Day 18: Grand Canyon

Wednesday June 29 

We head back to Grand Canyon, in time to make it to a 9:30 ranger talk on the geology of the canyon.  Isabella needs to attend one ranger program as part of her junior ranger program and this is something Scott and I are interested in.  Unfortunately it means we have to leave the camper by 8am to make the hour drive to the canyon.  We call Colby on the way there to wish him a happy 9^th birthday.  The girls are sad they had to miss his party. 

The geology talk at Yavapai Geology Museum is interesting.  The ranger passes around rocks from most of the layers of the canyon and describes the time line of the canyon formation.  The oldest layers are 1.8 billion years old and the top layers are 270 million years old.  The canyon was carved out by the Colorado River but the other important event leading up the canyon formation is the subduction of tectonic plates in the area (one sliding on top of the other).  Usually when this happens, the layers become mixed but in this case the striation is preserved.  Isabella has her book signed by the ranger and sworn in as a junior ranger.  She earns a badge and we purchase her the fabric patch.  She is excited.

Bella earns her Junior Ranger Badge!

We walked to the visitor’s center from the Yavapai Geology Museum along the canyon rim.  The path is flat and easy but the sun is still very warm at this early hour.  We stopped at the Mather Point Amphitheater and had a snack.  We caught the shuttle from the visitor’s center on the orange line and take it to Yaki Point (the eastern most point where the shuttle buses go).  Isabella was exhausted at this point and fell asleep on my shoulder on the shuttle ride to and from Yaki Point.  We took the shuttle back to the truck (parked at Yavapai Geology Museum) and had a picnic lunch.  From there we moved the truck to the “village” area so we can catch the red shuttles which drive around the most western part of the park.  Parking is more limited up there and we parked at the Maswik Lodge and walked to the shuttle.  The only way into this part of the park is with the shuttle buses so we have to wait awhile to catch a shuttle. 

It's a long way down.

We took the shuttle to Hermit’s Rest, the most western part accessible by shuttle.  Here we walked around and got a good look at the Colorado River and the rapids a mile below us.  We enjoyed an ice cream at Hermit’s Rest Café overlooking the canyon.  I am amazed at how tame the squirrels are at the park.  It is illegal to feed or approach any of the wildlife but it is obvious the squirrels are used to human food scraps.  At about 4pm we decided to head home.  We took the shuttle back to the village and found the truck and I quickly changed out of my hiking boots.  I hate wearing anything more than sandals when it is so hot but necessity says I must wear the boots on the trail. 

We stopped at the National Geographic Visitor’s Center (about a mile south) of the park entrance and saw the iMax movie, Grand Canyon.  We all really enjoyed the movie but I had to close my eyes through parts of it, when we were flying through the canyon.  Isabella didn’t like the rafting part with the rapids and had to close her eyes through that part.  Lexi loved the movie and wished we had seen it before we had spent 2 days at the park.  We ate dinner at an authentic Mexican restaurant across from the visitor’s center and then returned to the campground around 8:30 pm.   We played a long game of Oh Hell before everyone went to bed around 10pm.  It took us a few minutes to remember how to play the game (Scott taught us last summer while we had vacation at Papoose Pond) but quickly remember it.  Isabella won and Scott lost by a lot.

We talked at dinner about the Grand Canyon and everyone’s impression of it.  We all agreed it was huge but we were a little disappointed by it.  I think if we had seen it first on our travels, we would have been more impressed but after visiting Bryce, Zion, Arches, etc. we expected more.  We have certainly seen a lot of different things on our journeys but now we are looking forward to Las Vegas and Yellowstone and what we might see there.  Scott’s parents are flying out to spend a week with us July 4^th and will experience Yellowstone with us and we are all excited to see them.  We did not make our annual visit to Florida this year so we could save Scott’s vacation time so it’s been a year since our last visit with them.