We made it to the Grand Canyon

June 2, 2011
Trailer Village, site A-1
South Rim
Grand Canyon National Park

 Got up and went running around Williams.
I saw a number of places I wish we’d
gotten pictures of.
Places like
Cowgirl U,
the old jail,
the 1898 Bordello turned into a
B&B and Bakery
and
Rosa’s Cantina(if you aren’t old enough to remember
Jimmy Rogers that won’t mean anything to you):-)

About 8:45, we went over to the Railside
office to have their breakfast
which consisted of make your own waffles,
cereal, hard boiled eggs, OJ, coffee
and I forget what else.
For $35 a night it was nice to get
a “free” breakfast.

It was an easy 60 mile drive from
Williams to the park where we did not
have to pay the $25 entrance fee
since we are officially seniors with
a National Parks pass.
VERY NICE!

We registered at the campground,
which had a big FULL sign at the office drive up,
and pulled into Site A-1 at Grand Canyon’s Trailer Village
at about 11:30am.
Catchy name isn’t it?
What sort of images does it bring up?  :-)

But it is a fine campground and amazingly
has full hook-ups.  AND cable. 
What? In the Grand Canyon?All for a mere $37 a night including taxes.
I was shocked there were hook-ups since
North Rim has none.

Both our Verizon air card
and my Verizon cell phone
work well up here.  But
David’s Sprint phone does not
have a signal,  I don’t know about
AT&T service.

Duckie was intent on the brochure.

 

Prior to checking out the campsite.

 

We are in site A-1 which is very close
to the bus stop and extra nice
for all the coming and going we will be doing.

Grand Canyon has it set up so that you
really do not have to drive or even have
a car.  The buses run from everywhere
to everywhere every 30 minutes from
4:30AM to 6AM and then every
10 or 15 minutes
from SIX THIRTY AM to 11:00 PM
for the central area and
6:30AM until an hour after sunset
for the outlying points.

 

In addition the buses are

 

WAY TO GO!!!

AND they recycle EVERYTHING
imaginable.

Don’t I LOVE my national parks!!
Wish I could give much more
of my tax money to them and much less
to foreign intervention efforts.
But I digress……….

Once we got set up we were
off on the Blue bus which
comes right to the village and took us
to the Visitor’s Center.

Here’s the clock hanging in the
covered bus waiting area.
It was really the first thing we saw
when we got off the bus.
We laughed out loud.
Time Stands Still In Grand Canyon National Park.

 

We walked over to the Visitor's Center.

Oh be still my heart -
Look at the solar panels on the roof!

 

 

 

Turns out, solar panels are used all over the park
even to power the blinking red lights at
a couple of intersections.

I was SO impressed with all this
environmental sensitivity.

The Visitor’s Center also has
great information

and a very
fine 20 minute introductory film
which we saw.

After looking over all the potential hikes,
(mind boggling)
we set out for our first view of the canyon.
So here’s the obligatory shot that everyone takes.
And no that is not a backdrop. :-)

 

Like everyone else,
our jaws dropped open with our first look
at this very GRAND canyon.

We knew that this was the
northern end of the Painted Desert
but we really had no idea how
magnificent the canyon was until we saw it. 
And these pictures don’t give any idea either. 
You gotta see it for yourself to believe it. 
It almost doesn’t look real
it is SO fantastic.

The North (far) rim is 10 miles
away if you are a bird and
209 miles if you are a car.
The haze on the far rim is pretty constant
making clear pictures difficult
So I can’t show you what we really saw
as we walked west along the rim
from the Visitor’s Center.
But here are our day’s pictures.
Well some of them anyway :-)

 

 

Nature’s designs are amazing in many ways
including what I’m calling “turtle rock”.

 

We heard every language in the world I
think and saw some VERY interesting people.
But this may be taking “matching”
to a new extreme.

 

GREAT day in an amazing place.
Can’t wait to get started tomorrow!