Day 5: Grand Canyon National Park

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Today we spent pretty much all day at Grand Canyon National Park. We rode one of the shuttles to an area where cars aren't allowed to drive to, and hiked a little bit on the rim and took some pictures. It was a little bit warmer today than yesterday, and the sky was nice and clear. It was a beautiful day, but not so good for picture taking. Plus, after awhile, no matter what angle you look at the Grand Canyon, it all looks the same and pictures just start to seem redundant. We had lunch at one of the lodges there, and decided to rest until closer to sunset, when the light would be better. Sunset was just as nice as yesterday, and the light was just amazing. Our sunsets at home just don't seem the same as they do here. Oh, and we did learn one thing today-- what a Ponderosa Pine looks like. One of the drivers on the shuttle was talking about what areas the Ponderosa Pine grows in and pointing out those areas as we drove by, but we had no idea what they looked like. He finally explained that they have really long pine needles- around 8 inches- and their bark changes to a lighter color when they're around 100-150 years old. After that, we were seeing them everywhere. It was amazing how much forest we walked through in the Grand Canyon. The ground was even covered in pine needles. Oh, and we saw some elk and deer really up close. It was definitely not what we expected.

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