Link to Grand Canyon Facebook Pictures

Today we woke up and went into the Grand Canyon National Park.  Entrance fee is normally $25, but since I have the $80 annual National Park Pass, it was free.  That puts my savings somewhere like $58 for buying that pass – I need to get at least $100 of use out of it to justify it.  Upon entering the park, we found the first overlook that we came across – Pipe Creek Vista.  We ended up leaving the Honda there, and then taking the free shuttle service around for the rest of the day.  I had no idea, but there is a FREE shuttle service with 3 different lines that takes you all around the south rim area.  We rode it to the Grand Canyon Visitor’s Center, and got some of those little squished pennies that you make in the little machines – we have been collecting those as we go along.  We also got a bite to eat in the cafeteria – some chicken alfredo for $6.

We got on a different bus, which took us to a place called Hermit’s Rest Route Transfer, then we got on the “Red” route, which took us to 9 different overlooks of the Grand Canyon.  I have to admit – after awhile, the overlooks all began to look the same.  We also did some hiking along the rim trail, but it was surprisingly exhausting even walking on mostly-level ground.  I found myself completely out of breath multiple times.  We were able to go right to the cliff’s edges, and I got some pretty daring pictures!

When you’re that high up, your brain really doesn’t interpret the danger that you’re in.  I think it would have been much scarier to be standing on a roof, or something more “tangible” like that, where you know exactly how far you’re going to fall.  I don’t know if that makes sense or not, but the Grand Canyon is so huge that it’s like looking at a Bob Ross painting.  You don’t realize the depth of what you’re looking at – even after the tour bus driver tells you it is about a mile-long vertical drop to the Colorado River.  Or that the narrowest point across the Grand Canyon is 12 miles, and the longest is 21, I believe.  Your mind just isn’t wired to interpret those types of depths – I mean you only see them once or twice in your life, if you’re lucky.  It makes you feel pretty insignificant!

There are some hiking trails which go into the canyon itself – one of them has a 4,500ft elevation change within 7 miles.  I couldn’t imagine how tiring that would be.

So we took pictures at these different overlooks.  At one of them, we saw a fat squirrel, and I threw a piece of my Cliff bar to it.  Then, at the next overlook I saw a sign that says “Don’t hand-feed the squirrels – they carry fleas, and fleas in this area have been known to carry the PLAGUE”.  As in, the BLACK Plague.  Scary stuff.  Luckily, I tossed it to this squirrel!  After seeing all of these overlooks, we headed back towards the car.  We were able to fill our solar shower AND a two-gallon Rubbermade water container at their water fill-stations.  We are ready for tomorrow morning!  Our plan is to wake up at a decent hour, head to the Grand Canyon Park to get our National Parks Passports stamped (we bought them a few parks ago – it’s like a passport for your park visits), then we’re going to head to the Hoover Dam.  After the Hoover Dam, we plan to go to Vegas for three nights!  It will be a much-needed break to sleep in a bed, and to have a warm, but more importantly NO TIME LIMIT shower!  I am planning to gamble on some slot machines, but I want to stick to the $0.01 machines mostly.  We will try to keep you updated as we go along!

**Update: We found out that a hotel for one night this weekend is $120, and during the week it’s only $30/night.  Currently (06/22) we are staying in a national forest outside of Vegas, until we can go to our hotel on Monday!