Day 8 - Grand Canyon Day

Friday, June 6th and it's Grand Canyon Day!

We started off with coffee and the best croissants ever at a small store near our overnight lodge! If anyone is visiting the Canyon, I can recommend breakfast at RP's Stage Shop at Tusayan!

It was only about a mile from there to the entrance to the National Park, but look who we saw on the way.

Helen went to check in at our overnight stop, Kachina Lodge - while I had my first view of the Canyon - and what a view!

There's not enough space here for all the photos I took of the Canyon. We went by shuttle bus, which stopped off at 9 viewpoints westwards along about 8 miles of the south rim.

Here is just a small sample of the 90+ photos I took! Not that any photos can do it justice - and even as a writer, I cannot find the words to describe it adequately. All I can do is repeat what I said to my cousin: it exceeded all my expectations, which were already very high!

 

Fortunately the buses weren't full, so we had about fifteen minutes at each viewpoint until the next bus came along.

 

Eventually we reached 'Hermit's Rest' where we had a longer break, and bought drinks and a sandwich from the snack bar.

We then caught the bus back along the rim, and went to the Visitor Centre.

After that we caught the bus which went eastwards along the rim and stopped at 3 viewpoints.

Our day ended with a meal at the Bright Angel Restaurant, only a short walk from our overnight lodge.

The best quote of the day came from a young man we met outside the bar of the Bright Angel. He was a Bicycle Tour leader, and when I asked him how many people he took on each tour, his reply was, "The maximum is 18, but 12 is preferable. Anything more than that, and it's like herding cats.' What a fun image that conjured up!