Friday, March 4, 2016

Day 42 - The Grand Canyon, Arizona

I had a very good night’s sleep and woke up to my alarm at 6:00 am; after a few minutes of gathering myself for the day, I quickly got ready so we could drive the few minutes to the canyon rim. We arrived at Mathers Point around 6:30 and the sun was already casting beautiful pink hues in the clouds. We hurriedly went down the path until we found a nice, quiet area where we could walk out on to the rocks to get a great view. The sunrise was absolutely stunning, I tried to capture it in photos, but it is impossible to do it justice. As I enjoyed the sunrise, Anne went to climb a difficult rock a little ways away, she is constantly going on insanely dangerous rocks to get good photos and a rush, she says she is starting to get more scared of heights, I tell her that is probably a good thing, that she is perhaps starting to value her life more! Ah well, to each their own. As I sat there with Luna, a couple young guys came up, they looked like they were perhaps from Korea and knew little english. One loved Luna and the other was scared of her, they took some photos and then said “Picture? Two.” I thought they were asking me to take a photo of the two of them, nope, the one that was scared of Luna wanted a photo with me, I posed with him, trying to keep the bewilderment from showing on my face. The other one posed with Luna, I was uncertain whether I was supposed to be in that photo or not, so went back to taking pictures for Anne, who had just reached her destination, the guys thanked me and left. When Anne was finished, we continued on, stopping at another rocky area off the trail to take in the view and capture some more photos. We then headed back so we could all eat something, Anne went through some photos on my computer to delete ones she did not want, Luna napped and I checked emails as I munched on an apple. We then ended up heading to the campground to find the showers as we both felt greasy and in need of a freshen up. The showers were an expensive $2/8 minutes, but well worth it, I felt much better after getting cleaned up. While Anne finished up, I went to book another night at the campsite, then sat in the parking lot using the wifi it provided. Upon Anne’s return to her car, we drove back along the road that we had taken driving to the Village to check out the many lookouts. When Anne led us in to an area that only shuttle busses and people with special permits were allowed it was a cue for strong anxiety to come at me. I told her I would look at the view and leave, I certainly did not want to risk the ticket. I ended up going a short way down the path leading to the bottom of the canyon as I really wanted to see it from that angle, she took some photos of Luna and I there and we headed back, checking out one more view from there, before leaving. There were several mules tied up side by side to their trailer and that got a fair bit of horse withdrawal for me, I wanted to go hang out with them for awhile. We continued on, stopping at a few more beautiful viewpoints. As we neared the end of the Grand Canyon fee area, we prepared to part ways. Anne went on to the most reckless rock yet, then we sat and talked for awhile, before going back to our cars and saying goodbye. We had a wonderful few days with her and hope to see her again sometime! 

After Anne left, I decided to head back to the campsite as I was not feeling super well and was also very hungry suddenly. As soon as I arrived at my site, I got out of my car and saw a gorgeous buck across the road, he did not mind my presence at all as I admired him and took a few photos as he walked calmly along. I made my lunch/dinner, having to be careful of the crows that snuck close as soon as I started walking away, they were beautiful and I could see the intelligence in their dark eyes. I ate and read for awhile, before going in to my car (I chose a spot were I am shaded well, it is wonderful!) and going through some photos. Around 5:00 pm I headed back to where the showers were to do laundry, my first time using an actual washing machine rather than hand washing since I was at home other than in Texas, I am very happy to have my clothes really clean again! As my clothes were in the washer and dryer, I used the wifi to catch up on things and charged up my phone, camera and computer as much as I could while I was there. I have so many photos to sort through that I have not gotten to the blog yet, I hope to tomorrow. It is 8:30 now and I am planning on getting up a little earlier for the sunrise tomorrow, so time to head to sleep!




Luna is a budding phodographer. Anne sets up her camera and leaves it on video, then takes screenshots, I did call Luna away quite quickly so she didn't accidentally knock it over the edge.






'Ok, Mom, this cliff looks scary now!'

This looks a lot more dangerous than it was, there was a fair bit of rock around it, the angle just makes it look sketchy, you who know me well know I wouldn't ever let Luna follow me somewhere dangerous! I am so lucky to have a dog that will follow me anywhere.









Luna looking at the duck rock structure.










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