The Grand Canyon was the next stop on our 10-day tour of the Southwest. It was about a six-hour drive from Albuquerque, and the scenery was all mountains and (I think) mesas, with little greenery. The one exception was Flagstaff, which seemed like a veritable rainforest in comparison. In addition, I'd never seen so many trains in my life. Interstate 40 runs parallel to miles and miles of tracks, and it's hard to estimate how many trains we saw in both directions, and up close.
Aside from a lunch break, we made two other quick stops: a sign for the Continental Divide (who knew any water drained to the Atlantic Ocean from this far west?) and Winslow, Ariz., to take some photos of us taking it easy "standin' on the corner." There was a mural and everything.
Once we were at the Grand Canyon, we checked in to the Yavapai Lodge, just a 10-15 minute walk from the south rim of the canyon. We stayed in one of several buildings (each holding a small number of rooms with exits directly to the outside) with a few chairs right outside our door.
We immediately set out to walk along the Trail of Time to the Yavapai Geology Museum. The views were breathtaking -- a cliche but true. And the cliff is *right there.* The kids jumping around made Paul very nervous, and I wasn't much better. They held our hands for a good portion of the walk. We caught part of the sunset, but I think the clouds foiled the best views. Still the differences between 6 p.m. and the 7 p.m. shadows were superb.
After the kids were in bed and asleep, Paul and I headed to those chairs just outside our room and watched shooting stars before clouds covered the sky. Another cliche, but it really was quite magical.
The next day was Friday the 13th, but the only thing that was unlucky were the slight sunburns we got from our walk along the Rim Trail. The time change gave us an advantage that morning, as we were out the door by 7 a.m. The Rim Trail to Hermit's Rest was practically empty -- it felt like we had the whole canyon to ourselves for a good two to three hours. We walked maybe 4 miles along the rim, interspersed with shuttle rides. The trail was beautiful but nerve-wracking with two kids ages 8 and 6. We skipped the vast majority of the unpaved portion since we couldn't quite trust the kids.
We were done with the trail by noon, took a shuttle to the transfer station and walked the part of the trail that passes by most of the hotels. This was far busier but not too bad. We were back at our lodge about 1 p.m. in the heat of the day (high 80s, after a beautiful morning that was cool and partly cloudy), so we stayed in the room for a couple of hours.
Next was the drive to Desert View, with stops at a few viewpoints to and from. The watchtower view was closed thanks to Covid, but the scenery was unaffected, of course.
That evening we went to an outdoor talk at the McKee Amphitheater about the lore surrounding the Grand Canyon. Atticus fell asleep by the end, but I'm still glad we went -- Edith counted it as among her favorite memories of the Grand Canyon.
The next morning we were off by 8:30 a.m., with one last viewpoint before leaving Grand Canyon National Park, heading west toward Los Angeles.
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