Going Places with Lucy & Leo

Grand Canyon May 28
Leo warned me, we are headed deep into a national park, get ready for three days without wifi, I braced myself, but once we arrived, oh my what views! Nothing, not even the countless documentaries and pictures I had seen about the Grand Canyon, prepared me for the beauty and the awe inspiring vastness of this place, wow!

We arrived at the Grand Canyon National Park early in the afternoon and checked into our campground, Trailer Village park, which is inside the national park and within walking distance to the visitor center and the south rim. The first thing we did was walk over to the visitor center to get our bearings. They have suggestions on things to do, everything from “ if you have only one hour here” to “camping and hiking to the bottom of the canyon” this last option was totally out of the question for me. It takes over six hours to get down to the bottom of the Canyon and some of these trips take you across the Canyon to the North rim on a four day hike and camp. They told us that they rescue around 600 people from the bottom of the Canyon in a typical summer, plus another 150 that have to be airlifted out by helicopter. Fortunately for us we had two full days here and no interest on being rescued .
We opted for a long hike along the rim trail which is 12 miles long but offers plenty of beautiful rest stops, picnic areas and also a bus (hop on and off) that runs along the rim with strategic stops, if you get tired, so the entire rim is very accessible. I must say this park has been designed to give people maximum access, truly well planned. Our hike on our first full day was over 6 miles long with some parts being quite steep. We noticed a few bike tours as the entire park is available to bicyclists except for the rim trail itself. We discovered that from our RV park there was a bike path that took us directly to Yaki point, one of the few places you can actually bike right to the rim. We went for the ride and took some pictures but afterwards decided not ride the entire south rim bike trails due to our time availability.

The second day we took a 25 mile ride to the Desert View Watchtower in the morning. A circular tower at this part of the park treats you to amazing panoramic views of the Canyon and the best views of the Colorado river. You can climb the circular steps to the top of the tower and enjoy the beautiful Hopi and Navajo designs painted on the interior walls. On our ride back we made a few more stops at some note worthy view points including the ruins of a 800 year old Tusayan village and museum.

Back at our RV park that afternoon we had washed off our road dust and decided to visit the Park Village which has two beautiful hotels and several shops and restaurants. This is the hub of all things touristy at the Grand Canyon. We were lucky enough to catch a performance of a Native Navajo dance and music performance as we were strolling the village.

Tomorrow we’re off to Page, Arizona but the Canyon is now firmly etched in our minds.