Grand Canyon: Day 1: The Weekend Begins

Greg and I left early on a flight to Las Vegas. Of course we got to the airport later than we expected (my fault--literally). It seemed as if we stood in line forever to check-in and even longer than forever to go through security. McGee-Tyson is a happening place at 6:30 in the morning! Getting on the plane was a breeze--we walked right through and were almost the last ones on the plane. As we sat in our seats (window and middle) with the isle seat empty, we hoped that no one else would get on and we could spread out, although when our seats were assigned we were told that the plane was nearly full. Lucky us--three seats for the four hour flight.

After arriving and picking up our rental car, we headed east for the Grand Canyon. Over the Hoover Dam, through the desert (what a dismal place to live) and into the national park. Before entering the park, I told Greg to stop at the Grand Canyon sign so that we could take some photos. We approached the sign rather quickly and Greg had to slam on the breaks and slide into the pull-off, we certainly made a "grand" entrance. Once inside the park, we stopped at Mather Point, the most visited point on either rim and named for the first National Park Service director, Stephen Mather. As I stood there in awe of the view, I'm thinking, "'Grand' doesn't even begin to describe this canyon. Maybe we should reconsider the name and call it the 'Amazingly, Unbelievable, Indescribable, Tremendously Enormous, Beautiful Hole in the Earth'. And as an educational experience, every child in America should have this field trip included in his/her curriculum.

We left Mather Point and headed to Bright Angel Lodge to check into our cozy abode for the next two days. The reception area in the lodge felt rustic with a fire in the large, stone fireplace. Greg thought it was somewhat funny that the fire was of average to small in size and the fireplace was enormous! However, it was warm and each time we entered the lodge we warmed up by the fire. Our cabin was a quadplex (is that a word?). I read that the cabins were built in 1935. They were very neat and modernized considering how long ago they were built. And thank goodness they were built, because they replaced a tent camp and I could have never made it in a tent!

After settling in, we got familiar with the village by riding the shuttle around the village. When we returned the sun had gone down and all of the water from the melted snow became ice. Everything was slick. It was about 7:00 p.m. (9:00 p.m. EST) and we were hungry and tired. The hunger was remedied by dinner in the lodge--steak and potato. The tired was remedied by getting ready for bed early--for Arizona, not for travelers that had been on the go for 18 hours.

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