I loathe Grand Canyon. Hate it, will continue to hate it until someone shows me why I should like it. What a day I had today. Loathe, hate...hmmm that must have been your first clue!
The day started off alright, we had a good breakfast at the Anasazi Inn, it is the one redeeming value for sure. Cheap and good food. My breakfast cost 2.75. Biscuits and gravy with hashbrowns!
Once on the road we drove right into a rain storm that lasted for two hours. It rained so hard my wipers couldn't keep up. We made a stop at Cameran Trading Post, that place is huge! Tons of stuff and some food and a cafe and store. Wow!
As we got to the Grand Canyon I realized they wouldn't be able to see into it...they couldn't, it was full of cloud. I thought it was kinda pretty. (that is true actually) And since I'd never driven to Grand Canyon myself I had no clue where to stop or what to do and it was just a bad start. I didn't realize how unprepared I was until we stopped at Desert View and they were like, where do we go, what do we do, where are we?, what's over there? Phew. that was about the time I realized I hadn't eaten enough mid day...bad bad mistake!
We missed some viewpoints since it was getting late for lunch (again) but I did stop at Grandview Point. You've always got to stop at places called Grand View because they are usually named taht for a reason. This would have been a grand view except for the grand cloud in the way today!
I dropped them off at the busiest place I could find (who knew) and they were waiting there for me expectantly to feed them and there was no food at that facility. Oh man, so one of my people whom I'd be lost without got us onto the shuttle and we went to Market Plaza where there is a cafeteria and grocery store (big one!) so they ate and I ate (thank goodness, I was not thinking clearly at all!)
I told them when and where to meet me and I went and caught a shuttle to explore the park adn get oriented. Its very confusing the first time. Roads everywhere and nothing is marked very intuitively. You have to know the names to get to the right part of th road and then there is parking with a van and trailer. I got my butt kicked by that park today. It was bad. The free shuttles are nice but they go all over the place so it takes a while to get somewhere. I went and asked questions to everyone I could find and then walked the Rim Trail just to get an idea what they were up against.
Everyone ended up happy except for my problem "child" who was mad at me for making him leave Grand Canyon right as the sun finally came out over the rim. I let him go to the rim for some photos so I think he was happier. I could have cared less at that point. Which is bad but man!
Tusayan is a one horse town. Hotels and food and gasoline, thats it. Lots of all those things though so its a nice stop.
Tomorrow if the sun is out they'll do Helicopter rides and that will be good fun for them. Then a hike into the Canyon a bit if they want. I'm looking forward to reading a book and taking it really easy. I'm thinking a nice big chair at the El Tovar Lodge, overlooking the Grand Canyon might be in order. I might even leave the van outside the park and take the shuttle in...oh yeah and my group too...sheesh!
Ha!
I miss Monument Valley!
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