It's Bradley family law that you can't be near Arizona without visiting the Grand Canyon. So we followed the law and spent two nights at the Kachina Lodge on the South Rim. (C tried to get into the El Tovar but they said it would be closed for rehab, but it wasn't)
From Mesa Verde to the Grand Canyon is a lot of roads that look like this.
And you go past rock features that just sort of stick up off to the side of the road
This was a really long conveyor belt for moving stuff around.
We didn't stop at Four Corners because the Navajo Nation has decided to charge admission to the meeting point of CO, UT, NM, and AZ. It wasn't worth $10 each to revisit a spot we saw long ago (for free). Likewise the Overlook of the Little Colorado River Gorge, a mini canyon just outside the park on the east. I fear what the Navajo will do if they develop the confluence of the Little Colorado and Colorado as they have planned.
We entered Grand Canyon NP from the east, and the first view is Desert View.
And there's the canyon as the river comes from the north and swings around to the west.
The California Condors have integrated into the canyon. Here are two of them (80 & 87 if you want their familiar names) outside the Bright Angel Lodge.
Next morning we took the shuttle bus from the Village west to Hermit's Rest.
The bus driver informed us that this NPS helicopter is "BumbleBee:
Hermit's Rest
Red Tailed Hawk over the Canyon
Three Mile Resthouse on the Bright Angel Trail seen from about 3 miles away
Hopi House
El Tovar
The first tunnel on the Bright Angel trail. Once, a long time ago, we hiked up the BA all the way from the river. Since then we walk from the rim to the tunnel and back again every time we visit
El Tovar seen from Lookout Studio. The Kachina is just to the right.
An excellent visit
From Mesa Verde to the Grand Canyon is a lot of roads that look like this.
We entered Grand Canyon NP from the east, and the first view is Desert View.
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