The Grandest Canyon - Part I

Yesterday we said farewell to Sedona and made our way two hours north to the South Rim of the Grand Canyon. We are definitely getting the hang of this camping stuff. When we arrived at the park, we made straight for our site to set up camp. Good thing too, because it was raining when returned for the evening.  It seems the rain has been following us since Santa Fe, and so have the cooler temps, which we are grateful for. The week before we started our journey the Weather Channel was predicting possible record highs in this part of the country so we were preparing ourselves to be sweating in our tents!  Instead, the lows at night have been in the 60's, and with the ground temps even cooler, we've had to bundle up.  Luckily we packed more clothes than we thought we would ever wear... just in case!

After staking our claim, we headed to the Grand Canyon Village and rented bicycles from the Bright Angels Bicycles.  I had read that this was a good way to avoid the crowds in the summer as well as get a variety of vantage points from the canyon's rim. We road the shuttle to Hopi Point and continued west 5.5 miles to Hermit's Rest. The view from our handlebars was truly incredible!  With the wind in our hair, we felt the kind of thrill you'd get as a kid going top speed down hill!  We pulled over at different spots to admire the canyon's magnificent beauty. There was very little traffic and at times we felt like we had the place to ourselves.

At the end of our trek we handed over our bikes and made our way to Mather Point to take pictures as the rain was rolling in over the canyon.

Next, we stopped at the General Store to buy some groceries and postcards.  We returned to our campsite and hid out in the tent waiting for the rain to stop so Brian could grill our burgers.  In the meantime, we noticed two people about 50 yards away hiding behind some trees.  As we tried to figure out who they were playing hide-and-seek with, one of them took several stealthy steps forward and I noticed he was holding a camera.  As we followed his gaze through the woods, we saw an animal the size of a compact car... an elk with gigantic antlers was roaming our campground!

It turns out there we three of them, and they were far less surprised to see us than we were to see them!  I grabbed my zoom lens and played photographer from a safe distance...  So cool!

Check back soon for Part II of The Grandest Canyon adventure...