Grand Canyon – 7.19.16

After Zion, we stayed in Kanab Utah, and drove to the Grand Canyon in the morning.  Kanab is a little classic western looking town that has been the setting for many western movies.  We found this fun local diner for dinner last night.

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It wasn’t long before we said goodbye to Utah, and hello to Arizona.

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Woo-Hoo!  We have been seeing advertisements for deer since we left Washington – and Arizona finally made good on it!

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Just had to finally take a picture of a CruiseAmerica.com motorhome.  In this National Park circuit that we’ve been on, we have probably seen 3 dozen of these each day!

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Along the way, we saw many, many Navajo markets along the road.  This one was quite large!  Most were just one little lean-to.

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This is for my daughter’s friend Cameron…. (You look really good for being 100 years old!)

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And…. ta-da!  We made it to the Grand Canyon!

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We arrived via the park’s East entrance on Hwy 64 from Cameron for the South Rim of the Canyon.  The first viewpoint was Desert View, with this cool tower.  Yep – lots of people again.  But this was the first stop, so everybody coming into the park from this direction stopped here.  The other stops weren’t quite this busy.

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Kenny isn’t afraid to stand out there….. but there aren’t any pictures of me out on any edges!

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The Grand Canyon is so big, it is hard to even fathom it’s size.  The clouds came in and we had a bit of rain.  The clouds really muted the colors.

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As those who have been there told us, your peripheral vision picks up what the camera cannot – so to stand and look at the canyon is a completely encompassing experience that a camera lens just cannot do justice.

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These are just pieces and snippets of the grandeur!

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To us, it is so big that it is overwhelming and really quite inaccessible for any short hikes.  The canyon can be 10 miles across and a mile deep at points.  That’s over 5,000′ in elevation change.  I huff and puff with 500!

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We saw lots of advertising for elk.

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And there she is!  Not a bull like the sign advertised, but it was cool to see one so close!

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And then – another one!

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We didn’t spend much time at the Grand Canyon.  We had hoped to see sunset there, but the clouds didn’t cooperate.  However, it was a very comfortable temperature!

All-in-all, if we were to go back to anywhere, we would choose Bryce Canyon in a minute.  Much more accessible to get in and enjoy rather than just standing on the rim looking at it.

 

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