Grand Canyon, AZ

We got our camp site set up here at Mathers Campground in the Grand Canyon National Park.  It was a nice site, and there are Elk that just wander around! It is was pretty cool.  We made stir fry for dinner, and then started our first camping fire of the  trip, as well as ate our first s'mores.  I have perfected the art of roasting marshmellows and making s'mores, if you can't tell from the picture below.  They were yummy.

It was down in the upper 40's when we woke up the next morning in our tent, but it quickly got up to the 50's, and then later in the day in the 70's.  We went to the General store to rent some hiking poles, and the person behind the register, "Crazy Erik" I will call him, was really awesome.  We were going to hike the Bright Angel Trail, but he was like, "don't go there, that is like the Disneyland of the Grand Canyon."  He recommeded the Grand View trail which was awesome.  There was barely any people on it and it was like we owned the trail.  The trail hugs the edge of the cliffs most of the way, and you see the canyon the whole way down and up. It was about 5 miles down into the canyon, to where we ended, and then 5 back.  We had lunch in the canyon and made our way back up to the top by around 330.  Hiking down into the canyon is the only way to experience it.  Though we were pretty tired after, it was awesome.

When we got back, we took showers, made dinner, and then sat by the fire again.  We found out that it was suppose to snow and rain on Thursday morning really early, so instead of packing up in the snow, we decided to leave early.  There is supposed to be thunder storms in Zion as well, so we switch gears and decided to head to Vegas early, and then go back to Zion.  So this morning when we woke up, we packed up the car, and then toured the rest of the canyon.  We hiked a few small trails here and there to get to some other view points.  When we were done we made some steaks for lunch, and then hit the road again.  Next stop Hoover Damn, then Vegas Baby!

Here are just a few of the amazing pictures we got at the Grand Canyon!

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From Moab to the Grand Canyon

We woke up early on Sunday and packed up our gear and hit the road.  Our first stop was Masa Verde, which is a national park that is home to a bunch of old rock dwellings that were inhabited by various Native American Tribe, primarily the Pueblos.  We took the Balcony House tour which is the most challenging one, and requires a climb up a 32 foot ladder on the huge cliff in a canyon.  It was pretty exciting.  The scenery was awesome.  The dwellings were really cool too, and it was really interesting to here the history of the tribes. We also looked at the Cliff Palace, but did not do the tour, as we did not have time. 

Afterwards we headed to the four corners monument, which was closed for construction.  We took a picture with the closed sign, and left.  We tried! haha. Our next stop was Monument Valley.  It was very similar to Arches and Garden of the Gods.  It was these large golden rock formations in the dessert.  It was cool.  We did not drive the hole length of the park as we did not have that much time, but we toured a little bit of it, and got some great pictures.  

After all those stops we were finally headed to our final destination, Holbrook AZ, where we would stay for the night in a Wigwam hotel.  It took forever and the drive as Billy said was as borning as TX.  It felt never ending and there was not much to look at. It was beautiful, but mostly the landscap didn't change.  The housing was also not that great to look at.  It look very poor in the areas we drove, and we also had to keep stopping for Cows and Horses near or in the road.  It was interesting.  After and extra hour we did not expect due to a time change we finally made it to the Wigwam.  It was pretty neat.  The pictures are below.  We went to Butterfield Steakhouse for dinner, which was not very good for the money, but I think the Wigwam Hotel is in cahoots with the Steakhouse cause they recommeded it. Haha.

This morning, we went to the grocery store to stock up for camping in the Grand Canyon, and hit the road again.  On our way to the Grand Canyon we stopped at the Metor Crator in Winslow, AZ.  We took a Rim Tour of the Crator and got some really neat pictures.  It was actually really cool, and Billy loved it of course.  We have just arrived at the Grand Canyon, Mathers Campground, and will be here for three nights.  Below are some highlights of the past few days.

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