Four Corners and Grand Canyon

---

We had a major upset this morning - the shampoo leaked all inside Dave’s bag with all his stuff in it - and it took him a half hour to wipe everything off. Looks like I was the last one to use the shampoo - ut oh. We went over to the Ute Mountain Casino to have breakfast. This was our first stop in a casino this whole trip and we didn’t go in to gamble, just to have breakfast. It was great - all you can eat buffet for $6.95. I had an omelet fresh made to order at the omelet station and fresh fruit - we really miss not having fruit every morning.

We drove on down Route 160 South and entered New Mexico, both of our first visit to this state. We stopped at Four Corners Monument which cost $3.00 per person, but it was worth it. It was kind of fun being in 4 states all at the same time - Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona and Utah.

We are headed for the Grand Canyon, south rim today. Looks like we are now about 10 days ahead of where we thought we would be when we were in the planning stage. We are starting to get a little travel weary but are content to keep to our plans. We stopped to do some grocery shopping and get some wine in Tuba City, but learned that you cannot buy any alcohol, including beer and wine on an Indian Reservation and we were on a huge one, Hope Indian Reservation. We drove about 8 miles south on 89 to buy some wine before we entered the park, in case they didn’t sell it there either.

We arrived at Grand Canyon and got a lovely campsite right away in Mather Campground, right near the village. We had lunch and set off to explore this beautiful and dramatic place. We drove out to Yavapai Point and got my first good look at the Grand Canyon South Rim. I have been to the North Rim with my daughters and sister, Doreen 27 years ago. Dave has been to the South Rim with his sister, Betty back in 2001. It was kind of an emotional thing for him - Betty died in 2002 of cancer.

We then drove along the Desert View Road, which is the east side of the Park. We got some great shots at the viewpoints, but the best for me was at Moran Point, where I got to see the Colorado River snaking its way through the canyon. We went back to the campground and had supper and then came back out to Yavapai Point to watch the sunset. Silly people were all facing west watching the sun, I was facing east and took some great pictures of the sun setting in the canyon, casting a red shadow over the rocks. This is a truly awesome and powerful place. It humbles you to see such a masterpiece work of nature.

---