the side of the cliffs with another family and the guide. It was easy getting down, the guide knew all the slopes that weren’t to steep and almost two hours later we were at the bottom… after one or two trips from those around us. The whole thing was simple no one got hurt and enjoyed the few hours down at the bottom… that is until the sun came up. You are basically sitting in a pan once that happens, and by noon the guide informed us we were heading back, no one complained. The amount of time it took to get back up the mountain was a much longer time than going down. We stopped often for water brakes and rested repeatedly. Once we got to the top we were all exhausted, and awaiting the cool air-conditioning of our car. We went back to the hotel and laid in bed for several hours, our back and knees aching.

The next morning we got in the car and made our way around the canyon, stopping at the high points and taking pictures, once we believed we had enough we made our way back home around 3pm. Overall the trip was amazing, but we’ll never do it again, at least that is we wont hike to the bottom. We have more pictures than we can count and a fond memory of that amazing view, something we will never forget.