We left Vegas around 3pm and didn’t get to the Grand Canyon until almost 10 at night. From the Hoover Dam to the Grand Canyon the weather began to normalize, eventually becoming a very comfortable and picture-perfect temperature.
It was dark when we got there. We traveled the gravely route 64 all the way to the Desert View Campground at the tip of the South Rim of the Canyon. It’s first come, first serve only at this site, so we were concerned about availability during peak season, but, to our surprise, there were a lot of open sites AND it was self-registered.
We set up camp very quickly and left the car headlights on for visibility. Imagine the look on Adam’s face when the headlights went out! The car wouldn’t start. Oh well. We decided to sleep on it, and dozed off in a rather luxurious camp setup, with queen sized air mattress, two down comforters, and a dvd player showing Myazaki’s “ My Neighbor Totoro.”
We rose to a gorgeous morning to start breakfast…but the camp stove hose had a leak and caught fire, so we had to repack the meal we started to prepare and finish a cold breakfast instead. In the meantime, the car issue was still looming. A ranger came to the rescue, but after sitting over night our wonderful car started all on its own, yay!
We packed camp and headed for the canyon (which was seriously only seconds away) and viewed the famous gorge from our side. It was Adam’s first time seeing it and said he actually had to catch his breath. There is no other view like it in the world. We both explored the South Rim Watch Tower for a bit, and, upon leaving, decided here that we would begin collecting some token at each of our destinations. We settled on magnets and purchased our very first souvenir on our trip.
Then we sat outside the general store to write some postcards and enjoy a couple of refreshing, hand-crafted Grand Canyon ales. The only wild life we managed to see were a few ground rodents and some small common birds.
We were on our way out when we spotted an incredible panoramic view of the canyon along the road side. So we opted to prop some chairs less than ten feet from the edge and enjoyed a quick lunch all alone together. It was AMAZING!
Oooooooo..... that sounds so cool!
ReplyDeleteOne of those postcards better be for me.
Your camp sounds so luxurious, even I could do that with Myazaki and down comforters! Great idea about the magnets, I got a few mugs along the way, magnets take up less room. Love the photo, looks sublime!
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