stripethree

Mom and Dad flew out here for their first trip to the western part of the States last weekend to visit and see the various desert attractions. They were in Tucson for a couple days and saw the sites and go to meet Summer when we all went out to dinner Monday and Tuesday nights. It was great and they liked the authentic Mexican place we went to Monday night as well as the local Italian place we went Tuesday night. They liked Summer and Summer liked them; all went very, very well and I was glad they got to meet Summer and vice versa.

On Wednesday Mom, Dad, and I drove up to Sedona for the day. After grabbing lunch at a small, local deli (which was really good), we drove around the area and took lots of pictures. We went and saw the Chapel of the Holy Cross, which is a church built into the side of one of the red rocks.

We walked through ‘downtown’, did some window shopping, and took a bunch of pictures. We saw a lot more of the area then when I’d been there before. The sunset was awesome and we got dinner at another local place, again, it was very good.

Thursday we headed up to the south rim of the Grand Canyon and since we got there earlier than check in, headed right into the National Park. The first couple hours of our amazement were dampened (no pun intended) by the rain, but eventually it cleared up.

We drove down one of the rim-side roads and stopped at a bunch of of the viewpoints, walked around, and again took tons of pictures. There’s no way to fully describe the vastness and enormity of the canyon, even looking at the pictures I took still don’t represent it well enough. It really is unbelievable. We could drive maybe a mile or two, stop at another view point, and there was a completely unique view of the canyon. We drove 25 miles out to Desert View Watchtower, the highest point on the south rim.

On our way out of the park, we stopped with a bunch of other people because there was a heard of elk eating by the side of the road. I got a bunch of picture of them (on the real camera, they are coming…) from way up close, 20 feet away give or take. It was oddly comfortable how they just ignored everyone near them taking pictures; they are probably used to the people but at the same time, they are big animals, and who knows what they’d do if they got pissed. We made sure to stay far away from the calf, and definitely get no where near in between it and it’s mother. There were no males around, but my Dad went back later on and saw a couple and said he got some good pictures.

Friday morning we hiked Bright Angel trail down into the canyon. It was a moderately difficult trail and we hiked about a mile and a half before we decided we would be wise to head back.

A mile and a half doesn’t sound like much, but the elevation change is unimaginable, and hiking back up was definitely a challenge.

After that we had lunch and took a shuttle to some of the other viewpoints on the other side of the south rim, including Hopi Point, which is the highest natural point on the south rim (only the Desert View Watchtower is taller, as far as I know/remember) and the best place to see the Colorado River snaking through the canyon.

All in all, it was impressive and awe inspiring. It weird to know that there is no where else in the world I can or will ever see anything like that, and apparently the north rim is even more spectacular. Maybe next time.