Holiday to the Pacific West Coast in Aug 2006: Day 16 – Kingman to Grand Canyon

Never mind what time we woke (it was 6am by the way), today was Grand Canyon day.  We left Kingman and drove 175 miles north east to Grand Canyon Village.  It was a trip full of anticipation – we both knew that it was the day we were both looking forward to above all else.

We arrived at the park by 10am and quickly found our hotel.  Since we couldn’t check in immediately we decided to head out east to take in some of the recommended view points. 

But Vick couldn’t hold out any longer and insisted on looking over the edge. 

Wowser, wowser, wowser – what a sight – you just cannot explain or describe the Grand Canyon (other than a whopping great big hole!). 

Think of the most stupendous sight you ever saw and multiply it by 1000.  It really is that impressive.

Out on the east rim we found an impressive Watchtower with amazing views.  A little closer to the village we visited Lipan Point and the Tusayan Ruins and Museum, not that the latter was really that good compared to the significance of the canyon itself.

Before coming on our trip, we weren’t really bothered about trying to hike into the canyon.  But once we looked in, we just had to hike down as far as we could.  So we planned to do the Bright Angel trail the following morning dead early.

We grabbed lunch at the Market Plaza and wandered around the village until we could check in at just before 4pm.  We booked into the restaurant in the evening and then prepared ourselves for the evening.

In the afternoon we pottered around and found a couple of interesting books to peruse.  One was entitled ‘Over the edge – death in Grand Canyon’.  It was the no. 1 best seller and was very apt. It describes all the different ways in which people have died at the Canyon – sounds macabre but it’s really fascinating and gives you some good tips as to what to NOT do when you’re hiking the canyon.

Dinner at El Tovar was pretty expensive but was very well prepared and presented. 

The food was very good quality but there wasn’t a very good variety or selection on the menu.  It’s worth experiencing once on your trip here. 

We will make do for the next two evenings with other restaurants we can find.

We hit the sack early, having decided that we would get up at 5pm, in time to pick up breakfast at 5:30pm and start on the Bright Angel trail by 6am.  It was likely to be a 6 mile and 5 hour hike, so we needed our sleep.  Only thing was, we both had trouble sleeping due to those stories about people dying at the canyon!

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