Grand Canyon, is Both

Rest stop at 1.5 miles down

The day dawned clear an cool, a beautiful day to visit the Canyon. On the hour drive from our hotel in Williams to the South Rim, we traveled the featureless plain of the Coconino Plateau. As you get closer there is a lot of new tourism based development in Tusayan and Grand Canyon Village .

Hiked down the Bright Angel Trail, into canyon for a little over 2 hrs. Some of us made it to the 1.5 mile rest stop along the trail, where there is an aid station with water.  Saw the wide range of hikers from the hard-core with all the gear, to the people who look like they decided to walk down the trail on a whim, such as women wearing heels.  In the exposed areas, the sun was hot, but in the shade you could feel the cool rock walls.

During our time on the rim, we heard lots of different languages being spoken, a lot of French and either Italian or Portuguese.  Since the roads connecting the most popular vistas are closed to auto traffic, we took the shuttle bus to see a few other views of the canyon.  Due to the steepness of the canyon walls nearest to the water, it is hard to see the Colorado River.

Views on the way out

We stopped by a little roadside stand that we had seen the night before, so we could look at jewelry made by members of the local native american community.  A short walk down a trail was a nice overlook on the edge of Little Colorado River Canyon.

The destination for the evening was St George UT.  This meant we had to retrace our steps throught he Painted Dessert, and then head north and west on 89, 89A and AZ 389 to UT 59.

Echo Cliffs


View from an overlook on the South Rim





View down a side canyon from the trail



On 89A we drove along the southern side of the Vermillion Cliffs, which form the southern edge of the Paria Plateau.  There was a thunderstorm hitting the top of the plateau, and we had some wind and showers along the way as we passed through the house rock valley.  The road started to climb the Kiabab Plateau, with many switchbacks as it gained elevation.  We saw a nice overlook and got out to stretch our legs and get a few pictures.  Looking back to our east, we saw the valley we had just traversed and the Vermillion Cliffs.  There was a game preserve in the foreground, and the BLM road stretched to the north through the House Rock Valley.  It was a nice view that we weren't expecting so we lingered a few moments to enjoy it.



Little Colorado river Canyon



We were enjoying the scenery, but realized that there would be few options for dinner till we got off the plateau and into Utah.  At the intersection of the road that takes you 60 miles south to the north rim of the Gand Canyon is the Jacob Lake Inn .  We decided it would be a good time and location for our dinner stop, as it had a restaurant, gift shop and motel.  We enjoyed a nice dinner and browsed the gift shop.  There were a lot of Christmas decorations hanging up and Christmas music was playing in the background.  This is something they do to celebrate the end of the summer, as many of the staff are college students and they were getting ready to leave.



View of Vermilion Cliffs, a nice surprise

The obvious picture