Trip to the Grand Canyon, Day 1

We're outta here! 

Or rather, we were out of here, but now we are back.  I did not want to come back and voiced loud objections about it.  I was mostly ignored.

What an awesome trip we had.  2 days in the Grand Canyon, and 3 days at the Monte Carlo resort in Las Vegas.

I say "in" the Grand Canyon, like we were actually in it or something.  We never actually step foot into the actual Grand Canyon, but we did indeed go in the Grand Canyon National Park and stand at the edge of the Grand Canyon.  From behind a safety barrier.

That sucker is deep!  I'm not about to go near it with out some sort of safety barrier between me and a 1 mile deep drop off.

We left here bright and early on Friday morning, after our usual breakfast, of course, and set off on our adventures.  Our goal this day was to see a volcano the Kid had heard about in school, near Flagstaff, AZ, and to see the Eastern end of the Grand Canyon.

We had a fairly easy drive up to Flagstaff, where we stopped at Wendy's for lunch.  Nothing very exciting there, but I have to say I'm so disappointed I can no longer order my usual baked potato when we go there.  Why in the world they give out that nasty nasty fake butter and horrible sour cream is beyond me.  Because it's cheaper I guess, but Blech. 

After lunch and a gas up, we headed north to find this volcano.  Turns out, it was on a 34 mile loop road with some very pretty scenery.

And a few unexpected surprises.

We made our way to the East Gate to the Grand Canyon, via Cameron, AZ.  I had over heard a couple talking while we were looking at the volcano about a "2 hour wait to get into the park, and that since it was a holiday weekend...."

That was about all I could get out of their convo, but I took that to mean that since it was a holiday weekend, it could take up to 2 hours to get into the Grand Canyon National Park.

Which caused quite a bit of panic on my part, as you can imagine.

Going in through the East Gate as we did, we had no troubles at all.  No wait whatsoever.  Which led me to think that maybe the next day, Saturday, would be the problem.  But at least for now, we had it easy.  We drove into the park and anxiously awaited our first glimpse at the huge whole in the ground. 

Desert View something or other was our first stop. 

See this tower here?

That one that looks like you should get an amazing veiw of the Canyon from?

Well, it was pretty much the same view as what we saw by not going into the tower. 

The 3 story tower.

That somehow killed my thigh muscles by climbing up it, which proved to be a problem for the next 3-4 days of our trip.

To say I regretted every minute of going in that tower is an understatement.

We stopped at every turn out on our way from the East Gate until we arrived at Grand Canyon Village.  There was some debate at this time whether we should eat in the Village, or carry on to our hotel and find something in town.

I have to say, foodage was quite limited where we were.  In the town it was mostly fast food.  In the Village, well, other than the menus I printed out before our trip, the options were largely unknown. 

We ended up at the Bright Angel Lodge after having a really hard time finding parking in the Village area.  Traffic was a nightmare.  But we were seated right away, and even had a table with a view, of which there are not very many.

The Hubs had some fish tacos, I didn't taste them but the Kid did.  They seemed to like it.  The Kid and I shared a steak dinner, with baked potato and some veggies that neither one of us touched.  It was pretty good, despite the steak ending up over cooked. 

After dinner, we got some ice cream and waited for the sunset over the Canyon.

Next it was off to our hotel, which ended up being only a few miles from the South Gate in Tusayan, AZ.  Check in was easy, the lobby was nice, and when we drove around to find a parking place near our room we ran into this guy.

I kept calling him a moose, but it is in fact an elk.

The room was surprisingly nicer than we expected, very comfortable if a bit small.  The Hubs equated walking from the door to the main part of the room as a bit like being in an airplane.  I didn't think it was that bad.

Next time, we'll dicuss such oddities as bad drivers, Kuering coffee makers, and a surprising breakfast.