Well, as Marcus would say, it’s a big hole! It was beautiful weather, low 60’s with some good sunshine. In case you were thinking that this was actually the type of blog to give you some travel details… it is 25$ for a pass into the National Park and that covers up to 7 days, more info at the NPS website. We parked at the Visitor’s Center and walked from Mather Point all along the rim trail. It was a great walk and we ended up at the historic Vercamp Visitor Center where we had a snack and then hopped a shelter and headed to Desert View (the western most point) where we watched the sunset.
We enjoyed the hike and company all along the way. We did quite bit of people watching, almost as entertaining as the canyon view but in an entirely different way! By late afternoon, Marek and Marcus were speaking an unknown foreign language to each other in a very, very animated way. They were hilarious.
We had a good stay at the Best Western in Tusayan, the town nearest the canyon. Each morning we had a pretty awesome breakfast buffet which pretty much filled us up with food for most of the day. Also handy because everything in the Grand canyon was extra expensive. The gas was a full dollar more than everywhere else we went. We learned that there is no way to drill a well on the south side of the Grand Canyon. All of the water for the National Park and Tusayan come from the North side of the canyon! Amazing distance. They pipe it down the north side, across the river and back up the south side and then all over the area. Crazy. We visited the Tusayan Ruin and Museum on the second day and really liked the Ranger talk. The ruins were from the Puebloan people who lived at the canyon approximately 800 years ago. Pretty tough life back in the day. Interesting. From there we visited the Watchtower at Desert View. You can go up to the top windows to look out but not on the top of the tower. It is a gorgeous building with amazing structural integrity. Given the fact that 4 million people visit the canyon annually, it is holding up really well, and has become an interesting feature on it’s own merits.
The Watchtower is an amazing structure designed by architect Mary Colter in the 1930’s to blend in with the natural landscape while also allowing comfortable viewing. The interior is painted with murals by a Navajo painter. Pretty cool.
Oh, back to my water story. So, with the water issue, water is fairly precious. They use reclaimed water in the toilet and for watering plants. It’s a little disconcerting at first because there are warning signs – including on the toilet – to not touch or drink the water. Like I was going to wash my hands in the toilet?
Anyway, I have about a million pictures and the guys both took pictures also. Gorgeous and amazing what God can create. Hope all is going well with you! We are home from this trip and just celebrated Easter. It was a good day!
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