June 29, Monday – Grand Canyon South Rim

Lin and Ben came over for breakfast at 6am and we drove to the trailhead only to find we weren’t allowed to drive down the trailhead road (apparently, we were supposed to take a shuttle bus). We had to park about ½ mile west at a viewpoint and walk in. On our way, we came across a large buck elk and we decided to give him a wide berth.

We arrived just about 7am while the ranger was introducing the hike into the canyon. We got impatient for the ranger to stop talking, so we just walked on ahead. The hike was mostly deep steps, but it was mostly in the shade so not so bad (a little hard on the knees which is one reason why Jack passed up this opportunity). The canyon was gorgeous with beautiful colored highlights and shadows from the early morning light.

We made it down to the Ooh-Ahh point in about an hour and decided to go down a little further. We stopped for snacks, enjoyed the view and postponed having to hike back up the 600 feet in 1¼ miles – glad that we decided to do this early in the morning to avoid the heat. It took us a lot longer to hike back up and we got back to the RV about 11am. We enjoyed an early lunch and plotted out the rest of the day – naps first!

We drove to the village area to check out the lodges, walk along the rim and try to see the endangered California Condor. We attended a talk on the patio beside the rim about the condors and when we looked up, there were three Condors circling us – a little scary since they are scavengers. They are incredibly ugly – look like giant vultures with 9 ½ feet wing spans and gnarly red heads. Unfortunately, our camera has a delay in taking action shots and we got lots of great shots of blue skies, but did manage a couple decent ones.

Back at the RV we had pulled BBQ sandwiches, played games, made a fire when it got dark and roasted marshmallows. A great day!