Goulding to South Rim Grand Canyon

  South Rim Grand Canyon, Arizona, United States
Wednesday, May 7, 2008

We left Monument Valley pushing on to the Grand Canyon. I forgot to say on our last leg that the drive through the Monument Valley was another remarkable experience. We are beginning to be overwhelmed by the continuing and changing vistas we have seen. When we came to Gouldings RV park there was a rainstorm developing over this very large mesa in the valley and the image of these clouds,the wind was truly quite spectacular.
Back to todays trip. We awake to find another sunny day not too hot and no wind. We press on down Hwy 163 on our way to Kayenta where we will go onto Hwy. 160. Just past the town of Cow Springs we stop at a roadside display of Navajo art and the base of two rock outcroppings called "elephants feet". I find a little bracelet which I buy for Patsy and we continue on our way. It is our intention to stop in Tuba City for lunch and give the dogs a stretch. By the way I should mention that these two have become quite the travelers. The weather has cooperated and it has not been too hot. Our black female standard poodle aka Miss. Brigitte finds that standing up front is best for her. She also finds that inhaling the smells from the fresh air vent quite exciting as well. Our other standard is more staid and his favourite place is behind Patsy's seat.
Once we have had some lunch and a stretch it is onward to the "Canyon". We continue on Hwy 160 until it intersects with Hwy. 89 and then we go south until we reach Cameron and then in on Hwy 64 to Canyon Village. The drive up to the village was quite interesting. Every time we we came close to seeing the Canyon Patsy would look away. We have found that in the coach because you are so much higher above the road that sharp descents appeared to magnified and can be quite unsettling. We push on and get to our campsite which has all that we need and I have a large area to exercise the dogs which is great. We get set up and after a brief rest we decide to do some exploring and go to the visitor center for information. The ranger at the center was most helpful and we picked up our accessibility pass which will allow us to access areas that only shuttle buses can go. We were also told that the road to Hermits Rest is closed at Hopi Point to ALL traffic including the shuttle buses. It will be closed for the rest of the season. We decide to go to Mather Point for our first view of the Canyon and I can tell you it is truly amazing. The view of this marvel is very hard to take in. Words just cannot do it justice. When we decide to leave we get involved in a minor accident while backing out of our parking stall. I manage to back up into a couple from Colorado who were there on their honeymoon. Damage was very minor but still annoying. After exchanging information we make our way back to Abby.
Next morning I decide that I want to try and get some sunrise pictures and set off at 5:45 on my way to Hopi Point. Again I cannot begin to adequately describe the view and how it changes as the sun gets higher in the sky.
Numerous pictures taken and then back to Abby.

Sunrise at Hopi Point

On the way back I see the mules getting ready for the rides down into the Canyon. From the viewpoints I had been to, this ride would be great but not for anyone who has any sort of fear of heights! We decide to have breakfast at Bright Angel Lodge which was good and very reasonable in price. When we leave the Lodge we go to the Lookout viewpoint and are fortunate enough to see two condors but I don't have my camera!!! We go back to Abby and I get my camera and go back on the off chance that they are still there and to my good fortune they are. I get some good shots of condor #41. This has some meaning as we had seen the video on them in Boise at the Wild Bird Refuge. It was quite exciting to see them and even more when they took off and just glided effortlessly over that magnificent canyon vista. Of course not that hard to do when you have a 9' wingspan.

Condor #41 at Lookout Point

I then head back to Abby and we prepared to do the Desert View drive along the south rim. This is a drive of some 30 miles with five different view points along the way as well as the Tusayan ruin and museum. As I have said before Pat is not very happy with these sort of heights but to her credit she did look out at some of the view points. At Desert View you have another campground and the Watchtower.This structure has been built on the canyon edge. You can climb to the top and see another different view of the canyon. We then made our way back to our campground for dinner and to get prepared for our departure the next day for Kanab, Utah.
Overall the trip to the Grand Canyon was worth everything. I would only come in the shoulder seasons as already there were a lot of visitors and tour buses. If you are coming to this area reservations are a must if you want to stay in the village area.We found the people helpful the food was good and of course the views and truly magnificent. I will be putting some photos up in a couple of days to show some of these scenes. 

Grand Canyon from Yaki Point

Grand Canyon View