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Published: August 6th 2007
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We had been to South Rim of Grand Canyon for the Easter Weekend.
I could find time to update the blog now only! :-)
It so happens that you have something amazing close to you and yet you did not visit it yet...
Grand Canyon is one such place. Balaji had been in California for a while before I joined him here and he has been to GC hell lot of times!!!!
I had always been telling that we plan a trip but somehow or the other we kept postponing the Trip.
Finally we were able to make up our mind for Grand Canyon.
As Balaji had been to GC a lot of times, he wanted this trip to be relaxing and a unique experience. He always traveled on a hectic schedule to GC.
I also agreed to his suggestion.
There was this hype created by Sky walk as well. We thought we could visit sky walk as well on our return, as it was on the way back
(Well, a minor deviation from our return route).
As we made this trip decision at the last moment, we decided
that this would be a Road Trip and we share the Driving load so that it is not too tiring.
We also decided that we would stay inside the GC Park as we wanted to experience the early morning walk inside the GC Park.
Xanterra parks and Resorts (http://www.xanterra.com/) manage the reservations inside GC national Park.
All the lodges inside the Park were fully reserved, by the time we checked. We were accusing ourselves for making a last minute decision! :-)
I used to check everyday, every 4 hours to see whether there is any availability at all. Finally I got lucky one day and there was availability in Maswik lodge. But I could only get a room with 2 queen bed!!!!
Whatever!! We were happy that we managed to get one availability and I immediately booked the Room.
We decided to take a break on Thursday night at Williams (a city close to GC in Arizona) as we knew that it would get late that night
because of Long weekend traffic. We did not want to spend much on our stay on Thursday night at Williams. So we booked a room in
Motel6.
We had 3 days with us! We started on Thursday afternoon (6th April).
The traffic was bad as usual. We had to travel on the Las Vegas road for a while before we took a detour! Now you could imagine how bad the Traffic would be!!
We somehow managed to reach Williams by 11 in the night.
We had a good night’s sleep and headed towards GC the next day early morning.
We dropped into the Deer's farm near Williams on our way to GC.
We reached GC by 11 and got our rooms by 12.
The Lodge was an amazing place with lots of trees around.
It is about a mile from GC. I wish we had taken a hotel that has the GC view from windows.
But we were late in booking and so we could not get it.
Maswik lodge has its own cafeteria which has, breakfast, Lunch and Dinner buffets with Continental, Mediterranean and Mexican food.
It was a good one.
We refreshed for a while and rushed for Lunch.
Then we headed our way towards GC!!!!
I had seen lots
of Grand Canyon pictures on the web. But to see it for the first time is definitely awe inspiring. Such a massive canyon that is awe inspiring!!
Mather point was our first stop.
I could spend all day just sitting on one of the Vista points and just seeing the canyon.
We started our trip towards the eastern part of the south Rim first.
We had only 2 days with us as we had to pack our bags the third day.
We did not want to do too much in two days and spoil the rest of the week.
The agenda was to just roam around the entire east and west side of the South Rim.
The western part of Grand Canyon had lots of beautiful vista points and Desert view was our last stop.
It was a stormy weekend as per the forecast. But we had decent clear skies on the first day Morning.
The view of the Colorado River from Desert view was very good. It was drizzling a bit. But it was good.
I wanted to go on Helicopter rides but could not go because of lack
of time. As this was my first visit to GC, I wanted to see things around completely and not waste much of time on activities. But somehow I got a strong desire in my mind to do rafting in Colarado River…Would I be able to realize the dream? I do not know especially because Balaji is reluctant to water sports. :-(
First day was well spent covering the entire west side of the south Rim.
We reached hotel early, had a good dinner and went to bed early as we were tired of driving.
We got up early the next day and went on a walk inside the GC national park. It was very refreshing.
This day was fully dedicated for the western side of GC. I should say I liked the western side of GC more than the east side. Especially because cars are not allowed and the place is very less populated, it gives you a nice GC natural experience. The entire eastern side is accessible only through shuttle buses.
We got into a shuttle bus and started from the first point all the way up
to the Hermit’s rest.
Amazing views in
between!!!
After spending time at all points we headed back to Hopi point for sunset.
We did not have much of an expectation on sunset because it was a stormy day.
As we reached Hopi point, a huge storm started. It was literally throwing sand at us. The crowd was less for whatever reason. Seeing
the canyon during a storm is a great experience. It got chilly and the dark gray clouds were hanging low. They seemed like they would
fall into the canyon. It is a beautiful sight with sun setting on one side and stormy clouds on the other side. But the sunset was a disappointment.
After the sun set, it got more windy and chilly. So we headed back to our lodge.
We went for the Grand Canyon IMAX movie, had an Italian Dinner and went to bed.
The next day morning we went to the information center and enquired about the Sky walk.
The information agent was not so positive about the price to pay for it (close to 75$ per person) and the route to take (dirt road).
We did not want to do it
without being sure about it. We decided to do the sky walk later.
We had a last look at the Mather point and headed back home as we had a long drive ahead.
On the whole, it was a relaxing trip and a good sight seeing tour to Grand Canyon. I would definitely like to visit GC again if I get a chance.
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