Grand Canyon: Day 2: The Adventure Continues

The next morning we woke up early (4:00 a.m.--these time changes really are inconvenient) and had a huge breakfast. Greg ordered a two-egg omelette and we decided that the hens in Arizona lay larger eggs than they do in Tennessee. It had to be made with three or more eggs, and it was stuffed with mushrooms, sausage and tomatoes. Plus it came with fried potatoes and three slices of toast. I had just as much food--two scrambled eggs, fried potatoes and three slices of toast. We should have ordered just one of those because neither one of us cleaned our plates. They also served the best hot chocolate with real whipped cream.

Now that we were stuffed, we began our journey of the south rim. First stop, Canyon View Information Plaza. We listened to Ranger Bob share information about the formation of the canyon and looked at the displays. I also shopped at the canyon book store. Traveling by shuttle, we ventured to the eastern most point in the village, Yaki Point. Yaki Point seems to hang in mid-air offering a fine view of spires, buttes, and talus slopes. It is also the point of the South Kaibab Trailhead. There were two hikers on our shuttle who were hiking down on Saturday and returning on Monday (I was hoping for them that it really was warmer below the rim than it was on the rim, becuase the predicted low was 18 degrees--and they were not staying in a lodge at the bottom. Call me a weenie, but I could NEVER do that!) We also got off the shuttle at Pipe Creek Vista. It was very icy with lots of snow. Greg was amused by throwing snowballs into the canyon. From there we headed back to the Inforamtion Plaza.

After a quick warm-up and bathroom break, we ventured toward Mather Point on foot. It was just as crowded today as it was yesterday. However, I was more prepared because I didn't have to change from my crocks to my boots; I knew I couldn't survive today with out my boots and wool socks! From Mather Point, we hiked along the rim to Yavapai Observation Station. The building is stone which blends into the canyon and looks as if it is a part of the natural formation. It was a great place to see the canyon from indoors.

By this time we were starting to get hungry, or thought we were, and headed back to the village for lunch at El Tovar. El Tovar is the creme de la creme of the restaurant/lodges at the Grand Canyon. Greg had an angus burger with mushrooms and gargonzola cheese--it looked yummy! I had the soup special--seafood bisque--with a medetarianian salad. I'll have to say of all the good food we ate, this soup was my absolute favorite. Outside El Tovar is Hopi House, a building reminiscent of ancient south-western pueblos. When it first opened, it offered, as it does today, a huge selection of crats, but it was also home to working Hopi artisans and performers who informed and entertained the tourists. Greg was not very amused by this stop on our trip, but the crafts inside were actually very interesting and beautiful.

From Hopi House, we continued westward on our journey around the rim to Lookout Studio. Here, Greg left to stretch out in our little home-away-from-home while I strolled around the Lookout Studio looking at the exhibits and canyon view from the lookout. The studio was designed by Mary Colter, who also designed many other buildings on the rim, to blend in with the side of the canyon. Just below Lookout Studio is Kolb Studio, an old house designed and built by Ellsworth and Emery Kolb, which holds a gallery and bookstore. Another one of Greg's least favorite stops. The studio sits at the trailhead to Bright Angel Trail which we ventured down, although the trail was completly covered with ice--very scary, since there was no railing to prevent one from sliding off the trail over the edge of the canyon! We walked down to the first tunnel and took several photos along the way. We also encountered some very interesting (translate: strange) folks. When we saw the mules coming back up the trail from thier day's venture into the canyon, we decided to come back so that we wouldn't be on the narrow trail with a big mule. The mules wear special shoes in the winter that give them better traction--kind of like cleats.

The next portion of our journey was by car. We headed up the Hermits Road to Hermits Rest at the fartherest point west on the rim trail. The shuttle bus does not run on this route in the winter months, but it is opened to cars and during the other three seasons the only access is by shuttle bus or by foot (it is closed to private vehicles). It is quite amazing how close the road is to the edge of the canyon with only a few rows of rocks to form a small wall, but no guard rail to prevent cars from just driving off the side of the canyon. We stopped at the Trailview Overlook and saw the Bright Angel Trail as it descends into the canyon, Maricopa Point where the views of El Tovar and Bright Angel Lodge were quite amazing and Powell Point where the trail was completely covered with ice. However, we saw two mule deer here with a fawn; they look a little different from the deer in the Smokies--stouter and larger ears. Farther west we stopped at Hopi Point and saw some of the western canyons that are from view when looking from some of the the eastern points. Because it was begining to get dark, we skipped Mohave Point and The Abyss so that we could move onto Pima Point. Once again, the view was amazing. In our effort to continue on the the final stop, Hermits Rest, we were turned around on the pull-off road and started back down toward the Grand Canyon village. It had begun to snow and we decided we had better get back while it was still light and maybe we could get our parking spot next to our little cabin (we didn't). As we were circling around on a one-way street back to our parking lot, we came upon a herd of mule deer, some of which looked as if they were on vacation from the north pole (their antlers were huge!). As I stepped out of the car to take a picture of the amazing sunset, I looked over the stone wall and was about 15 feet from a huge deer, which kind of scared me because there are several warnings about how the wildlife (even the deer) can be aggressive in the winter becuase they may be hungry, etc. etc. etc. I snapped my photos and we parked the car.

Since we had stuffed ourselves at breakfast and lunch, we decided to just have appetizers for dinner. We ate and bought gifts to bring to the girls and settled in for a night of high winds and snow!

Photos