World United States Arizona Grand Canyon National Park

Tom and Ann's Excellent Adventure

Grand Canyon Oct 2, 2009

Today was Grand Canyon Day! When we were booking RV park reservations, we had difficulty finding a park near Grand Canyon without going south to Williams, hence the reservation at Lake Powell. It is a 2 hour drive from Wahweap to the east entrance of Grand Canyon, all through the Navajo Reservation. The Navajos have a lot of land but it is very desolate and bare; their houses are mostly scattered rather than in a group, all very modest. It must be very hard to live there and hard to make a living there. There were a number of booths beside the road selling Navajo arts and crafts. Many of the booths were unoccupied at this time of the year but I expect they are full during the height of the tourist season.

Our first stop in Grand Canyon was the Desert View tower. This is a great place, designed and built in the 1930’s by a female architect who wanted to capture the spirit of the land and the native people. There are a number of Native American murals on the walls inside. It was our first good view of the Grand Canyon which is so spectacular it just can’t be described. There were a lot of visitors and Maddie got lots of opportunities to make new friends.

The drive along the south rim is a road completely enclosed by trees; you would never imagine that a gigantic canyon is just a short distance away. They have view points at various places so you can see the beautiful views. We stopped at the different points and Tommy got lots of good shots. We also visited 800 year old ruins of buildings from the Tusayan tribe. There was a kiva and other buildings. We also found a place for a picnic along the drive.

Unfortunately, I got really sick at my stomach in the afternoon. I didn’t feel well in the morning but thought I would feel better as the day wore on; sadly it got worse instead. So we started back on our 2 hour drive – it sure seemed longer coming back than going down. I am so sorry that Tommy missed his sunset pictures at the Grand Canyon… he had really been looking forward to that and I hate that he was disappointed.

Tomorrow we travel to Mesa Verde…