Grand Canyon!! 5/2/11

Today I drug Wayne out of bed at 4:45AM!!  to watch the sun rise over the Grand Canyon.  It was so worth the effort!!  We literally sat on a rock on the rim edge for over 2 hours just watching the light change over the canyon walls.  We met a couple from Melbourne, a young man from London who had been to the Royal Wedding on Friday and flew to the States Saturday morning, and another man who discovered that he lived about 2 miles from the young man!  Other than those conversations, we sat in silence, drinking in the expanse of the canyon.  Later in the morning we hiked the rim trail marveling at the sites.  We had to leave around 1:00 to drive to Sedona (which I will cover in the next blog).  Hopefully soon we will be going back to hike to the bottom and stay at Phantom Ranch.   I'm sorry the pics are not better.  It was hazy most of the time.  I also did not have a proper filter. 

First look at the Canyon 5:20 AM!

This is around 6 am

around 7 am

It was about 28 degrees, but we had several layers on and were not cold

The tiny dot at the bottom is Phantom Ranch

The upper part of Kaibab trail going to Phantom Ranch

The tiny dots on the plateau are people!!

A cool tree on the rim

around 11 am

Looking at the North Rim

Wayne on a rock

The little white dot in the center is Wayne waving.  He is on the same rock.  This is zoomed out!

Not much below me!!

I tried to point the camera straight down.  This was about the best I could do.

The Canyon behind us is just a small part of this massive monument. 

The white spec in the river is a huge raft!

Zion and to the Grand Canyon

We altered our itinerary slightly so that we could spend more time in Bryce and Zion.  So today we went back thru Mt. Carmel (with the fake cops still there!!) and onto Zion National Park.  The formations towered over us and were spectacular!  There is a trail to Angel's Landing-so named because it was thought that only angels could get to it!  When we go back, we are definitely going to hike it!  We stayed in Zion until mid after noon when we made our way past the Vermillion and Echo Cliffs to Grand Canyon just as the sun was setting.  Awesome!!!  Tomorrow will be the sunrise I've been looking forward to since we started planning this trip!!

The crew in front of Checkerboard Rock

Wayne is the tiny spec on the bottom of the pic

Such unusual formations!

Court of the Patriarchs

Waterfall at lower Emerald Pool

I love finding faces in rock formations!

And yet another face!

The tiny white spec is a rock climber

Weeping rock

The gardens at Weeping Rock

Another angle of Weeping Rock

Part of the Vermillion Cliffs

More Vermillion Cliffs

Echo Cliffs

I think this "space ship" got lost on its way to Roswell!

My first view of the Grand Canyon

Looking to the right of Watch Tower

Amazing!

Bryce Canyon

We drove from Page, AZ  thru Kaibab and Mount Carmel to Bryace Canyon in Utah.  I mention the other two cities because they are beautiful, but the local police force places cars with fake police people in them at the entrance and exits of the cities!  It works to slow the traffic but is pretty funny!  Anyway, Bryce was outstanding!  We had the added bonus of meeting our KC friends, the Kings, in Bryce!  We altered our schedule and stayed at Ruby's Inn, a historic hotel, and enjoyed the scenery!