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Published: August 21st 2008
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GCNP
Finally got another sign on our way in, this one is at the East entrance to the park. So, we are getting a little bit behind. No National Parks tour is complete without a visit to the Grand Canyon. We visited on Aug. 13 and 14. Note to any potential Grand Canyon summer visitors, follow my grandpa's advice, stay at the North Rim. We did not and have since learned our lesson. We stayed at the ever popular South Rim, along with half of the United States and the whole of France. Luckily, we arrived in time to get the last campsite available for a two night period at Mather Campground. Also, the campsites at Mather were HUGE. Another plus of camping is that we didn't have to compete with any of the million cars on the road for parking. Like at Zion, they have implemented a shuttle system to take visitors around the park. The first day we went to the visitor center, where they had no movie, and we got our stamp for the passport. It was here that we saw French tourists stamping their government issued passport with the Grand Canyon stamp, ha ha! After we decided on a hike to do the next morning, we decided to just take it easy and spend the night
GCNP
A friendly Brooklynite offered to take our picture after we helped him with his. relaxing and doing laundry. A big advantage to the Grand Canyon NP is that they have showers, laundry, and a market/general store on site. Thanks to Cameron Trading Post, the first evening we had leftover Navajo Taco for dinner. Having been on the road for a week with no showers and no laundry, it was about time for a laundry session. All was going well, two loads washed and freshly added to the dryer. All of a sudden, bam, power outage. With darkness quickly approaching, and completely sodden clothing, and no clue when power was coming back, we strung all the rope and "rope" we had around the campsite, making clotheslines out of whatever we had. Two loads consisting of my entire wardrobe, sopping wet, hanging in the gathering dusk, not drying. Good thing for those huge campsites. The electricity came back at around 9:30 and with the clothes no drier than before, we lugged them all back down to the laundromat. Good times.
Day 2: another disadvantage to millions of people is crowded trails. We took the lesser of two main crowded trails, South Kaibab Trail. The other popular trail is called Bright Angel. My first time here,
GCNP
It looks fake, I know, but it's real. I promise. years ago, the Bright Angel trail is the one that my family took, so it was nice to get a different angle on the Canyon. It's amazing how hiking down a canyon is so much easier than hiking up. After visiting Bryce and Zion we were so used to the hard part being first that it was a bit of a change to have the easy part of the hike first and finish with the hard part. Because the temperatures below the rim had been reaching 110+ degrees in the afternoon, the rangers advised that nobody be below the rim between 10 AM and 4 PM. Thus, we got an early start and were down and back up by 10:30. It was a good 3 mile hike with about 1000 feet of vertical drop. The night before we were loading pictures into the computer, and Cody forgot to take the memory card out of the computer and put it back into his camera, so those of you interested in seeing the South Kaibab Trail are out of luck, no pictures for you. It was really pretty, though. We did take the binoculars with us, and got some really neat views
of falcons and condors flying around. After our tough hike, we decided to take it easy and go to the IMAX just south of GCNP in Tusayan. Once you get over the motion sickness of flying around the GC in a theater, it's a very neat movie and I would recommend it to anyone visiting the area. It gives you good history and perspective of the grandiosity(I like this word!) of the GC. After we got back, we spent time walking along the Rim Trail and observing the California Condors, as well as looking around a couple galleries, including the historic Kolb Studio, that had a nice exhibit on the Civilian Conservation Corp that helped build the infrastructure of most of our National Parks (especially the Grand Canyon) and restart the American economy after the Great Depression. We got a couple postcards and a couple of cold drinks at the market, and went back to our campsite to have some real meat for dinner.
Day 3: chai and a blog in Tusayan on our way out of town. My grandpa suggested that we check out the skywalk, a 70 foot glass bottomed walkway hanging out over the Grand Canyon,
GCNP
That first red ridge right there is the trail we took, the South Kaibab Trail. We went all the way to the dip there just to the left of the white outcropping in the foreground. This is when we still had the memory card in the camera. until we found out that the Indians who run it charge exorbitant fees to do it. No skywalk, no North Rim, sorry Grandpa. Instead, we were off to the Hoover Dam via I-40 with a 30 mile jaunt along Historic Route 66.
Next time on Cody and Nickey's Excellent Mis-Adventures: Hoover Dam, Death Valley in August(!), and Manzanar War Relocation Camp.
*Post-production note: The reason there are so few pictures is that we forgot our camera on the hike and most of the pictures we do have are just of the Canyon, anyway. If our wonderful viewing public wishes to see more of this illustrious place, please leave a comment saying such.
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