Grand Canyon

Big day today - one of the most famous places on earth! We headed out quite early, knowing that we still had to cover an hour of driving from Williams before arriving. As expected, we were a bit limited in what we could do, because a lot of places are only reachable via the shuttle bus, and you can't take pets on the shuttle bus!

So we did what most people do: wander around the south rim trail near the Village and Visitor's Centre, since Schnitzel was allowed there. Boggled at a few people climbing fences to take better selfies - after a couple had literally died doing exactly that only a couple of weeks earlier.

Spent much of the rest of the day driving eastwards along the south rim, stopping at the various outlooks and watching the face of the canyon change as the sun moved. It was much as I remembered it - like looking at a huge painting. Large, colossal, empty, silent (except for yammering tourists). Since it was November it wasn't super busy, and there were plenty of places where it was just us, or maybe 1-2 other couples. I'd estimate in general actually that most places here on the west coast are at about 30-40% capacity, which is pretty nice. We also spotted a bit of wildlife on our drive - a large male deer grazing just off the road, and later a coyote hanging around a carpark evidently expecting scraps from someone's picnic! Thankfully Schnitzel was safely in the car.

Late afternoon we hurried back to the visitor centre area, hoping to find a nice relaxing place to watch sunset. We didn't quite find a quiet isolated spot, but managed to see the sunset from a few areas nonetheless. Then it was just the long dark drive back to Williams where we had dinner at the local brewery - of course.Read more