Travel Log: Grand Canyon

Sorry no blog post last night. They put is in the hotel room farthest from the lobby, and subsequently farthest from the wireless hub. I had only one bar of signal strength and could only momentarily connect to the internet and had to re-logon every two page clicks or so.

Monday, Monday, Monday...

Monday we had a car full of cranky tired little boys after having a weekend of staying up late partying with their friends E and M in St. George. They were practically at each other's throats the entire day in the car. About the two hours into the ride, ES declared he wanted to put YB up for sale when we got to Kanab, Utah. EVEN SO, we had a GREAT time in St. George, so it was worth it.

We drove through Zion National Park. This was the first time YB had a fit about the "no Nintendo in a National Park" rule (normally he happily complies while ES throws the fit). It's a fairly short, reasonable drive through with beautiful scenery though.

Zion National Park

We stopped to have lunch at the Rockin' V because Jud told us it was awesome and we HAD to go there. I took this photo on our way into the restaurant.

Me and YB in front of the Rockin' V.

Low and behold, the place isn't open for lunch, so we had to pack the kids back in the car and head down the street to McD's. Even so, I thought it was a good picture of YB, so I kept the picture anyway.

We saw Lake Powell and stopped to admire the view of the Glen Canyon Dam (and grab a geocache in Arizona).

Blunoz at "A Dam Good View" geocache.

We made good time getting to the Grand Canyon. This is the first time I can remember coming in from the east. In the past, I've always come up from the south and never bothered to go out to the observation tower at Desert View. Coming in from the east, the Desert View Watchtower was the first place we had a chance to stop to use the restrooms and admire the view, and it was a pretty cool tower. It was constructed in 1932 as the original gift shop and visitor center.

YB at the Desert View Watchtower
(He's becoming much more cooperative with the camera)

This panorama started out really well. I framed my wife and YB in the lower right corner of the image and then started the pan to the left. Just as I was finishing the pan to the left, that guy in the striped shirt walked up and ended up in the picture unintentionally.

Panorama from the Desert View Watchtower

(LW & YB on the right)

Unfortunately, ES was in a mood and a half. This panorama started with ES in the lower left corner and then panned to the right.

ES hiding behind the wall on the left and
the "stupid boring hole in the ground"
that interrupted Star Wars II in the car.

We saw a coyote along the side of the road as we drove over to the South Rim Village.

Coyote over my wife's shoulder.
(I think the picture from her camera is probably better.)

We went to the South Rim Village and had dinner at the Bright Angel Lodge. I was expecting it to be a horrible, overpriced, bad-service, bland food typical tourist trap, but I was very pleasantly surprised. The food was EXCELLENT, the service was a little slow but friendly. Yeah, it was a little overpriced, but still, at least I felt I got some bang for my buck because the food was so good.

We timed dinner there so that we could watch the sunset over the Grand Canyon.

Sunset from the South Rim
(LW is taking a photo of a falcon soaring below.)

By the time we started planning our drive across country, all the hotels at the South Rim were booked. That's actually probably a blessing in disguise. I think the hotel we stayed at to the south of the Grand Canyon was about half the price and probably much more comfortable than any of the lodges on the South Rim. (If only they had given us a room closer to the lobby so I could get on the internet!)

Statistics for Monday:

2 Number of square inches of ham YB ate for breakfast.

41 Number of minutes on the road before YB asked for a snack. He surprised both me and my wife with that one. We both predicted 30 minutes.

85 Number of steps to the top of the Desert View Watchtower (yes, I counted)

347 Number of times ES has already seen Star Wars II before we so rudely turned off the car to go admire the splendor of the Grand Canyon. (Okay, okay, that might be a slight exaggeration, but still... Just trying to make my point.)