The Grand Canyon National Park

Another amazing day both in weather and natural wonder.  We started the day at 7:15 with a hike down the Bright Angel trail.   The going down was easy and we reached the first outpost after a mile and a half in about 45 minutes or so.  We were over 1100 feet below the rim.  Then we had to walk back up.  Oh my!  An hour and half back up.  We were well prepared with water, snacks, etc.  There were people probably still on the trail coming up.

After the first hike, we rode the shuttle bus to the different places along the rim to see different views of the canyon including seeing some of the Colorado River rapids.  The depth from the rim to the bottom is very hard to imagine unless you see it.  You can see why they have warnings everywhere about not going to the bottom and back up in one day.

We had a nice picnic lunch and saw a few elk along the road.  Then we took another hike down to the Ooh Aah point on the South Kaibab trail.  The total hike was only two miles and we knocked it out in about an hour but it was steep and very tough to come back up.  We only descended about 750 feet below the rim but the up was a killer.  

After a long day we came back to the hotel for some clean up and showers.  (The dust on the trails is intense.)  We had pizza at a restaurant called, "We Cook Pizza and Pasta".  Yes that was the name.  Back in the room and soon to sleep as we drive to Tucson tomorrow to see the cactus.  Here are a few pics from today.