Grand Canyon

This is a day spent at the Grand Canyon

When you enter the park from the south gate you drive a good distance through nice pine woods. The you get to a split in the road, east gate to the right, Canyon Village to the left at this point there is a pull off for a view if the canyon, I park the car and run for a look. If its is early and the room will not be ready for a while this might be a great time to go for a helicopter ride backtrack to the airport when you entered the park.

Your pass lets you come and go as much as you like, so re entering the park should not be an issue.

On our big trip we got to the Grand Canyon early in the morning. We ran up to the edge of the canyon, then went back out of the park to take a chopper ride over the canyon.

After lifting off, you ride over the pine forest that covers the plateau, and then the edge just drops away and you are over the canyon.

You get a fantastic view flying over the canyon. From up in the air, you can see how the sides step down in stages.

At the center of the canyon is the Colorado River. From most points at the edge of the canyon, you cannot see the river at the bottom of the canyon.

The end of this butte looked a lot like a Greek Temple to me.

After our ride, we checked into Bright Angel Lodge. In this photo you can see the grand old lodge El Tovar. 

The main dining room at El Tovar is very nice. There is also a nice clubby bar for a canyon-view cocktail. When I went to the GC in 1969 with my family, we had a suite in El Tovar with a deck looking out over the canyon.

To the right of E T  is Bright Angel Lodge. Bright Angel is a long low log lodge and also has free standing cabins. Some of these cabins are listed as 'canyon edge,' but the popular walkway is between your cabin and the canyon edge. There is a nice steak house at Bright Angel, no reservations, just get on the list. Once registered, you can walk out to the canyon and wait for the buzzer in your pocket to go off.

Near Bright Angel Lodge is the Bright Angel Trail down into the canyon. This is a nice wide trail that is used for the mule trips into the canyon. The trail is also very popular for hiking. Do as little or as much as you might want to take on. The trail can be very fragrant if the mules have passed recently. 

This fine gallery and gift shop is located near El Tovar. It is a great place to find good quality Indian jewelry and crafts. Most of the shopping facilities in this park are first rate. There is also a good camping supply store if you failed to pack anything.

This tower-shaped structure is perched on the edge of the canyon near Bright Angel, they sell a first rate selection of art books, post cards, and other publications.

These two structures are a few of many at the park designed by Mary Colter. Mary started working for the park in 1902. A pioneer in park design, she was very successful in capturing the local native architecture and incorporating it to meet the parks service needs. This rustic hand crafted arts and craft style is jokingly referred to as Parkitecture.