The Grand Canyon

Early this morning Pete went & retrieved our continental breakfast: donuts and orange juice! Not exactly my cup of tea but something to get going on. So we headed off to the Grand Canyon. The guide book told us to find a parking spot and then leave the car.

We went on a short walk to the rim and had our first view of the Canyon. You can't describe in words the size of it. It had a very unreal look about it, like I was standing in front of a huge painting, probably because I had never seen anything quite on the scale before. The colours ranged from light sandy through red and a dull green, and brown. I was nervous with the kids near the edge and kept telling them to move back. After the short walk we had a drink as it was pretty hot, then went into the Visitor Centre. Pete saw a phone so organised our accommodation for the next night, after a fight with the telephone system, while the kids and I watched a film in the theatrette about the natural and geological history of the Canyon.

We then went looking for some lunch in the village. Pete got me a large coffee the size of a milkshake. He also bought a root beer for us all to try. Had a medicinal sort of smell, a bit like Dencorub or mouthwash. We collected some water from a bubbler then decided to catch the West Rim shuttle bus after catching the Village shuttle first. Cars can't be taken around the West Rim in summer. The whole trip took 1 1/2 hours without stopped, and seats were hard to find. We made the boys give up their seats to ladies, and they weren't too happy about it. I began idly chatting with a couple of people.

We went all the way to Hermit's Rest, giving a completely different view of the Canyon. We stopped off at one place on the return journey at Mojave Point where we had excellent views of the Colorado River rapids. Hopped back on the bus and got out at the village. Walked a little way around the rim and bought an ice cream then settled in to watch the sunset. I missed it because I took Sean to the toilet! We spent a little time souvenir shopping then headed for the shuttle to take us back to the car. Lots of people were waiting.

The first bus came and it was choc-a-block. Pete decided to walk to the car, and he made the right decision because the bus that arrived 20 minutes later was even fuller! The people waiting for the bus were getting anxious about being stranded. When Pete arrived for us we gave a man a lift back to the car park for his car. He was from Virginia and gave Pete his business card.

We had dinner in Tusayan at McDonalds were much more expensive than the usual McDonalds. In fact they gave us a piece of paper explaining why - lack of water and so on. We also got a map of where all the McDonalds are in Arizona! It was pretty late so by the time we got back to our room in Williams, we all went straight to bed.Read more